Opinion ID: 199863
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Weston-Smith's response

Text: 28 Weston-Smith argues that a jury could find these reasons to be pretext on several grounds. The elimination of the position to save money, she says, was pretextual because the new job was really her old one without significant changes. Moreover, the total number of positions in her department stayed the same, and the salary of her former job was increased when it became the Surgical Director's job. This argument takes too myopic a view; overall, several management positions were eliminated, so that the reorganization did save the Hospital money. That the reorganized jobs encompassed functions of former jobs is unsurprising. Functions rarely go away; but how functions are handled does change, and changes can lead to greater efficiency. 29 Weston-Smith is correct that an employer may not try to shield a discriminatory or retaliatory termination by hiding it in a layoff. Smith v. F.W. Morse & Co., 76 F.3d 413, 422 (1st Cir.1996) (Whether or not trimming the fat from a company's organizational chart is a prudent practice in a particular business environment, the employer's decision to eliminate specific positions must not be tainted by a discriminatory animus.). But there is little, if any, admissible evidence suggesting that the decision to merge Weston-Smith's job function into a higher level job in a streamlined organization was motivated by either retaliation or discrimination. 30 Weston-Smith's attack on the reasons given for the choice of Neumann over Weston-Smith herself as pretextual is similarly flawed. Weston-Smith says that Melin's generalized subjective assessments about leadership and vision to support the creation of a new job and the choice of Neumann are insufficient. Subjective judgment may mask an improper motive, as Weston-Smith suggests. Melin's explanation, however, is not sheer subjectivity. Melin had observed Neumann over a period of years as she successfully performed demanding tasks. These tasks — heading the capital campaign and the nurses' bargaining unit — demonstrated Neumann's skills. Absent further evidence of discrimination or retaliation, which Weston-Smith has not produced, there is no reasonable inference of pretext. 31 Melin's statement that he wanted Neumann on his senior management team must be pretext, Weston-Smith argues, because Weston-Smith was terminated and discouraged from even applying for the new position before Neumann was ever told of or accepted the new position. No reasonable inference of pretext can be drawn from this. Although it was not certain that Neumann would accept, it is improbable that she would decline a position with higher pay on the senior management team, working directly under Melin, whom she knew. Moreover, the Hospital might easily have wished to avoid the awkward situation of informing Neumann, then Weston-Smith's subordinate, of the decision to lay Weston-Smith off before Weston-Smith herself found out. 32 Weston-Smith also relies on her relative qualifications for the new job compared with Neumann's. She stresses Neumann's testimony that she had no management experience and did not have a masters degree, while Weston-Smith had both. This argument is nothing more than second-guessing Melin's decision about whose skill set would be more valuable. That Melin might have decided in Weston-Smith's favor based on her own skills would not permit a jury to infer that his choice of Neumann was either discrimination or retaliation. Moreover, Weston-Smith places too much emphasis on whether a job was termed management and on credentials. Melin could reasonably look behind labels and degrees, and rely on his own experience with Neumann and observation of her leadership skills, regardless of whether she had played a union or a management role at the time. That approach does not render his decision so unlikely as to permit, from that and little more, a jury inference of improper motive. 33 Beyond her attacks on the Hospital's proffered reason, Weston-Smith presents a few more pieces of circumstantial evidence of discrimination or retaliation on the Hospital's part. These consist of her own testimony that she overheard two doctors complaining about her absence on maternity leave; Neumann's additional testimony that there had been complaints about Weston-Smith's [l]ack of accessibility (although not that these complaints were related to the maternity leave); and Bowles's silence, if admissible, in the face of Weston-Smith's accusatory question. As to the testimony of complaints, nothing links those complaints to the decision process; nor do they appear sufficiently pervasive to justify a finder of fact in inferring such a link. As to the silence, we have already given the reasons that, if admissible, it has little probative value. 34 We conclude that Weston-Smith has produced insufficient evidence to take her case to a jury within the McDonnell Douglas framework. Although her prima facie case is undisputed, the Hospital's proffered reasons for her termination are plausible and coherent, and neither her criticisms of those reasons nor her independent circumstantial evidence of an improper motive, whether taken apart or together, are sufficient to require a jury trial. See Zapata-Matos v. Reckitt & Colman, Inc., 277 F.3d 40, 47 (1st Cir.2002) ([A] slight suggestion of pretext, absent other evidence from which discrimination can be inferred, [does not] meet[] plaintiff's ultimate burden.).