Opinion ID: 396271
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Age and Sex Discrimination Claims.

Text: 10 To overcome defendants' motion for summary judgment, plaintiffs must offer facts sufficient to establish a prima facie case. McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 1824, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973); Texas Department of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 1093, 67 L.Ed.2d 207 (1981). The burden of establishing a prima facie case is not onerous, Burdine, supra, at 1094; and the elements essential to it should not be reduced to rigidly applied formulae. McDonnell Douglas, supra, 411 U.S. at 802, n.13, 93 S.Ct. at 1824 n.13. The plaintiff is required only to eliminate the most common reasons for her rejection, or, as in this case, discharge. Burdine, supra. 11 It was undisputed that Meyer was in a class protected against employment discrimination, and that she was discharged despite the fact that she had performed her tasks in a manner satisfactory to C&H for more than 18 years prior to the incident that precipitated her discharge. Moreover, it does not appear that Meyer was discharged because C&H contemplated eliminating her duties from its payroll. We hold that, having established these facts, Meyer had satisfied her initial burden and raised a rebuttable presumption that C&H unlawfully discriminated against her. 12 It was therefore incumbent upon C&H to rebut that presumption by producing evidence that Meyer was discharged for a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason. Id. On this record, such a reason is immediately apparent: C&H obviously concluded that Meyer's conduct had rendered useless her further services as an assistant in C&H's Personnel Department. In fact, C&H was genuinely concerned that Meyer's memos would expose it to action by the EEOC unless it took action appropriate to indicate that Meyer's sentiments were not shared by the Company. C&H thus tendered a sufficient nondiscriminatory basis for its action. 13 Since C&H met its burden of production, Meyer's opportunity lay in proving, if she could, that her memos and the reaction to them were not the true reason for her discharge. Id. at 1095. Here lies the heart of Meyer's case. Citing a number of incidents in which male employees made racist remarks which evoked little or no discipline from management, Meyer argues that she was disciplined more severely for comparable conduct because of her gender. 14 The first of these incidents involved Dennis Horgan, now Credit manager, who once is said to have shouted of his secretary that she thinks like a God damn Japanese. Horgan, Meyer claims, was never punished. Eugene Doyle refused to hire a Chinese woman, stating that, Chinese can't learn anything. Robert Del Ponte, head of the Data Processing Department, refused to accept a black employee, stating that when there was more than one black they indulged in a great deal of what he called black humor that the other members of the department didn't understand. And Mr. Marshall, past president of C&H, refused to hire a minority chauffeur because he thought his wife would be afraid of him. None of these men, according to plaintiffs, received more than a mild reprimand. 15 Deplorable though they be, these allegations do not raise a triable issue of fact as to whether C&H's proffered reason for Meyer's discharge was mere pretext. As the district court stated: 16 Meyer was not discharged for making derogatory comments about minorities. She was discharged because the derogatory comments she made had such an adverse impact on minority employees that they impaired her usefulness in her sensitive duties in the Personnel Department and, coming from her, reflected unfavorably on C&H's policies toward its minority employees. 17 Nothing in the affidavits or other evidence offered by Meyer suggests that the remarks of Horgan, Doyle or Del Ponte provoked anything comparable to the vigorous reaction attending Meyer's memos. Further, all evidence in the record indicates that none of the statements brought forward by Meyer were ever made known to Nagle, the person responsible for her discharge. In short, the incidents cited by Meyer are not such parallels to her case as to raise a genuine issue of pretext. Thus, Meyer failed to allege triable issues of fact as to an essential element of her claim. Summary judgment for C&H was therefore appropriate. 18