Opinion ID: 382773
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Degree of Required Identity with McDonnell Douglas Instructions

Text: 85 Recently, the First Circuit, in Loeb v. Textron, Inc., 600 F.2d 1003 (1979) had occasion to address the applicability of the McDonnell Douglas principles, composed for a court trial under Title VII, to a jury trial of an ADEA claim. Noting the similarities in purpose and provision between the ADEA and Title VII and the absence of any indication in the legislative history that Congress intended age discrimination ... to be subject to different standards and methods of proof than race or sex discrimination, the court concluded that the McDonnell Douglas formulation was appropriate for ADEA cases tried by a jury. 86 Although appropriate for ADEA cases, the court was careful to stress that the jury need not be instructed as to all the McDonnell Douglas elements. It stated: 87 McDonnell Douglas was not written as a prospective jury charge; to read its technical aspects to a jury, as was done here, will add little to the juror's understanding of the case and, even worse, may lead jurors to abandon their own judgment and to seize upon poorly understood legalisms to decide the ultimate question of discrimination. Since the advantages of trial by jury lie in utilization of the jurors' common sense, we would have serious reservations about using McDonnell Douglas if doing so meant engulfing a lay jury in the legal niceties discussed in this opinion. 88 But we do not equate use of McDonnell Douglas with a requirement that the full formulation be read in haec verba to the jury. McDonnell Douglas is to a large extent an analytical framework enunciated post hoc, in light of a given set of facts, to give judges a method of organizing evidence and assigning the burdens of production and persuasion in a discrimination case. In light of this and the fact that the defendants' burden is one of production rather than of persuasion, only the factual determinations necessary to the underlying rationale of McDonnell Douglas need be made by the jury-the burden-shifting can and should be monitored by the judge. Moreover, the term 'prima facie case' need never be mentioned to the jurors; ... McDonnell Douglas should be used to identify the important factual issues, and these can be set out in the charge, or in special questions, divorced from legal jargon. 89 Id. at 1016. 90 Depending on the nature of the evidence, the jury may never need to be educated as to the elements of a prima facie case. Recognizing that direct evidence of discrimination is likely to be unavailable, 13 and ... the employer has the best access to the reasons that prompted him to fire, reject, discipline or refuse to promote the (employee), the prima facie case requirement was designed to assist the employee in surmounting these evidentiary obstacles. Loeb v. Textron, Inc., 600 F.2d at 1014. Once an employee makes out a prima facie case an inference of discrimination (arises) only because we presume these acts, if otherwise unexplained, are more likely than not based on the consideration of impermissible factors.... And we are willing to presume this largely because we know from our experience that more often than not people do not act in a totally arbitrary manner, without any underlying reasons .... Furnco Construction Corp. v. Waters, 438 U.S. 567, 577, 98 S.Ct. 2943, 2949, 57 L.Ed.2d 957 (1978). Thus, (i)f the principle (sic) ingredients of plaintiff's case are inferences that are to be derived from the underpinnings of the McDonnell Douglas -type prima facie case, the jury should be asked to make these findings. Loeb v. Textron, Inc., 600 F.2d at 1018. 91 However, as suggested by the court in Loeb, when a plaintiff introduces direct and/or circumstantial evidence of discrimination, instructing the jury about the elements of a prima facie case, in addition to being superfluous, may be confusing. That court stated: 92 (It is likely that most cases will not) fit a 'classic' or 'pure' McDonnell Douglas paradigm.... At least two other types of cases seem likely. One is a case which simply does not fit the mold of the McDonnell Douglas formula, as where plaintiff's evidence of discrimination is significantly different (for example, where plaintiff relies chiefly upon direct evidence of discriminatory motive in a letter or on an admission from defendant). The court should not force a case into a McDonnell Douglas format if to do so will merely divert the jury from the real issues ; rather it should use its best judgment as to the proper organization of the evidence and the charge. In cases of this type, the best charge may simply be one that emphasizes that plaintiff must prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that he was discharged because of his age-with adequate explanation of the meaning of the age statute, the determinative role age must have played, etc., .... 93 Another case would be one in which proof of the McDonnell Douglas elements is a significant part of plaintiff's total evidence, but where there is also other evidence, direct or circumstantial, that might support an inference of discrimination.... Here the district court will again have to exercise its judgment. Strict adherence to McDonnell Douglas, with instructions as to all elements of the particular prima facie case there described, may not be required. If, for example, there is substantial other evidence to warrant a finding of discrimination, it may be superfluous to tell the jury that it must find each element of the prima facie case. Rather, as in the previous case, the question of discrimination can be put more directly and simply. (Emphasis added.) 94 Id. at 1018. 95 Thus Loeb teaches first, that, while McDonnell Douglas may be appropriate to a jury trial of an ADEA case, all the elements need not be recited to the jury, and second, that, despite its appropriateness to age discrimination claims, McDonnell Douglas is not the only permissible standard; 14 other formulations may be proper, especially when direct and circumstantial evidence of discrimination have, as here, been introduced. We believe that Professor Smith's case is covered by the second aspect of the Loeb lesson. 96 Most of the evidence that Smith introduced consisted of notes taken by and correspondence among Religion Department professors. In such a situation, the jury was not concerned so much with the inferences possible from the McDonnell Douglas type prima facie case as it was with whether the direct evidence that Smith introduced, demonstrated that the University's decision was unlawfully motivated by her age. 97 As we construe the court's language, the three elements that it required Smith to prove by a preponderance of the evidence constituted a variety of a prima facie case of discrimination although not expressed in classic McDonnell Douglas terms. Once Smith had satisfied the proof, the court placed the burden of rebuttal on the University. The right of rebuttal consisted of the right to produce for the jury evidence that, even though prima facie case had been made, still, in point of fact, the refusal to reappoint or to promote actually proceeded from other reasons unrelated to age-that plaintiff would not have been reappointed or promoted whatever had been her age. Smith contends that she was prejudiced by this portion of the court's instruction. She argues that once she demonstrated that age was a determinative factor in the University's decision, the burden was on the University to show that it was not a substantial factor in its decision. Smith would have us engage in a meaningless semantic exercise, for that instruction was in substance given: In answering this question, the burden is on the University to show by a preponderance of the evidence that it would have reached the same decision not to reappoint or promote the Plaintiff if it had not considered the Plaintiff's age or some other illegitimate fact. 98 Even though at an earlier stage the court has determined that a prima facie case has been made out to the effect that age was an impermissible factor in the determinations not to promote, that does not end the matter. It does not shut off the defendant's right of rebuttal. That right encompasses an opportunity to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that in fact age was not a causative factor. As stated in Laugesen v. Anaconda Co., 510 F.2d 307 at 317: 99 However expressed, we believe it was essential for the jury to understand from the instructions that there could be more than one factor in the decision to discharge him and that he was nevertheless entitled to recover if one such factor was his age and if in fact it made a difference in determining whether he was to be retained or discharged. (Emphasis added.) 100 While the intermediate answer is that the evidence suffices to permit a conclusion that age was impermissibly relied on, it does not foreclose a final determination, based on evidence advanced by the defendant, that actually age had not played a part in the determination not to reappoint or promote-that the very same result would have come about if age discrimination, prima facie or otherwise, had never existed. Cf. Mt. Healthy City Board of Education v. Doyle, 429 U.S. 274, 286-87, 97 S.Ct. 568, 576, 50 L.Ed.2d 471 (1977): 101 Initially, in this case, the burden was properly placed on respondent to show that his conduct was constitutionally protected, and that this conduct was a 'substantial factor'-or to put it in other words, that it was a 'motivating factor' in the Board's decision not to rehire him. Respondent having carried that burden, however, the District Court should have gone on to determine whether the Board had shown by a preponderance of the evidence that it would have reached the same decision as to respondent's reemployment even in the absence of the protected conduct. 102 While Mt. Healthy arises under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, both in it and in our ADEA case, the question of causality is involved in essentially the same fashion. As the statute makes clear, it prohibits discrimination because of such individual's age (Emphasis added). Appellant freely acknowledges at p. 2 of her Reply Brief: We admit causation is the standard, and that, in fact, is the thrust of our argument. Mt. Healthy was also articulating standards with respect to a rule of causation. Mt. Healthy, 429 U.S. at 285, 97 S.Ct. at 575. 103 As for not mentioning pretext, the district court treated that issue as decided in Smith's favor, moving directly to require the University to prove that the failure to reappoint or promote was not causally linked to considerations of age. There was, consequently, no occasion for an instruction as to pretext. 104 Having imposed upon the University the burden of showing that, even without any age considerations being present at all, the plaintiff would not have been reappointed or promoted, there was no need also to instruct about pretext. For, as the Supreme Court noted in Board of Trustees of Keene State College v. Sweeney, 439 U.S. 24, 99 S.Ct. 295 (1978), placing the burden of proof upon the employer at the second stage also incorrectly places the burden upon him to show that the reason was not a pretext. See generally Runyan, Employment Decision-Making in Educational Institutions, 26 Wayne L.Rev. 955, 1011-13 (1980). The court in Loeb v. Textron, Inc. held that: 105 We think it now clear that McDonnell Douglas leaves the burden of persuasion at all times with the plaintiff, and that the employers' burden to 'articulate' a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason is not a burden to persuade the trier that he was in fact motivated by that reason and not by a discriminatory one. Rather it is a burden of production-i. e. a burden to articulate or state a valid reason, following which the complainant must show that the reason so articulated or stated is a mere pretext or 'cover-up' for what was in truth a discriminatory purpose. This, indeed, is only logical. If an employer were to prove that he was motivated by a legitimate reason, there would be no room left for showing that the reason was a 'pretext,' as pretext is 'a purpose or motive alleged or an appearance assumed in order to cloak the real intention or state of affairs.' Webster's Third New International Dictionary (1971). To say, as the court did here, that the defendant must prove that its action was based on a legitimate reason and that the plaintiff must 'then' prove that it was not, is contradictory. 106 600 F.2d at 1012. 107 The instruction was altogether fair to the plaintiff; the jury in finding for the University obviously concluded that the University had met its burden. 108