Opinion ID: 673826
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Dey's prima facie case

Text: 36 Colt contends that Dey did not establish a prima facie case of retaliation because she failed to show that she engaged in statutorily protected expression or that there was a causal link between that expression and her discharge. On the first question, our cases hold that an employee may engage in statutorily protected expression under section 2000e-3(a) even if the challenged practice does not actually violate Title VII. Holland, 883 F.2d at 1314; Collins v. State of Illinois, 830 F.2d 692, 702 (7th Cir.1987); Jennings v. Tinley Park Community Consolidated School Dist. No. 146, 796 F.2d 962, 967 (7th Cir.1986), cert. denied, 481 U.S. 1017, 107 S.Ct. 1895, 95 L.Ed.2d 502 (1987). Thus, Dey need not succeed on her sexual harassment claim to make out a prima facie case of retaliatory discharge. Instead, it is sufficient if the plaintiff has a reasonable belief that she is challenging conduct [that violates] Title VII. Holland, 883 F.2d at 1314; see also Jennings, 796 F.2d at 967. We have no doubt that Dey had such a belief here when she complained to Ferguson and then to Chernoff about the alleged harassment, as she did so after learning that Chernoff's behavior may violate the law. Even if a trial were to reveal that Dey's work environment was neither hostile nor abusive, that would not affect the sincerity or reasonableness of her belief that Chernoff had acted in violation of the law. See Holland, 883 F.2d at 1315; Collins, 830 F.2d at 702; see also Rucker v. Higher Educ. Aids Bd., 669 F.2d 1179, 1182 (7th Cir.1982) (it is good faith and reasonableness, not the fact of discrimination, that is the critical inquiry in a retaliation case). As in Holland, Dey's allegations of misconduct here were not utterly baseless. 883 F.2d at 1316. She thus has satisfied the first element of her prima facie case. 37 The other contested issue is whether Dey has shown a causal link between her complaints of sexual harassment and her eventual discharge. Generally, a plaintiff may establish such a link through evidence that the discharge took place on the heels of protected activity. See Johnson, 945 F.2d at 980; Collins, 830 F.2d at 705. Here, the decision to discharge Dey was made approximately four weeks after she complained to Chernoff and Ferguson. Moreover, although primarily relevant to the issue of pretext, insofar as Colt cites poor performance as the reason for Dey's discharge, Colt's decision came less than two weeks after Irsay had agreed to give Dey an unusually large raise, and without mentioning any performance deficiencies. The timing of the discharge thus supports the inference of a causal link. 38 Colt nonetheless argues that such an inference is unreasonable here because the decisionmaker allegedly did not know of the plaintiff's protected activity. We agree that there generally can be no causal link between protected activity and an adverse employment action if the employer remained unaware of the protected activity. See, e.g., Goldsmith v. City of Atmore, 996 F.2d 1155, 1163 (11th Cir.1993); Williams v. Rice, 983 F.2d 177, 181 (10th Cir.1993); EEOC v. Crown Zellerbach Corp., 720 F.2d 1008, 1012 n. 1 (9th Cir.1983); see also Jennings, 796 F.2d at 967. The district court focused on this aspect of Dey's proof in granting Colt's motion for summary judgment, finding no evidence that Irsay knew of Dey's complaints when he decided to terminate her employment. As the district court explained, Irsay denies knowing of any complaints, Dey admits that she said nothing to Irsay, and both Ferguson and Chernoff deny that they ever told Irsay of Dey's complaints. Dey nonetheless argues that because Chernoff was present at the meeting where the discharge decision was made and in fact participated in the evaluation of her performance, we should infer that Chernoff told Irsay of Dey's charges. The district court dismissed Dey's theory as sheer speculation, but notwithstanding the company's denials, we think this aspect of Dey's retaliation claim survives summary judgment for the following reasons. 39 A Title VII plaintiff may rely on circumstantial evidence to establish her employer's awareness of protected expression. Goldsmith, 996 F.2d at 1163. Moreover, Dey need not prove by a preponderance of the evidence at the summary judgment stage that Irsay was aware of her sexual harassment complaints; she must only produce evidence that would support an inference that Irsay was so aware. Cf. Wallis v. J.R. Simplot Co., 26 F.3d 885, 889 (9th Cir.1994); Yartzoff v. Thomas, 809 F.2d 1371, 1375 (9th Cir.1987). Although it weighs in Colt's favor that neither Ferguson nor Dey herself had relayed Dey's charges to Irsay, we must be primarily concerned with Chernoff, who would have a greater incentive than Ferguson to pass that information along. Chernoff of course denies that Dey ever complained to him, and as a result, he also denies telling Irsay of any such complaints. Irsay fully corroborates Chernoff's denial. We find it significant, however, that Chernoff denies even the fact that Dey had complained. It is undisputed that Dey complained at least to Ferguson, who corroborates her story. We also must assume on summary judgment that Dey complained to Chernoff. A reasonable fact-finder could infer from that fact, and Chernoff's denial of it, that he also testified untruthfully about not telling Irsay. Cf. Goldsmith, 996 F.2d at 1163-64 & n. 12 (not error for district court to submit knowledge question to jury although both participants to a meeting denied they had discussed the plaintiff; one participant's testimony had been impeached by a prior statement and the timing of the decision supported an inference of knowledge). 12 The timing of the discharge decision, coming only four weeks after Dey's complaints and less than two weeks after her $60 per week raise, supports that inference. 40 Our conclusion also is influenced by Chernoff's participation in the decision to terminate Dey's employment, even if Irsay steadfastly maintains that the final decision was his alone. The record reveals that at the May 1985 meeting between Irsay, Chernoff, and Sullivan, Irsay solicited Chernoff's views on Dey's performance, and Chernoff agreed that it was unsatisfactory and that Dey should be replaced. Thus, even if Chernoff kept Dey's sexual harassment complaints to himself, those complaints may have affected Chernoff's unflattering assessment of her job performance. Summary judgment generally is improper where the plaintiff can show that an employee with discriminatory animus provided factual information or other input that may have affected the adverse employment action. See Shager v. Upjohn Co., 913 F.2d 398, 405 (7th Cir.1990) (even where the plaintiff's supervisor may not have passed along discriminatory animus to the ultimate decisionmaker, that animus tainted his assessment of the plaintiff's performance, on which the decisionmaker did rely); Jardien v. Winston Network, Inc., 888 F.2d 1151, 1155 (7th Cir.1989) (relevant to jury's determination in age discrimination case that decisionmaker accepted input from supervisor who had discriminatory motive); see also Robinson v. PPG Indus., Inc., 23 F.3d 1159, 1165-66 (7th Cir.1994) (summary judgment improper where supervisor who allegedly made age-related remarks participated in ranking the performance of company employees and in the eventual decision to terminate the plaintiff's employment); Gusman v. Unisys Corp., 986 F.2d 1146, 1147 (7th Cir.1993) (reasonable jurors could conclude that a supervisor intent on purging the workforce of older employees lied to his superiors about the quality of the plaintiff's job skills); Stacks v. Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages, Inc., 27 F.3d 1316 (8th Cir.1994) (employers cannot escape responsibility for sex discrimination when the facts on which the reviewers rely have been filtered by a manager determined to purge the labor force of women.); Kientzy v. McDonnell Douglas Corp., 990 F.2d 1051, 1057-60 (8th Cir.1993) (evidence sufficient to support sex discrimination claim where superior's discriminatory animus was reflected in the information he provided to ultimate decisionmakers); cf. Wilson v. Stroh Cos., 952 F.2d 942, 945-46 (6th Cir.1992) (Title VII plaintiff failed to show that lower level employee with discriminatory animus infected superiors' independent decision to terminate plaintiff's employment). 41 The district court did not consider this line of cases in concluding that Colt was entitled to summary judgment below. It therefore made no findings as to what Chernoff may have contributed to the decision to terminate Dey's employment. Although Irsay attests that he based the decision on his independent assessment of Dey's performance, which apparently was unaffected by any knowledge of Dey's complaints, he admits that he solicited Chernoff's opinion and that Chernoff agreed Dey should be fired. Thus, even apart from whether Irsay knew of the complaints, Chernoff's participation may have introduced a discriminatory animus into Irsay's decision. That inference would become stronger if Dey is able to show that her alleged performance deficiencies were fabricated, an aspect of her case that we address below. In the end, therefore, it would not be unreasonable to infer a causal link between Dey's complaints and her eventual discharge.