Opinion ID: 584190
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the appropriate standard for this case

Text: Plaintiff-appellant urges this Court to hold that the appropriate legal framework for this case is found in Price Waterhouse, presumably because this framework places greater demands on the employer than does the McDonnell Douglas/ Burdine framework. Indeed, as Judge Keeton stated: [T]he defendant must satisfy a greater burden once plaintiff has proved ... that her gender played a motivating part in an employment decision.... [This] in effect transforms the defendant's burden, once plaintiff proves a discriminatory motive, from a burden of production to a burden of persuasion. Fields, No. 80-1011-K, slip op. at 5. The District Court found that under either McDonnell Douglas/ Burdine or Price Waterhouse, plaintiff did not clear her first legal hurdle. Plaintiff has failed to offer sufficient evidence ... that gender was a motivating factor in any of the unanimous decisions against her at each level of the decisionmaking process. Fields, No. 80-1011-K, slip op. at 8 (emphasis in original). Thus, there was no need to determine which standard would dictate defendant's subsequent burden, since the next stage of the battle would not be reached. 2 As a matter of law, the District Court did not err in failing to apply the Price Waterhouse standard. If it is true that plaintiff-appellant did not make out her prima facie case of sex discrimination, then a court cannot require defendant-appellee to do anything to defend its actions. The District Court appropriately refrained from applying the second tier of either McDonnell Douglas or Price Waterhouse analysis to the instant case. Only if the District Court's analysis of the facts of the case was clearly erroneous and the plaintiff did successfully make out a prima facie case of discrimination would the court have committed error by failing to articulate the applicable legal standard. Accordingly, we proceed to evaluate whether the district court's determination that Dr. Fields failed to make out a prima facie case was clearly erroneous.