Opinion ID: 484640
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Motivation Issue

Text: 24 We think it plain that NTI was not entitled to summary judgment on the issue of whether the termination was motivated solely by NTI's desire to deny Wakefield commissions to which he was about to become entitled. Summary judgment is proper only if there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and ... the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, --- U.S. ----, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2553, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). There must also be  'no controversy as to the inferences to be drawn from'  the facts; the court should draw all reasonable inferences against the moving party. EEOC v. Home Insurance Co., 672 F.2d 252, 256-57 (2d Cir.1982) (quoting Schwabenbauer v. Board of Education, 667 F.2d 305, 313 (2d Cir.1981)). Summary judgment is usually inappropriate when the moving party's state of mind is in issue. EEOC v. Home Insurance Co., 672 F.2d at 257. 25 The district court granted NTI summary judgment on the issue of its motivation on the basis that Wakefield, at his postremand deposition, explicitly ha[d] acknowledged that the sole evidence he can present on this issue is his own subjective belief. March 18 Opinion at 8 (footnote omitted). This ruling somewhat stretched the deposition testimony and unfairly ignored both the evidence adduced at the first trial and the ruling by this Court. 26 At his deposition, Wakefield was asked whether there was [a]ny information outside of [his] own head that [he had] to indicate that [he was] fired to deprive [him] of commissions. He stated that he had only his own firm belief and that no one had ever told him anything to support that belief. This is the testimony relied on by the court, and since the question was not posed to Wakefield in terms of what evidence he could present, it seems to us unduly harsh to construe his answer as anything more than a concession that Wakefield had no direct evidence to support his belief. Plainly there was circumstantial evidence to support his belief, for such evidence was in fact presented at the first trial. That evidence included the sequence of events leading to this suit, i.e., that Wakefield's superiors were aware that Wakefield was working on sales of some $16 million that were about to come to fruition; that these included a $12 million sale to IBM which would have been the largest sale of a switch in the industry up to that time; that Wakefield was regarded by his superiors as a capable salesman with a reputation for success; that Wakefield had performed the work enabling the sales to go through; that shortly after Wakefield's termination, the $12 million IBM sales agreement was signed; and that NTI paid no one a commission on that sale. In addition, there was evidence that prior to NTI's acquisition of Danray, Wakefield had been in competition with Salerno who thereafter became one of Wakefield's superiors, and that there was animosity between them. 27 Thus, the fact that Wakefield was unable to testify that anyone had told him NTI's goal was to deprive him of commissions should not have been fatal to his case as a matter of law. Rarely, in a wrongful termination case, is the plaintiff privileged to have such direct evidence to support his claim. Prima facie cases are usually established by circumstantial evidence that may include just such a sequence as was shown here. To be sure, there was countervailing evidence produced by NTI that it had merely effected a general reduction in work force in the fall of 1979 and that Wakefield had been insubordinate. On a motion for summary judgment, however, even prior to any trial, the district court could not properly enter judgment on the basis of the inference it preferred, for choosing between competing inferences is the province of the jury. Certainly after Wakefield had been able to produce circumstantial evidence at one trial on the basis of which this Court had said that a properly instructed jury could have found in his favor, the district court was wrong to dismiss his complaint as a matter of law.