Opinion ID: 661824
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: statement of the facts and procedural history

Text: 3 Sturniolo began his career at Sheaffer in December of 1986 as a sales manager for the Southeast region of the United States. At that time, Sheaffer maintained four sales regions: Northeast, Southeast, Central, and West. Each regional sales manager reported directly to the Vice-President of Sales, Al Pramschufer (Pramschufer). In mid-1989 Pramschufer recommended that Sturniolo undertake the Regional Sales Manager's responsibilities for the Central region in addition to his existing responsibility for the Southeast region. Thus, from mid-1989 until the spring of 1990, Sturniolo had responsibility for two of Sheaffer's four selling regions--Southeast and Central. 4 In December of 1989, Anthony Barry (Barry) was promoted to Vice-President of Sales, replacing Pramschufer. In June 1990, Barry hired Doug Doerhoff, who was 27 years old, to assume the position of sales manager for the Central region. Sturniolo still managed the Southeast region. In July 1990, Barry hired Jeff Dorough, who was 38 years old, to assume the position of sales manager for the Western region, replacing a 55 year old individual. On October 3, 1990, Barry terminated Sturniolo's employment. Sturniolo was 58 years old at the time of his discharge from Sheaffer. 5 Sturniolo filed a charge of age discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on May 6, 1991, 214 days after he received notice of his discharge. On November 20, 1991, Sturniolo filed suit against Sheaffer in federal district court alleging that Sheaffer terminated him as a result of willful age discrimination in violation of the ADEA and that the termination caused him to suffer severe emotional distress and mental anguish. Sheaffer filed a motion for summary judgment alleging that Sturniolo's claim was barred as untimely filed. The district court granted Sheaffer's motion. Sturniolo then perfected this appeal.