Opinion ID: 196019
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: HC's Rebuttal

Text: 20 At the second stage in the McDonnell Douglas analysis, the district court concluded--again correctly--that HC had rebutted the legal presumption of intentional age discrimination with evidence relating to Woodman's work performance since joining the bowl department. See Hicks, --- U.S. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 2748 (By producing evidence (whether ultimately persuasive or not) of nondiscriminatory reasons, [defendants] sustained their burden of production....). Crediting the competent evidence adduced by HC, see id., Woodman's performance in the machine shop may have been very good, but he never mastered the tasks required in the bowl department. Thus, the presumption of unlawful age discrimination vanished from the case. Id. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 2749; Vega, 3 F.3d at 479. 21 In order to avoid summary judgment at that point it was essential that Woodman proffer sufficient competent evidence to generate a trialworthy issue on the ultimate question whether intentional age-based discrimination was a determinative factor in his dismissal. Id. 22 First, Woodman attacked the final performance evaluation by Mary LeBlanc on November 15, 1991--five days before the reduction in force--by contrasting the laudatory performance review of January 24, 1991, with the final review--less than nine months later--in which LeBlanc's assessment plummeted from high praise to a recommendation that Woodman be relieved of his current duties. The Woodman affidavit itself attested to facts directly contradicting several key assertions made by LeBlanc in her final work performance evaluation. He also tendered statements from a former supervisor in the machine shop and a former group leader in the bowl department, attesting to the high quality of his work. Second, and most importantly, the Woodman affidavit asserted that Mary LeBlanc had stated in his presence, following a meeting with upper management shortly before HC implemented its reduction in force: These damn people--they want younger people here. They will be the one[s] that will be successful here. 23 Under the summary judgment analysis required once the McDonnell Douglas framework dropped out of the picture, see Hicks, --- U.S. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 2749, the district court was required to consider whether Woodman presented sufficient competent, i.e., admissible, evidence, see Murphy v. Timberlane Regional Sch. Dist., 22 F.3d 1186, 1196 (1st Cir.) (citing Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986)), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 484, 130 L.Ed.2d 396 (1994), to warrant a trial on the ultimate question whether unlawful age-based discrimination was a determinative factor in his dismissal by HC. It was at this juncture that the district court excluded the linchpin in Woodman's opposition to summary judgment--the vicarious admission that Woodman attributed to LeBlanc--as inadmissible totem-pole hearsay.