Opinion ID: 560522
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Dismissal of Title VII Claim

Text: 43 Following the completion of Ang's trial presentation, the court granted P & G's motion for involuntary dismissal of the Title VII claims under Fed.R.Civ.P. 41(b). The Magistrate found that Ang had failed to establish a prima facie case of discrimination under Title VII because he had demonstrated only that he was born in Indonesia, was of Chinese descent, and had been employed and terminated by P & G. The Magistrate found that even if Ang had stated a prima facie case, P & G had met its burden by demonstrating legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons for the termination. These reasons included Ang's resurrection of his 1985 complaints despite his agreement to forego those claims, the excessive managerial time devoted to supervising him, his excessive pursuit of personal matters and the Deming Conference during the workday, and his failure to follow his supervisor's orders as evidenced by his refusal to cancel the training at Stanford University. 44 The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provide that: 45 After the plaintiff, in an action tried by the court without a jury, has completed the presentation of his evidence, the defendant may ... move for a dismissal on the ground that upon the facts and the law the plaintiff has shown no right to relief. The court as trier of the facts may then determine them and render judgment against the plaintiff or may decline to render any judgment until the close of the evidence. 46 Fed.R.Civ.P. 41(b). In carrying out his duty to weigh and evaluate the evidence, the trial judge makes no special inferences in favor of the plaintiff. Hersch v. United States, 719 F.2d 873, 876 (6th Cir.1983). Because a Rule 41(b) dismissal operates as an adjudication upon the merits, it is subject to the clearly erroneous standard of review. D.E. Rodgers Assoc., Inc. v. Gardner-Denver Co., 718 F.2d 1431, 1434 (6th Cir.1983), cert. denied, 467 U.S. 1242, 104 S.Ct. 3513, 82 L.Ed.2d 822 (1984). Thus, an appellate court may not reverse unless after a full review of the evidence, it is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been made. Anderson v. City of Bessemer, 470 U.S. 564, 573, 105 S.Ct. 1504, 1511, 84 L.Ed.2d 518 (1985). 47 In Title VII cases, the plaintiff bears the initial burden of establishing a prima facie case by a preponderance of the evidence. McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 1824, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973). To establish a prima facie case under Title VII, a plaintiff must show that he is within a protected class; subject to an adverse employment action; qualified for the job; and replaced by a person outside the protected class. Gagne v. Northwestern Nat'l Ins. Co., 881 F.2d 309, 313 (6th Cir.1989). If the plaintiff successfully proves a prima facie case, the burden shifts to the employer to articulate some legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for the employee's discharge. McDonnell Douglas, 411 U.S. at 802, 93 S.Ct. at 1824. Once the employer carries this burden, the burden shifts back to the plaintiff to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the legitimate reasons offered by the [employer] were not its true reasons, but were a pretext for discrimination. Texas Dep't of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 253, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 1093, 67 L.Ed.2d 207 (1981).
48 The Magistrate concluded that Ang failed to establish a prima facie case of discrimination under Title VII. The Magistrate explicitly found only that Ang was within a protected class and that he had been subject to an adverse employment action. The Magistrate made no explicit findings regarding Ang's qualification for the job and his replacement by a person outside the protected class. Ang contends that because John Dashiells, a Caucasian, replaced him, and because he performed satisfactorily for fourteen years, he was qualified and replaced by someone outside the protected group and thus had established a prima facie case. 49 When a court is convinced that a plaintiff completely failed to allege circumstances from which discrimination can be inferred, the court need not examine all elements of the McDonnell Douglas analysis. Centner v. K-Mart Corp., 50 FEP Cas. (BNA) 1774, 1775, 1988 WL 73904 (W.D.N.Y.1988). However, even if the Magistrate was bound to consider the issue of qualification, Ang was not qualified for his position because he failed to meet his employer's expectations. As the Sixth Circuit recently explained in McDonald v. Union Camp Corp., 898 F.2d 1155, 1160 (6th Cir.1990): 50 [I]n order to show that he was qualified, McDonald must prove that he was performing his job at a level which met his employer's legitimate expectations. Huhn v. Koehring, 718 F.2d 239, 243 (7th Cir.1983). Moreover, [i]f [McDonald] was not doing what his employer wanted him to do, he was not doing his job.... [McDonald] does not raise a material issue of fact on the question of the quality of his work merely by challenging the judgment of his supervisors. Kephart v. Institute of Gas Technology, 630 F.2d 1217, 1223 (7th Cir.1980), cert. denied, 450 U.S. 959, 101 S.Ct. 1418, 67 L.Ed.2d 383 (1981). In this case, McDonald does not dispute, but in fact acknowledges that his supervisors were dissatisfied with his job performance in the summer of 1986 when he was discharged. Instead McDonald argues that Union Camp made too big a deal out of his alleged people problems. However, the aim is not to review bad business decisions, or question the soundness of an employer's judgment. See Wilkens [Wilkins ] v. Eaton Corp., 790 F.2d 515, 521 (6th Cir.1986). McDonald was simply not performing to Union Camp's satisfaction. 51 Like McDonald, Ang was not performing to his employer's satisfaction. Ang devoted a good deal of time to personal grievances and the Deming Conference and his supervisors feared that this interfered with his job responsibilities. Handling Ang's concerns also took a great deal of time away from his supervisors' other responsibilities. Evaluations of Ang also indicate that he had trouble communicating, was late with assignments, used insufficient detail in writing plans, and was a poor long-range planner. Ang, then, was not qualified and thus did not establish a prima facie case. 52 Ang argues, however, that it was not necessary for him to establish a prima facie case because he offered direct evidence of national origin discrimination. Direct evidence of discrimination allows a plaintiff to proceed without meeting the requirements of a prima facie case set forth in McDonnell Douglas. Trans World Airlines v. Thurston, 469 U.S. 111, 105 S.Ct. 613, 83 L.Ed.2d 523 (1985). However, even if Ang is able to bypass the McDonnell Douglas requirements, he still would not succeed because the burden would simply shift back to P & G to show that Ang was terminated for legitimate nondiscriminatory reasons. Because Ang refused to follow supervisors' instructions, devoted inadequate time to his work, and demanded the constant attention of his supervisors to handle his grievances and personal problems, the district court did not clearly err in concluding that P & G articulated legitimate nondiscriminatory reasons for his discharge.
53 Ang contends that P & G discriminated against him because of his manner of speaking, in violation of Title VII. P & G's Company Norms brochure advised minorities to be aware that inability to speak the 'King's English' may be viewed by those in the majority culture as equating to intelligence (i.e. lack of). Yates also testified, and Ang's evaluations indicated, that Ang's written and oral command of the English language was weak and hampered his effectiveness. Because accent and national origin are inextricably intertwined, evaluating these claims presents a difficult task for the court. Fragante v. City & County of Honolulu, 888 F.2d 591 (9th Cir.1989), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 110 S.Ct. 1811, 108 L.Ed.2d 942 (1990). 54 The EEOC recognizes linguistic discrimination as national origin discrimination and prohibits the denial of equal employment opportunity ... because an individual has the ... linguistic characteristics of a national group. 29 C.F.R. Sec. 1606. The Sixth Circuit has also recognized that discrimination based on manner of speaking can be national origin discrimination. In Berke v. Ohio Dep't of Pub. Welfare, 628 F.2d 980, 981 (6th Cir.1980), the court affirmed a judgment for the plaintiff by observing that the evidence supported the district court's finding that plaintiff was denied two positions within the Department because of her accent which flowed from her national origin. Unlawful discrimination does not occur, however, when a plaintiff's accent affects his ability to perform the job effectively. Fragante, 888 F.2d at 597. 55 P & G did not indicate that Ang was terminated because of language problems. The evidence cited by Ang comes mostly from the testimony of Yates in which he responded to questions from Ang's counsel specifically addressing Ang's communication abilities. Ang's evaluations mention communication problems, but they also note other weaknesses. Because Ang presented no evidence that he was terminated because of his accent, the lower court did not clearly err in refusing to find that Ang showed direct evidence of linguistic discrimination.
56 Ang argues that he presented unrefuted evidence of disparate treatment: his exclusion from the Ph.D team and the lack of minorities on the team in general, his status as the only IPS manager with no one working under him, his exclusion from IPS meetings, P & G's harassment over his participation in the Deming Conference, and his termination without exploring other alternatives. P & G argues that Ang mischaracterizes all of these incidents. First, Yates and Kiley testified that they were not aware that the Ph.D team existed and Yates further testified that if he had known of the team, he would have recommended Ang for it. Second, P & G explains that Visual Output was structured with no subordinate employees and that Ang accepted the job knowing that it would not involve supervision. Third, the only IPS meeting Ang was excluded from was the kickoff meeting and he was explicitly told by P & G that he was not included because his role in IPS had not yet been defined. Fourth, no other employee dominated the Deming Conference as Ang did and thus Ang was not treated disparately when his supervisors discussed with him his zealous participation, their concerns that his participation might affect his attention to his primary responsibilities and his divulging confidential information to the Conference. Finally, Ang was terminated after many warnings and discussions and was not treated disparately because no other employee had created the problems which he had. When two versions of the facts are offered, a court cannot clearly err in choosing between them. Anderson, 470 U.S. at 574, 105 S.Ct. at 1511.
57 Ang argues that the reason offered by P & G for his termination, his disruptive behavior, was a pretext. He contends that his work was good and that P & G fired him because he protested discrimination. Ang disagrees with the Magistrate's failure to explicitly consider the issue of pretext. 58 Although Ang points to quotes from evaluations describing his technical skill and ability to work as a team player, those same evaluations also discuss his inattention to detail, inability to plan, and lack of assertiveness. His supervisors, in the months immediately preceding his dismissal, spoke to him of their concerns that he was spending insufficient time on his work. Those supervisors also testified that he refused to follow directions or change his disruptive behavior after their warnings. The Magistrate did not clearly err in finding that P & G offered legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons for the discharge. 59 The Magistrate, in finding P & G's reasons for the discharge credible, implicitly found that those reasons were not pretextual. He also did not clearly err in this finding. P & G offered evidence that they were not aware of Ang's request for a minority Ph.D study until after they made their decision to terminate him. When choosing between two conflicting views of the facts, the district court cannot be found to have clearly erred. Anderson, 470 U.S. at 574, 105 S.Ct. at 1511.