Opinion ID: 200920
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Promotion Claims.

Text: 46 The appellant contends that, on several occasions, AutoZone refused to promote her to management positions for which she was qualified and in which she had expressed an interest. She claims that these employment decisions were motivated by gender bias, noting that each time a man was hired or promoted into the position. To state the obvious, only those employment actions that took place within the limitations period are actionable. See Nat'l R.R. Passenger Corp. v. Morgan, 536 U.S. 101, 110, 122 S.Ct. 2061, 153 L.Ed.2d 106 (2002). For purposes of the appellant's RICRA claims, that grouping encompasses only those actions that took place within the three-year period preceding August 3, 2001. 5 47 Here, however, the universe of actionable claims is further truncated. The appellant first expressed an interest in the PSM position in mid 1998. AutoZone promoted her to that post on September 12 of the following year. Consequently, we deem potentially actionable only those PSM promotions that occurred between August 3, 1998 and September 12, 1999. Similarly, the appellant first expressed an interest in becoming an ASM sometime after September 12, 1999. Thus, we deem potentially actionable only those ASM promotions arising between September 13, 1999 and August 3, 2001. 48 This line-drawing leaves six employment decisions in play (as contrasted with the two considered by the district court, see Rathbun, 253 F.Supp.2d at 235). Two of these six potentially actionable decisions involve the PSM position. Rick Allen was hired as a PSM in November of 1998 at AutoZone's Warwick store. 6 The second PSM decision involved Chris Brosco, who was elevated from a CSR slot in March of 1999. Four other potentially actionable employment decisions involve ASM positions. Two were filled by direct hires, namely, Tom Disano (September 1999) and Nick Medeiros (April 2000). Two more were filled by promotions from within the organization, namely, Rick Allen (April 2000) and José Rios (February 2001). 49 The district court assumed that the record, viewed in the light most favorable to the appellant, satisfies the prima facie case requirement. Rathbun, 253 F.Supp.2d at 234. We do the same: the evidence shows that the appellant is a member of a protected class (a woman); that an adverse employment action occurred (her employer denied her serial bids for promotion); that she was at least arguably qualified for the position(s) that she sought; and that the position(s) were filled by others whose credentials were more or less comparable to hers. See Gu, 312 F.3d at 11; Rossy v. Roche Prods., Inc., 880 F.2d 621, 624 (1st Cir.1989). In each instance, AutoZone has proffered reasons for its employment decision that are, on their face, nondiscriminatory. It says that the successful applicants were better qualified than the appellant (e.g., Allen was a parts pro; Medeiros previously had managed an auto body shop; and Rios, who was hired for a store with a predominantly Spanish-speaking clientele, was bilingual). The appellant's failure-to-promote claims therefore stand or fall on the third prong of the McDonnell Douglas framework. 50 Even when viewed through a wider-angled lens, the evidence of pretext is scant. It consists primarily of the appellant's assertion that she was more qualified than the successful male aspirants. She emphasizes her knowledge of auto parts, her positive performance reviews, her seniority with the company, and what she terms her superior people skills. 51 When an employer claims to have hired or promoted one person over another on the basis of qualifications, the question is not which of the aspirants was better qualified, but, rather, whether the employer's stated reasons for selecting one over the other were pretextual. See Smith v. F.W. Morse & Co., 76 F.3d 413, 421 (1st Cir. 1996). In a rare case, the disappointed applicant may be able to prove pretext by showing that she was in fact better qualified than the individual selected. Patterson, 491 U.S. at 187-88, 109 S.Ct. 2363; Rossy, 880 F.2d at 625. But that is an uphill struggle: in the absence of strong objective evidence (e.g., test scores), proof of competing qualifications will seldom, in and of itself, be sufficient to create a triable issue of pretext. See Millbrook v. IBP, Inc., 280 F.3d 1169, 1178-79 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 537 U.S. 884, 123 S.Ct. 117, 154 L.Ed.2d 143 (2002); Deines v. Tex. Dep't of Protective & Regulatory Servs., 164 F.3d 277, 280-82 (5th Cir.1999). 52 This result follows from a form of the business judgment rule. See Mesnick, 950 F.2d at 825 (explaining that [c]ourts may not sit as super personnel departments, assessing the merits — or even the rationality — of employers' nondiscriminatory business decisions). Qualifications are notoriously hard to judge and, in a disparate treatment case, more must be shown than that the employer made an unwise personnel decision by promoting X ahead of Y. See Keyes v. Sec'y of Navy, 853 F.2d 1016, 1024-26 (1st Cir.1988); Gray v. New Engl. Tel. & Tel. Co., 792 F.2d 251, 255 (1st Cir.1986). In other words, subjective evidence of competing qualifications seldom provides a principled way for a factfinder to determine whether a given employment decision, even if wrong-headed, was anything more than a garden-variety mistake in corporate judgment. Freeman v. Package Mach. Co., 865 F.2d 1331, 1341 (1st Cir.1988). 53 We recognize that there may be situations in which the difference in qualifications is so stark as to support an inference of pretext. See, e.g., Deines, 164 F.3d at 282 (suggesting that, in an extreme case, qualifications may be so widely disparate that no reasonable employer would have made the same decision, and, therefore, may be independently probative of pretext). Or, perhaps, there may be situations in which a great number of individual employment decisions, each of which arguably can be justified as a business judgment, may in cumulation present so one-sided a picture as to raise an inference of pretext. Cf. EEOC v. Steamship Clerks Union, 48 F.3d 594, 605 (1st Cir.1995) (holding that a union's facially neutral, sponsorship-based admissions policy, which yielded only white members over a six-year period, sufficed to support an inference of discrimination). The case at bar, however, does not conform to either of those models. From an objective standpoint, the appellant's qualifications are not so obviously superior to those of the successful male applicants as to undermine the legitimacy of the selection process. And the appellant has offered too few potentially relevant employment actions and too little information about company-wide promotion practices to constitute an accumulation sufficient to raise an inference of pretext. 54 We also recognize that a claimed difference in qualifications may be sufficient to ground an action if accompanied by independent evidence (say, evidence of pretext or discriminatory animus). See, e.g., Byrnie v. Town of Cromwell, Bd. of Educ., 243 F.3d 93, 110-11 (2d Cir.2001); Emmel v. Coca-Cola Bottling Co., 95 F.3d 627, 633-36 (7th Cir.1996); Rossy, 880 F.2d at 625. The appellant has adduced two pieces of independent evidence that she claims show pretext. 55 The first relates to the promotion of Rick Allen to an ASM position. At the time of his elevation, Allen had (i) nine disciplinary citations (as opposed to one for the appellant) and (ii) lower performance reviews in the immediately preceding period. 7 The appellant suggests that this evidence raises an inference that AutoZone's stated reason for promoting Allen ahead of her — superior qualifications — was a pretext for gender discrimination. 56 This argument overlooks AutoZone's assertion, based on undisputed facts, that Allen's superior parts knowledge (he previously had been employed by another automotive chain and had received a special certification in parts) and the length of his tenure as an AutoZone PSM (seventeen months, as opposed to eight months for the appellant) rendered him better qualified for the ASM position notwithstanding his other shortcomings. These are difficult balances to strike — and while the wisdom of this rationale certainly can be debated, we think that AutoZone's choice comes within the sweep of the business judgment rule. See, e.g., Millbrook, 280 F.3d at 1182-83; Guerrero v. Ashcroft, 253 F.3d 309, 314-15 (7th Cir.2001); Lehman v. Prudential Ins. Co., 74 F.3d 323, 329-30 (1st Cir.1996). There is no evidence of discriminatory animus here, and we do not believe that the record, taken as a whole, would allow a reasonable factfinder to infer, on this meager showing, that Allen's promotion was an exercise in gender discrimination. See Feliciano, 218 F.3d at 8. 57 The appellant's second evidentiary proffer is temporal in nature: she spent nineteen months with AutoZone before achieving a promotion to PSM whereas several men thereafter attained the same rank more celeritously. She argues that the much shorter incubation periods experienced by these men (e.g., Guillermo Feliz — one month; Rob Stone and José Rios — three months; Michael Crumb — five months; and Luis McDougall — eleven months) supports an inference of pretext. 58 AutoZone asks us to dismiss this proffer on the ground that all five of these PSM promotions took place after the appellant had been promoted to that rank. But the fact that an event itself is not actionable does not automatically negate its evidentiary value. A discriminatory act or practice that is not the basis for a timely charge of discrimination nonetheless may constitute relevant background evidence in a proceeding in which the same type of discriminatory act or practice has been timely challenged. United Air Lines, Inc. v. Evans, 431 U.S. 553, 558, 97 S.Ct. 1885, 52 L.Ed.2d 571 (1977). This rule permits reference to evidence of untimely prior acts or practices. Nat'l R.R. Passenger Corp., 536 U.S. at 113, 122 S.Ct. 2061. It likewise permits reference to evidence of subsequent acts or practices. As the Seventh Circuit explained: 59 The last date of the allegedly discriminatory conduct is not a bright line beyond which the conduct of the employer is no longer relevant in a discrimination case. Otherwise, clearly relevant evidence would be arbitrarily excluded; for instance, a plaintiff in a race discrimination case would then be precluded from producing evidence that the week after he was fired, a white employee escaped discipline for the exact same conduct. 60 Freeman v. Madison Metro. Sch. Dist., 231 F.3d 374, 382 (7th Cir.2000). Whether such evidence is relevant depends, as in every case, on its probative force (or lack thereof). See Fed.R.Evid. 401, 402. That said, the appellant's evidence of swifter promotions does not generate an inference of pretext. We explain briefly. 61 As with all such comparative evidence, it is the plaintiff's burden to demonstrate that she is comparing apples to apples. Perkins v. Brigham & Women's Hosp., 78 F.3d 747, 751 (1st Cir.1996). She must provide a suitable provenance for the evidence by showing that others similarly situated to h[er] in all relevant respects were treated differently by the employer. Conward v. Cambridge Sch. Comm., 171 F.3d 12, 20 (1st Cir.1999). The test is whether a prudent person, looking objectively at the incidents, would think them roughly equivalent and the protagonists similarly situated. Dartmouth Review v. Dartmouth Coll., 889 F.2d 13, 19 (1st Cir. 1989). The appellant has not carried that burden here. 62 Taken most favorably to her case, the appellant's evidence shows only that she and the men to whom she compares herself were all promoted to the same position; that their qualifications were roughly equivalent; that the men were elevated more quickly; and that, when promoted, they had less seniority with AutoZone. But she and her putative congeners were not applying for the same openings at the same times; the speedier promotions occurred between eight and twenty-one months after the appellant's promotion to PSM. This is critically important because the appellant has offered nothing to show either that PSM openings occur at an even rate or that the market environment during the periods when the men were promoted was at all similar to the market environment that prevailed while she was seeking a promotion. This lack of proof leaves unaccounted for too many variables. A multiplicity of factors (e.g., new store openings, the number of extant PSM vacancies, the number and quality of applicants, differing unemployment rates, and increased customer demand) may have influenced the need to promote employees at a faster rate than theretofore had been the case. The appellant has adduced no evidence as to these, and other, variables. See Garside, 895 F.2d at 48 (On issues where the nonmovants bear the burden of proof ... they must reliably demonstrate that specific facts sufficient to create an authentic dispute exist.). 63 That ends this aspect of the matter. Without controlling for important variables, comparator evidence cannot generate an inference either of pretext or of discriminatory intent. See Conward, 171 F.3d at 21-22; cf. Rea v. Martin Marietta Corp., 29 F.3d 1450, 1456 (10th Cir.1994) (holding that data, which failed to take into account nondiscriminatory variables, did not offer a probative comparison of similarly situated individuals). So it is here. On this record, allowing the failure-to-promote claims to go forward would be an invitation to the jury to engage in unbridled speculation.