Opinion ID: 164580
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Unequal Treatment

Text: 24
25 Before discussing the merits of the unequal-treatment issue, we address the City's argument that Plaintiff did not produce any admissible evidence in district court regarding the treatment of other employees. Plaintiff's first brief in opposition to the City's motion for summary judgment contained 49 attachments, including Plaintiff's own affidavit, excerpts from Kazemian's deposition, the City's disciplinary rules, selected executive orders, and documentation of the discipline of numerous Division employees (such as letters of reprimand and notices of termination). That brief, however, was struck by the district court for failure to comply with the court's page limitation. Plaintiff then filed a new opposition brief. The second brief included one attachment, labeled Attachment 50, but Plaintiff did not reattach any of the first 49 attachments. Because Plaintiff's first brief had been struck, the judge apparently did not receive the first 49 attachments. The City therefore argues that the first 49 attachments are not a part of the district court record. 26 We agree that Plaintiff should have ensured that the 49 exhibits were available for review by the district court. Nevertheless, in the circumstances here, we reject the City's attempt to prevent us from considering evidence in those exhibits. Plaintiff's second opposition brief clearly incorporated by reference the 49 exhibits to his rejected brief. It cited to the exhibits numerous times. The City certainly could not contend that it was unaware that Plaintiff continued to rely on the exhibits attached to his first brief. Yet not only did the City fail to argue in the district court that the exhibits were not a part of the record, it actually cited repeatedly the exhibits it now claims were not part of the record. Thus, it is appropriate to consider the factual assertions in Plaintiff's amended brief that are supported by the exhibits attached to his original (rejected) brief. We will not allow the City to sandbag Plaintiff. We deny the City's motion to strike from the appellate record the attachments to Plaintiff's original district court brief, and we will permit Plaintiff to rely on contents of those exhibits that were referenced in his amended brief. 27
28 Plaintiff asserts that pretext is established by a comparison of his discharge with the lesser discipline imposed upon other Division employees accused of similar offenses but who were not Hispanics or were younger than he. See Kendrick, 220 F.3d at 1230 (plaintiff may show pretext by providing evidence that he was treated differently from other similarly-situated employees who violated work rules of comparable seriousness). We begin by limiting the disciplinary actions available for comparison. We will not consider (1) disciplinary actions that have not been properly presented for review, (2) disciplinary actions taken by supervisors not involved in Plaintiff's termination, and (3) disciplinary actions taken in compliance with special Division rules governing alcohol and drug abuse. We explain. 29 First, on appeal Plaintiff uses an employee for comparison who was not used for comparison in district court argument. At oral argument before this court he devoted considerable attention to the discipline of George Justice. Yet in the district court, although Justice was mentioned in the attachments to Plaintiff's original brief in opposition to summary judgment, the brief itself made no argument involving Justice. As a result, the City would have had no reason to explain or present evidence regarding how Justice's circumstances were different from Plaintiff's. Accordingly, we will not consider on appeal whether Justice and Plaintiff received unequal treatment. Furthermore, Plaintiff addressed several instances of discipline during oral argument that were not mentioned in his briefs on appeal. We need not consider issues raised only at oral argument. See Federal Ins. Co. v. Tri-State Ins. Co., 157 F.3d 800, 805 (10th Cir.1998). We therefore decline to address the discipline of Marc Shockley and Patrick Villareal, or those incidents involving Milton Thalley and Ron Montaño not discussed in Plaintiff's briefs. (Plaintiff addressed some disciplinary incidents involving Thalley and Montaño in his opening brief, but then during oral argument discussed additional disciplinary incidents involving the two.) 30 Second, some of the employees mentioned by Plaintiff, such as Milton Thalley, were disciplined by Nick Skifalides, who was not in any way involved in Plaintiff's termination. Comparison of one disciplinary action with another ordinarily is relevant only to show the bias of the person who decided upon the disciplinary action. If X fires A, an Hispanic, for particular misconduct, but gives only a warning to B, a non-Hispanic, for identical misconduct, one might infer that something beyond the misconduct (such as a bias by X against Hispanics) motivated the disciplinary action. But if it was Y, not X, who decided not to impose a harsher sanction against B, one cannot infer that X's decision to fire A must have been motivated by something other than A's misconduct. X may simply have a less tolerant view toward misconduct than Y does. Cf. Kendrick, 220 F.3d at 1233 (Different supervisors will inevitably react differently to employee insubordination.). Thus, as we have explained before, Similarly situated employees are those who deal with the same supervisor and are subject to the same standards governing performance evaluation and discipline. Aramburu v. Boeing Co., 112 F.3d 1398, 1404 (10th Cir.1997) (internal quotation marks omitted). 31 Plaintiff attempts to avoid this precedent by arguing that [t]he disciplinary actions in question were based on Division-wide policy [and] ... disciplinary rules established by the City and County of Denver for all of its employees. Aplt. Br. at 28. When we have allowed comparisons of actions of different supervisors, however, there has been independent evidence of a specific enterprise-wide policy. See Gossett v. Oklahoma ex rel. Bd. of Regents for Langston Univ., 245 F.3d 1172, 1177-78 (10th Cir.2001). Here, Plaintiff has not provided the necessary independent evidence. On the contrary, the record shows that the City's general disciplinary rules (other than those relating to drug and alcohol abuse, see Executive Order No. 94, Aplt.App. at 318) are broad and discretionary. See City Rule 16: Discipline, Aplt.App. at 302 (The degree of discipline shall be reasonably related to the seriousness of the offense and take into consideration the employee's past record. The appointing authority or designee will impose the type and amount of discipline she/he believes is needed to correct the situation and achieve the desired behavior or performance.). On the record before us, one could only conclude that each supervisor independently decides what the appropriate discipline should be. Comparisons of actions taken by other supervisors would have no probative value regarding the motivation for actions by a particular supervisor. Accordingly, we conclude that the general rule — that employees cannot be considered similarly situated unless they share the same supervisor — applies in this case, and we should not consider disciplinary actions taken by Skifalides. 32 On the other hand, we will consider discipline imposed by Snyder. Even though he did not terminate Plaintiff's employment, he was unquestionably involved in the investigation of Plaintiff's alleged misconduct, and he recommended to Kazemian that Plaintiff be dismissed. Other discipline imposed by Snyder may therefore have some bearing on the question of pretext. Cf. Kendrick, 220 F.3d at 1233 (same supervisor played a role in determining the disciplinary action to be taken against [Plaintiff and the allegedly similarly situated employee,] although the fact that they did not share the same intermediate supervisor diminishe[d] the evidentiary value of the comparison). 33 Third, some of the disciplinary actions used by Plaintiff for comparison, such as discipline of Ron Montaño and Milton Thalley, were imposed for abusing alcohol or drugs. The discipline of individuals who abused alcohol or drugs was controlled by Executive Order No 94, which set special standards (involving, among other things, rehabilitation and testing) for such infractions. Discipline under that executive order does not provide a helpful comparison to Plaintiff's case. Cf. Aramburu, 112 F.3d at 1404 (Similarly situated employees are those who... are subject to the same standards governing performance evaluation and discipline.) (internal quotation marks omitted); Hiatt v. Rockwell Int'l Corp., 26 F.3d 761, 771 (7th Cir.1994) ([a]lcohol-related offenses are not the same type of misconduct as falsification of records). 34 After eliminating disciplinary action not presented for comparison to the district court or not raised in Plaintiff's briefs on appeal, actions by supervisors not involved in Plaintiff's discipline, and discipline for misconduct involving the abuse of drugs or alcohol, we are left with the following instances of discipline offered by Plaintiff: 35 Frank Cronin: Cronin is non-Hispanic and was born on January 22, 1956. On December 24, 1998, Kazemian suspended Cronin for three days after he verbally abused his supervisors and co-workers in a meeting. During a predisciplinary meeting Cronin apologized, admitted that his behavior was inappropriate, stated that it would not happen again, and explained that his behavior might have been triggered by the fact that his father was on his deathbed. Cronin had previously been suspended for two days for using abusive language, and for five days for drinking alcohol in a city vehicle. He had also received a verbal warning for making inappropriate comments during a meeting. 36 Joseph Encinias: Encinias is Hispanic and was born on October 9, 1957. On May 5, 1998, Kazemian suspended him for one day for verbally threatening another individual. Encinias's previous discipline was a letter of reprimand in February 1995. 37 Robert Gallegos: Gallegos is Hispanic, and was born on April 12, 1958. A Division investigative report dated August 6, 2001, states that Gallegos had not reported to management that another employee had asked him to provide a urine sample for that employee's drug test. (There is no indication in the record that the City ever contemplated disciplining Gallegos for failing to report the incident.) Then, three days later, Snyder signed a letter on behalf of Kazemian informing Gallegos that the Division was contemplating disciplinary action against him for taking unauthorized leave and not performing emergency duties. Gallegos resigned before any discipline was imposed. 38 Bobby Russell: Russell is non-Hispanic, and was born on February 3, 1949. On May 16, 1997, Snyder wrote Russell a counseling memorandum for making vulgar remarks about another employee. On May 15, 1998, Russell was reprimanded in a letter signed on Snyder's behalf for leaving the building shouting. On July 29, 1998, Snyder signed a letter on behalf of Kazemian reprimanding Russell for leaving the work site without permission. On August 7, 1998, Snyder signed another letter on behalf of Kazemian, informing Russell that the Division was contemplating disciplining Russell for wearing a Division-issued shirt on which the printed words you are not my boss had been added. And on August 28, 1998, Kazemian sent Russell a letter informing him that he was considering disciplining Russell for making racist comments. Russell resigned before any discipline was imposed for wearing the shirt or for making the racist comments. 39 Richard Snyder: Snyder is apparently non-Hispanic. On June 25, 1998, when Snyder was nearly 46 years old, Kazemian reprimanded him for engaging in a verbal confrontation with a co-employee. On September 1, 1998, Kazemian discharged Snyder for sexually harassing another employee. 40 None of these disciplinary actions created a genuine issue regarding pretext, because no reasonable factfinder could view any of them as supporting Plaintiff's pretext claim. The incident resulting in Richard Snyder's discharge is of no assistance to Plaintiff because the discipline was as severe as what he suffered. And the incidents leading to the resignations of Russell and Gallegos are irrelevant because no decision had been made regarding what discipline should be imposed. As for the other misconduct by Cronin, Encinias, Russell, and Snyder, the misconduct could reasonably be viewed as less serious than the dishonesty displayed by Plaintiff. See Elmore v. Capstan, Inc., 58 F.3d 525, 530 (10th Cir.1995) (violations must be of comparable seriousness); Williams v. Penske Transp. Servs., Inc., 46 F.Supp.2d 1135, 1142 (D.Kan.1999) (an employer may reasonably prioritize trustworthiness over other nondiscriminatory characteristics in determining whether to discharge an employee for misconduct); see also Kendrick, 220 F.3d at 1233 (employees were not similarly situated, in part because one, unlike the other, did not justify his conduct or otherwise make any conciliatory gestures). 41 Accordingly, we agree with the district court that Plaintiff cannot escape summary judgment by relying on this evidence of discipline of fellow workers. 42