Opinion ID: 761024
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: EEOC retaliation claim

Text: 23 Plaintiff argues that the causal connection between his protected activity of filing the April 1996 EEOC charge and Hodges' June 1996 recommendation of termination may be established simply by the facts that the recommendation closely followed the filing of the charge, see Burrus v. United Tel. Co. of Kan., Inc., 683 F.2d 339, 343 (10th Cir.1982), and there was continuing friction between the parties, see Chavez v. City of Arvada, 88 F.3d 861, 866 (10th Cir.1996). We agree that close temporal proximity between a protected activity and an adverse employment action may be enough evidence of causal connection to survive summary judgment in regard to establishing the prima facie case. We conclude, however, that defendants presented overwhelming evidence of legitimate nonretaliatory reasons for Hodges' recommendation of termination and the school board's decision to terminate, and plaintiff presented no probative evidence on which a jury could find that those reasons were pretextual. 24 When a defendant presents evidence of legitimate reasons for adverse actions, as Hodges did in this case, a plaintiff cannot just sit back and remain silent or make conclusory statements that the witness was generally being untruthful--he must refute each allegation with his version of the facts or with other countervailing evidence. The record is clear and undisputed that plaintiff's difficulties and conflict with defendants began before the first EEOC charge was filed. Further, Hodges' negative employment evaluation occurred before, not after, the 1996 EEOC charge was filed, and there had been no previous claim that she participated in age or unionization discrimination. Plaintiff therefore can hardly say that the negative evaluation was the product of retaliation. Hodges also presented written documentation of dates and times during which she observed that plaintiff failed to fulfill his contractual day. Plaintiff cannot sufficiently refute that evidence by simply saying she did not tell the truth at that due process hearing. App. Vol. II at 315; see id. at 319. To survive summary judgment, non-movant's affidavits must be based upon personal knowledge and set forth facts that would be admissible in evidence; conclusory and self-serving affidavits are not sufficient. Murray v. City of Sapulpa, 45 F.3d 1417, 1422 (10th Cir.1995) (quotations omitted). Further, even if Hodges was mistaken in her perceptions of plaintiff's skills and performance, plaintiff has raised no question of Hodges' sincerity regarding her evaluation of plaintiff's abilities nor of her feelings that she could no longer work with plaintiff. Cf. McKnight, 149 F.3d at 1129 (holding that if employer actually believed plaintiff committed claimed sexual assault, its proffered reason for termination was not pretextual, even if later shown to be erroneous). 25 Plaintiff argues that because Hodges gave him some acceptable ratings before he filed his claim but recommended termination afterwards, that is evidence of pretext. Plaintiff disregards, however, the adversarial conference and exchanges of memos and Hodges' undisputed testimony that he personally attacked her credibility and abilities after the evaluation was prepared. It is not inconsistent to recognize that an employee's performance may be acceptable in some areas and totally unacceptable in others. 26 Plaintiff also argues that the fact that Hodges did not give him a formal and separate plan of development prior to terminating his employment as allegedly required by the collective bargaining agreement is evidence of pretext. We fail to see the connection between the alleged fact and plaintiff's assertion. We conclude that the district court appropriately granted summary judgment in favor of defendants on plaintiff's EEOC retaliation claims.