Opinion ID: 78563
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Mahaffey

Text: Brown established a prima facie case of discrimination concerning the promotion of Mike Mahaffey, a white male, to the position of Assistant Division Engineer for the Third Division on March 20, 2004. The plaintiff passed the Civil Engineer Administrator test, was placed on the relevant register and on the Certificate of Eligibles as a qualified candidate, but was not promoted once certified for the position. As a non-discriminatory reason for hiring Mahaffey and not Brown, the Department claimed that Mahaffey was more qualified. The jury, however, was entitled to reject the Department's proffered reason. In the first place, the jury could have found on this record that the Department's proffered reason was not credible. Brown had extensive experience as a Civil Engineer, having served in that position from 1989 to 1998, and as a Civil Engineer Manager from 1998 through the time the CEA vacancy was filled by the Third Division. While the Department successfully demonstrated at trial that Brown did not have Mahaffey's precise qualifications9 years in Construction, 9 years in Maintenance, 5 years in Materials and Tests and 1 year in Pre-Constructionit did not even attempt to explain why those particular qualifications were superior to Brown's. [7] Thus, although the Department at this stage was not required to persuade the [fact finder] that it was actually motivated by the proffered reasons, only to show a genuine issue of fact as to whether it discriminated against the plaintiff, Texas Dep't of Cmty. Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 254-55, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 67 L.Ed.2d 207 (1981), the jury could have found that the Department's ill-explained reasons failed to show any such issue. Second, there was ample evidence of racial discrimination specific to the Mahaffey promotion, suggesting that the Department's proffered reasons were pretextual. In late 2003, not long before she interviewed for the position given to Mahaffey, Brown also interviewed for a County Transportation Engineer position in the Ninth Division. She testified that immediately after the interview, she was approached by a manager by the name of Camp. Camp asked if he was speaking with Geneva Brown; after being told that he was, he asked for a word with her. Brown testified that Camp took her into his office and, for her own good, explained why she likely would not receive any promotions. Notably, the Division Engineer for the Third Division, James Horsley, had instructed the Eighth Division engineer to get the minorities . . . off of that register so that the Third Division, the Ninth Division and all the other divisions . . . could fill their positions with who[m] they wanted. And, the Ninth Division did not want her because of [her] participation in the lawsuit, the Reynolds case. [8] Horsley, who apparently had held the Third Division Engineer position open for a year or more while Mahaffey gained experience and training on an out-of-classification basis, was on the three-person interview team that selected Mahaffey over Brown, giving the jury substantial reason to reject the Department's proffered explanation.