Opinion ID: 28771
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Appellees’ ADEA Claims

Text: With regard to plaintiffs Hough, Earles, and Burkett, Unocal’s argument asserts particularized non-discriminatory reasons for their terminations: Unocal asserts that Hough and Earles were offered new jobs and voluntarily chose to take the severance package instead and that Burkett was placed in the redeployment pool because of a good faith mistake. Unocal argues that there was insufficient evidence to prove that these three plaintiffs were discriminated against based on age. Unocal’s arguments regarding Hough and Earles also raise issues as to whether they actually suffered adverse employment actions.
When the defendant employer comes forward with evidence of a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for an adverse employment action, the presumption of discrimination raised by the 33 plaintiff’s prima facie case drops out and the plaintiff may attempt to prove discrimination by offering evidence that the employer’s stated reason is pretextual. Reeves, 120 S.Ct. at 2106. The burden of persuasion at all times remains on the plaintiff. Id. In a disparate treatment case, such as the case at bar, a plaintiff must produce sufficient evidence to rebut a showing by the employer that there was a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for discharging a particular employee. See Bauer v. Albemarle Corp., 169 F.3d 962, 968 (5th Cir. 1999). In the instant case, Hough, Earles and Burkett produced sufficient evidence for a reasonable jury to conclude that Unocal’s asserted reasons were pretextual and that the real reason was intentional, age-based discrimination. See Reeves, 120 S.Ct. at 2109 (“[A] plaintiff's prima facie case, combined with sufficient evidence to find that the employer's asserted justification is false, may permit the trier of fact to conclude that the employer unlawfully discriminated.”). In November 1996, Ponville, Unocal’s new Onshore Operations Manager, chaired a several-hour long meeting with field superintendents Van Deventer, Van Horn, and Leyendecker at which decisions affecting the Plaintiffs were made. All four of the meeting participants were in their thirties. Although Ponville testified that he did not really know any of the Plaintiffs 34 except Tyler,8 he asserted generally that employment decisions about who would fill the positions in the reorganized business unit were based on employee performance. Van Horn testified that he did not recall any discussion regarding any of the Plaintiffs at the November meeting. In her testimony, Van Deventer acknowledged that she participated in the meeting but was not asked to go into detail with regard to discussions at the meeting. Ponville admitted that he did not retain any documentation reflecting reasons for employment decisions resulting from the meeting. With the exception of Tyler, Ponville did not state any specific performance-based reasons why any of the individual Plaintiffs were not assigned positions in the reorganized unit. With regard to Tyler, Ponville provided some specific comparisons between Tyler’s performance as a field superintendent and that of Van Horn, Van Deventer, and Leyendecker.9 Ponville admitted that 8 Ponville testified that he had seen Burkett in the office and that he may have participated in a meeting with Hough. 9 In its reply brief, Unocal argues for the first time that there was insufficient evidence of age discrimination against Tyler. Unocal Red Brief at 46. In its initial brief to this court, Unocal’s only assignments of error with respect to the judgment in favor of Tyler were the claims that the entire suit was time-barred and that, in the alternative, there was insufficient evidence to support the willfulness finding. Only for Hough, Earles, and Burkett did Unocal initially assert that there was conclusive evidence of legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons for the adverse employment actions. Unocal’s argument that Tyler did not prove age discrimination came too late. “This Court will not consider a claim raised for the first time in a reply brief.” Yohey v. Collins, 985 F.2d 222, 225 (5th Cir. 1993). 35 Tyler was ranked ahead of Van Horn in the forced ranking and that Ponville had never reviewed Tyler’s performance appraisals in detail or spoken with Tyler’s supervisors about Tyler. Following the meeting, four former field superintendent positions were consolidated into three positions, which were filled by Van Horn, Van Deventer, and Leyendecker. Van Horn took over the field that had previously been under Tyler. As evidence of Unocal’s policies, the Plaintiffs proffered Unocal’s Human Resources Policies and Procedures manual. The manual included, inter alia, a statement that “planning [for a RIF] should include . . . Documentation of non-discriminatory reasons for adverse personnel decisions.” Ponville testified that he was aware that Unocal policy called for keeping such documentation. Ponville admitted that, the policy notwithstanding, he failed to keep documentation of nondiscriminatory reasons for adverse decisions. Ponville shredded whatever documentation he had. Ponville further conceded that the human resources department would have no way of knowing the reasons for the adverse personnel decisions. An employer’s conscious, unexplained departure from its usual polices and procedures when conducting a RIF may in appropriate circumstances support an inference of age discrimination if the plaintiff establishes some nexus between 36 employment actions and the plaintiff’s age. See EEOC v. Texas Instruments, 100 F.3d 1173, 1182 (5th Cir. 1996); Moore v. Eli Lilly Co., 990 F.2d 812, 819 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 114 S.Ct. 467 (1993). Here, such a nexus was established. Ponville testified that he based his decisions on performance, yet he testified that he was not familiar with Hough, Earles and Burkett and their job performance. Hough, Earles and Burkett introduced evidence that they had received positive performance appraisals in recent years. Cf. Risher v. Aldridge, 889 F.2d 592, 598 - 98 (5th Cir. 1989) (plaintiff failed to allege a nexus with failure to consider written performance appraisals when employer explained why the written appraisals were unreliable and that decision-maker was personally familiar with plaintiff’s performance). Ponville knew that he was supposed to keep documentation of the reasons for adverse employment decisions, yet he did not do so. Hough, Earles and Burkett’s evidence of satisfactory performance, Ponville’s failure to keep documentation and his admission that he was not familiar with Hough, Earles and Burkett and their job performance, were sufficient to permit an inference that the performance rationale was a pretext for intentional discrimination in the conduct of the RIF. But, Hough, Earles, and Burkett still had to rebut Unocal’s evidence of particularized, non-discriminatory reasons for their discharges. 37
With regard to Hough and Earles, Unocal’s position is that each of these plaintiffs chose the termination package after they were approached by Van Horn about whether they were interested in reassignment and expressed to Van Horn that they were not interested. The testimony concerning the conversations with Van Horn conflicted. Both Hough and Earles testified that, in their respective conversations with Van Horn, Van Horn was vague as to what the new positions would entail and what they would pay. According to these plaintiffs’ testimony, the only thing Van Horn was certain about was that the new jobs would likely pay less than their old jobs. Hough did indicate that Van Horn definitely said that he would have a job. Earles testified that Van Horn told him that there was only a possibility that he would have a job. Van Horn demanded to know whether Earles was interested before he hung up the telephone. Hough testified that Van Horn demanded an answer within a few hours, even though Van Horn could not tell Hough what or where the job would be. The jury could reasonably have chosen to believe the plaintiffs’ version of the Van Horn conversations and could infer that any “job offers” were so indefinite that they were not bona fide and did not present Hough or Earles with a real choice between accepting termination or continued employment. Unocal does not dispute that, at least, new jobs for these plaintiffs 38 would have involved salary compression. An act affecting compensation is itself a type of adverse employment action that is actionable in a discrimination case. See Mattern v. Eastman Kodak Co., 104 F.3d 702, 707 (5th Cir. 1997). The testimony that Van Horn pressured these plaintiffs to make quick decisions about these questionable uncertain job “offers” was bolstered by Earles’s testimony that Van Deventer had admitted that Unocal had such a practice of pressuring older employees into early retirement. Cf. Guthrie v. J.C. Penney Co., 803 F.3d 202, 208 (5th Cir. 1986) (jury could infer that repeated inquiries about plaintiff’s retirement plans were intentional harassment). The jury could rationally infer that Hough and Earles suffered adverse employment actions because evidence was presented that these plaintiffs were not extended bona fide offers but were offered only a “choice” between uncertain continued employment, in unspecified jobs at unspecified but lower pay, and accepting termination benefits. We affirm the district court’s holding in favor of Hough and Earles on their ADEA claims.
With regard to Burkett, Unocal asserts that it gave him the redeployment package because of a good faith mistaken belief that he desired the redeployment package rather than reassignment to another job. Burkett testified that, after a meeting about the 39 RIF and before his redeployment, he told Van Deventer that he would accept any job. He further testified that right after he got his redeployment package, he met with Dupriest and said that he would take any available job. The jury was entitled to believe Burkett’s testimony and to infer that Unocal’s decisionmakers were on notice that Burkett wanted to keep working. We affirm the district court’s judgment in favor of Burkett on his ADEA claim.