Court Opinion

ID: 9495369
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:01:19.038164+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:56:59.044174
License: Public Domain

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the judgment of the Court. I write separately because I take a somewhat different view of the record than my colleagues. In my view, the record does not support the conclusion that Mr. Codell served as a decisionmaker in the non-renewal of Ms. Mateu-Anderegg’s teaching contract.
As a general proposition, our case law establishes that “[statements by subordinates normally are not probative of an intent to [discriminate] by the decision-maker.” Willis v. Marion County Auditor’s Office, 118 F.3d 542, 546 (7th Cir.1997). Indeed, “only evidence on the attitudes of the employees involved in the decision to fire the plaintiff[ ] is relevant.” Swanson v. Leggett & Platt, Inc., 154 F.3d 730, 733 (7th Cir.1998). Simply put, when an individual plays no role in an adverse employment action, his discriminatory animus generally proves irrelevant concerning the motivation behind an employer’s employment decisions. Thus, the random racial slur or hostile comment of a coworker that is unconnected to an employment decision proves insufficient to maintain a discrimination claim under Title VII. See Wallace v. SMC Pneumatics, Inc., 103 F.3d 1394, 1400 (7th Cir.1997).
However, “if a manager with a [discriminatory] motive is involved in the decision to terminate an employee, that [discriminatory] motive, in some circumstances, *627may be imputed to the company, even if the manager with a [discriminatory] motive was not the ultimate decisionmaker.” Paluck v. Gooding Rubber Co., 221 F.3d 1003, 1010 (7th Cir.2000). Accordingly, “there can be situations in which the forbidden motive of a [non-decisionmaking] employee can be imputed to the employer because, under the circumstances of the case, the employer simply acted as the 'cat’s paw’ of the [non-decisionmaker].” Willis, 118 F.3d at 547.
Although this court has not identified the outer contours of this exception, see Willis, 118 F.3d at 547, certain recurring principles can be gleaned from the case law. In particular, we are concerned with the influence and input that the biased employee exerts over the decisionmaking process. Thus, “[s]ummary judgment is generally improper where the plaintiff can show that an employee with discriminatory animus provided factual information or other input that may have affected the adverse employment action.” Dey v. Colt Constr. & Dev. Co., 28 F.3d 1446, 1459 (7th Cir.1994). For instance, when a biased employee makes a discriminatory statement in the context of a plaintiffs performance review — an evaluation that may be passed along to the decisionmaker — the subordinate’s attitudes become relevant to the discrimination calculus. See, e.g., Eiland v. Trinity Hosp., 150 F.3d 747, 751 (7th Cir.1998). More to the point, if the plaintiff proffers evidence demonstrating that the biased non-decisionmaker concealed “relevant information from the deci-sionmaking employee or feed[s] false information to him,” then the animus of the non-decisionmaker becomes relevant because he “is able to influence the [employment decision.]” Wallace, 103 F.3d at 1400. Essentially, then, “these cases prevent an employer from escaping liability by setting up many layers of pro forma review, thus making the operative decision that of a subordinate with an illicit motive.” Willis, 118 F.3d at 547. However, “it is clear that, when the causal relationship between the [non-decisionmaker’s] illicit motive and the employer’s ultimate decision is broken, and the ultimate decision is clearly made on an independent and a legally permissible basis, the bias of the [non-decisionmaker] is not relevant.” Id. For instance, if objective information from sources other than the biased employee drive the adverse employment action, the subordinate’s illicit motives are no longer relevant to the inquiry. See id.
In this case, I do not believe that it is appropriate to characterize the School Board’s actions as merely rubber-stamping the contract-renewal recommendations of Mr. Codell. Wisconsin law assigns authority over renewal decisions to the local school boards. See Wis. Stat. § 118.22. On this record, there is no indication that this School Board delegated its responsibility to Mr. Codell or otherwise failed to conduct an independent review of his renewal recommendations. Indeed, in February 1999, the Board sent Ms. Mateu-Anderegg a letter that stated in pertinent part:
[Y]ou are hereby put on notice that the School Board of the School District of Whitefish Bay is considering the recommendation of the administration that your employment contract not be renewed .... [Y]ou have the right to file a request with the Board ... for a private or public conference with the Board relative to the subject of non-renewal of your contract.... You are further advised that if you desire a conference, you will be provided, prior thereto, with written reasons as to why the Board is considering your non-renewal. At such conference, you have the right ... to call witnesses and submit evidence relevant to the subject of the non-renewal of your contract. You also will have the *628right to question witnesses and rebut any testimony which might be unfavorable to you.
R.40, Ex.12. Far from functioning as a pro forma review panel, the School Board planned to conduct an independent inquiry into the allegations underpinning Mr. Co-dell’s non-renewal recommendation. Simply put, but for her declining to participate in this hearing, Ms. Mateu-Anderegg would have been given an opportunity to present her side of the dispute to the School Board. Under these circumstances, I would hold that the record establishes that the School Board was the final decisionmaker, and there is no evidence that it made its decision on anything other than the stated job-performance related reasons. We have never established a presumption that school boards do not make their decisions independently of subordinate officials, and the record in this case hardly affords a basis for doing so today.