Court Opinion

ID: 9372397
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-02-21 15:00:25.142225+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:16:34.831846
License: Public Domain

USCA11 Case: 22-12200    Document: 24-1     Date Filed: 02/21/2023   Page: 1 of 7

                                                  [DO NOT PUBLISH]
                                   In the
                United States Court of Appeals
                        For the Eleventh Circuit

                          ____________________

                                No. 22-12200
                          Non-Argument Calendar
                          ____________________

       GEORGETTE SHAW,
                                                     Plaintiff-Appellant,
       versus
       UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE,
       UNITED STATES POSTMASTER GENERAL,

                                                 Defendants-Appellees.

                          ____________________

                 Appeal from the United States District Court
                    for the Southern District of Georgia
                  D.C. Docket No. 1:20-cv-00183-JRH-BKE
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       2                       Opinion of the Court                 22-12200

                            ____________________

       Before NEWSOM, GRANT, and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.
       PER CURIAM:
               Georgette Shaw appeals from the district court’s grant of
       summary judgment in favor of her employer, the United States
       Postal Service (“USPS”), on her employment action alleging a
       claim of race‑based disparate treatment under Title VII of the Civil
       Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e‑2(a). She chal-
       lenges many of the court’s factual conclusions and argues that these
       conclusions caused the court to err further in its analyses. She ar-
       gues that the court erred in determining that her proffered com-
       parators were not similarly situated. She also argues that the court
       erred in finding that she did not meet her burden to show that
       USPS’s proffered reason was pretext. Finally, she argues that, even
       if her comparators were dissimilar, the district court erred in failing
       to find a convincing mosaic of evidence showing discrimination.
                                         I.
              We review de novo a district court’s order granting sum-
       mary judgment. Bowen v. Manheim Remarketing, Inc., 882 F.3d
       1358, 1362 (11th Cir. 2018). Summary judgment may be granted
       only if “there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the
       movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P.
       56(a). “If that standard is met, the burden shifts to the nonmoving
       party to come forward with specific facts showing that there is a
       genuine issue for trial.” Shaw v. City of Selma, 884 F.3d 1093,
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       22-12200               Opinion of the Court                        3

       1098 (11th Cir. 2018) (quotation marks omitted). “[M]ere existence
       of some alleged factual dispute between the parties will not defeat
       an otherwise properly supported motion for summary judgment;
       the requirement is that there be no genuine issue of material fact.”
       Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 247-48 (1986) (em-
       phasis in original).
              “A material fact is one that might affect the outcome of the
       suit under the governing law. A material fact is genuine if the evi-
       dence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the
       nonmoving party.” Furcron v. Mail Centers Plus, LLC, 843 F.3d
       1295, 1303 (11th Cir. 2016) (quotation marks and citation omitted).
       “All reasonable inferences arising from the undisputed facts should
       be made in favor of the nonmovant, but an inference based on spec-
       ulation and conjecture is not reasonable.” Ave. CLO Fund, Ltd. v.
       Bank of Am., N.A., 723 F.3d 1287, 1294 (11th Cir. 2013) (quotation
       marks omitted). “Because summary judgment may only be
       granted where there is no genuine issue of material fact, any pur-
       ported ‘factual findings’ of the trial court cannot be ‘factual find-
       ings’ as to disputed issues of fact, but rather are conclusions as a
       matter of law that no genuine issue of material fact exists.” Jones
       v. Am. Gen. Life & Acc. Ins. Co., 370 F.3d 1065, 1069 n.1 (11th Cir.
       2004) (alterations adopted).

                                        II.
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       4                        Opinion of the Court                22-12200

              To defeat a summary judgment motion on a Title VII dis-
       parate treatment claim, a plaintiff “must present sufficient facts to
       permit a jury to rule in her favor.” Lewis v. City of Union City,
       Ga., 918 F.3d 1213, 1220 (11th Cir. 2019) (en banc). “One way [to]
       do so is by satisfying the burden‑shifting framework set out in
       McDonnell Douglas. 1” Id. Under the McDonnell Douglas frame-
       work, when the plaintiff seeks to establish her prima facie case of
       intentional discrimination by comparing her situation to appropri-
       ate comparators—as does Shaw in this case—the plaintiff must
       show “(1) that she belongs to a protected class, (2) that she was
       subjected to an adverse employment action, (3) that she was qual-
       ified to perform the job in question, and (4) that her employer
       treated similarly situated employees outside her class more favora-
       bly.” Id. at 1220‑21 (quotation marks omitted).
               As to the fourth element, the plaintiff “must show that she
       and her comparators are similarly situated in all material respects.”
       Id. at 1226 (quotation marks omitted). Ordinarily, a similarly situ-
       ated comparator: (1) “will have engaged in the same basic conduct
       (or misconduct) as the plaintiff”; (2) “will have been subject to the
       same employment policy, guideline, or rule as the plaintiff”;
       (3) “will ordinarily (although not invariably) have been under the
       jurisdiction of the same supervisor as the plaintiff”; and (4) “will
       share the plaintiff’s employment or disciplinary history.” Id. at
       1227-28.       However, “precisely what sort of similarity

       1 McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792 (1973).
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       22-12200                Opinion of the Court                          5

       th[is] . . . standard entails will have to be worked out on a
       case‑by‑case basis, in the context of individual circumstances.” Id.
       at 1227. Where an employer took adverse action against the plain-
       tiff but not against another employee outside her class, “[t]he rele-
       vant inquiry is not whether the employees hold the same job titles,
       but whether the employer subjected them to different employ-
       ment policies.” Id. at 1227, 1231 (quotation marks omitted) (hold-
       ing that comparators were not similarly situated to the plaintiff be-
       cause they were subject to different personnel policies); Lathem v.
       Dep't of Child. & Youth Servs., 172 F.3d 786, 793 (11th Cir. 1999).
               In this case, although there are considerable differences in
       the situations of Phillips and Tichgelaar, we assume arguendo (but
       expressly do not decide) that there might be genuine issues of ma-
       terial fact as to whether Phillips and/or Tichgelaar are similarly sit-
       uated in all material respects. Thus, we assume arguendo that
       Shaw has established her prima facie case. However, as discussed
       below, we nevertheless affirm the judgment of the district court on
       the basis of its alternative holding—i.e. that the USPS proffered a
       legitimate safety reason for the challenged actions and Shaw ulti-
       mately failed to establish pretext.

                                         III.
               Under the McDonnell Douglas framework, once the plain-
       tiff successfully establishes a prima facie case of intentional discrim-
       ination, the burden shifts to the employer to rebut the presumption
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       6                      Opinion of the Court                 22-12200

       of discrimination by proffering a legitimate, non-discriminatory
       reason for its employment decision against the plaintiff. McDon-
       nell Douglas, 411 U.S. at 802. If the employer does so, the burden
       shifts back to the plaintiff to show that the employer’s stated reason
       was in fact pretext. Id. at 804. “A reason is not pretext for discrim-
       ination unless it is shown both that the reason was false, and that
       discrimination was the real reason.” Brooks, 446 F.3d at 1163 (quo-
       tation marks omitted) (emphasis in original).
               As noted above, the USPS adduced evidence of legitimate
       safety reasons for denying Shaw’s request for an accommodation
       to work with a medical boot with open toes. The USPS policy on
       which the decision was based is reasonable. After a careful review
       of the briefs and relevant parts of the summary judgment record,
       we conclude that Shaw has failed to create a genuine issue of ma-
       terial fact on the pretext issue. There is no evidence—absolutely
       zero—of any racial motivation on the part of either Blendowski or
       Steele, the only two persons who possibly could have influenced
       the challenged decision. There is simply no evidence suggesting
       that the decision was based on, or influenced by, racial discrimina-
       tion rather than safety reasons.
              Similarly, there is no merit in Shaw’s argument that a “con-
       vincing mosaic” of circumstantial evidence raises a reasonable in-
       ference that the challenged decision was based on racial discrimi-
       nation. As noted above, there is simply no evidence at all to sup-
       port that theory. Furthermore, Shaw did not raise a convincing
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       22-12200               Opinion of the Court                          7

       mosaic argument in the district court, and the argument is thus for-
       feited.
             For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of district court is
             AFFIRMED.