Court Opinion

ID: 9489515
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:17:39.318832+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:53:34.424585
License: Public Domain

BAUER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The opinion states: ‘Wohl admits that he did not produce accurate and reliable job costing reports for Spectrum. This is, however, only half of the story. Wohl alleges that general manager Greg Reuhs was responsible for the system’s failure. Wohl also claims that he complained to Spectrum’s management about Reuhs’ actions and that Spectrum’s management instructed him to get along with, and defer to, Reuhs. This allegation is significant because, if true (and we must assume for purposes of summary judgment that it is true), it creates a genuine issue of material fact regarding whether Spectrum’s proffered reason for firing Wohl was a pretext for age discrimination.”
I simply cannot accept this. The brief of appellant Wohl accurately reflects the complaint he made about Reuhs. Wohls’ affidavit says that he questioned Reuhs’ practices as “manipulating department profitability” and “preventing management from seeing a true picture of department profit and loss.” The affidavit recites that Wohl brought this matter to the attention of Spectrum management early on in his tenure, within 6 to 9 months after he was hired, “even before DCD was implemented.” This was at the luncheon when Wohl was “specifically told to get along with and defer to Reuhs.” There is nothing in the record to support the statement that “Spectrum knew that Reuhs’ actions prevented Wohl from implementing the DCD system....” The complaint about Reuhs from Wohl came many months before the DCD system was purchased.
The fact is, the DCD system was put to work — satisfactorily—by Reuhs’ successor. Wohl, who acknowledged in his deposition that it was his responsibility to implement the DCD equipment, also acknowledged that he was never capable of utilizing the $100,000 DCD to provide accurate and reliable costing reports for Spectrum. There is nothing to suggest that Spectrum was told by Wohl that the DCD problem was caused by some hanky-panky or shortcomings of Reuhs’— Wohl’s beef about Reuhs was long before the company even acquired the DCD and that complaint could not possibly be considered as creating a fact question as to whether Spec-tram’s proffered reason was a pretext for age discrimination.
There is simply no way of stretching a statement, “I didn’t do what the company expected but it wasn’t my fault,” into an age discrimination claim. I do not know, nor is it significant in terms of this law suit, whether Reuhs was a terrible supervisor or Wohl a malcontent. Wohl admits that he didn’t produce “accurate and reliable job costing reports for Spectrum.” That provides the basis for the firing and not any implication of age discrimination.
And, in passing, I hesitate to join an opinion that would force a company to pause *360before giving a pay raise to an employee lest it be used to create an element of job tenure that cannot be overcome in the event the employee bogs down and the company wishes to fire him or her. Giving an incentive pay raise to stimulate work is not unknown nof is it even suspicious. (Both Reuhs and Wohl received 25 percent pay raises.) The stimulus was a failure; three months later the job costing reports were still not produced. All of this is uncontroverted. Whether Wohl couldn’t produce the work because he was inept or couldn’t produce the work because it was Reuhs’ fault is immaterial; the company believed — and Wohl admitted — that he couldn’t do what the job required and so he got fired. And when Reuhs couldn’t do it, he got fired.
The record in this case, in the best light for the plaintiff, should not survive a motion for a directed verdict for the defendant if the case is tried. Whether Wohl agreed with the decision of the company to give him the gate and keep Reuhs and whether we agree with that business decision, is not relevant to the proceeding. I would affirm.