Court Opinion

ID: 9624036
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 06:49:02.485355+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:53:58.230701
License: Public Domain

WALKER, Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion which concludes there was reversible error in the jury instructions as given by the trial court and grants plaintiff a new trial. I agree with the majority opinion which holds that plaintiff presented no direct evidence of discrimination and the case is more properly categorized as a pretext case.
In a pretext case, the jury must determine whether the employer “ ‘intentionally discriminated against [the employee]’ because of his race.” St. Mary’s Honor Ctr. v. Hicks, 509 U.S. 502, 511, 125 L. Ed. 2d 407, 418 (1993) (quoting Texas Dept. of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 253, 67 L. Ed. 2d 207 (1981)). See also Fuller v. Phipps, 67 F.3d 1137, 1141 (4th Cir. 1995); Mullen v. Princess Anne Volunteer Fire Co., Inc., 853 F.2d 1130, 1137 (4th Cir. 1988). In Fuller, the plaintiff was alleging race discrimination. The court reviewed the *88jury instructions which asked the jury to determine whether “his race was the determinative factor” and whether “but for the fact that he is black he would have been reappointed.” Fuller, 67 F.3d at 1141 (emphasis added). Further, the jury was instructed that “if [the employer] chose not to hire Fuller for any other reason, then Fuller cannot recover.” Id. (emphasis added). The instructions concluded with the jury having to decide whether “race was a determinative factor in Fuller not being hired.” Id. (emphasis added). The court held that those jury instructions, taken as a whole, did not rise to the level of reversible error. Id. at 1145. The court also specifically recognized that “the ‘but for’ instruction is an accurate one in pretext cases.” Id. at 1144.
In the present case, the jury instructions given were similar to those in Fuller. The jury was asked to determine whether the termination of the plaintiff was “on account of his race or on account of his filing discrimination charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.” (emphasis added). The jury was further instructed that “employers are prohibited from treating employees differently because of their race.” (emphasis added). This instruction is an accurate statement of the law in pretext cases. See Hicks, 509 U.S. at 511, 125 L. Ed. 2d at 418; Fuller, 67 F.3d at 1141; Mullen, 853 F.2d at 1137. The phrase “because of” was approved by the U.S. Supreme Court in Hicks. Hicks, 509 U.S. at 511, 125 L. Ed. 2d at 418.
The question in the present case then becomes whether the phrase “on account of’ is sufficiently similar to the approved language “because of’ and “but for” when construing the jury instructions as a whole. Jury instructions should' be a “straightforward explanation” of the law made in a “simple fashion.” Mullen, 853 F.2d at 1137, 1138. In the common vernacular, the phrases “but for,” “because of,” and “on account of’ are used interchangeably. Using language which is in the common vernacular and easily understood by the jury, such as “on account of’ and “because of,” is a proper means of instructing the jury on the law it is to' apply to the facts. Just as the “but for” instruction in Fuller “restates in different language the court’s unobjectionable ‘a determinative factor’ instruction,” the “on account of” instruction in this case restates the same unobjectionable instruction. Fuller, 67 F.3d at 1144.
Although the plaintiff has cast his proposed jury instructions under the title “Circumstantial Evidence — Pretext,” he did not submit an accurate statement of law to be applied in pretext cases. The plain*89tiff tendered instructions which state in part: “The plaintiff need not establish that race and/or retaliation was the sole factor motivating the defendant. Other factors may have motivated the Defendant as well.” However, this proposed instruction on the “sole factor” and “other factors” is to be applied in a mixed-motive case rather than in a pretext case as here. See Fuller, 67 F.3d at 1141 (explaining that instruction based on statutory language, which reads in part: “race . . . was a motivating factor for any employment practice, even though other factors also motivated the practice,” was “meant to apply only in mixed-motive cases, not in pretext cases”).
Because the plaintiff did not present sufficient evidence to make out a mixed-motive case, this case is properly categorized as a pretext case. As in Fuller, the jury instructions, when taken as a whole, “plainly put before the jury the appropriate standards of liability in a pretext case.” Fuller, 67 F.3d at 1145. Thus, jury instructions using the phrases “on account of’ and “because of’ when stating the law to be applied in pretext cases do not rise to the level of reversible error.