Court Opinion

ID: 9480351
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 07:45:27.662064+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:47:37.860998
License: Public Domain

DAVID A. NELSON, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I write separately to note my understanding that if Mr. Canitia had been able to show that there was a genuine issue as to whether his testimony in the Few case was a “substantial” or “motivating” factor in his discharge, the entry of summary judgment against him would have been inappropriate unless the record also showed that there was no genuine issue as to the fact, asserted by the employer, that Mr. Canitia would have been discharged anyway. Mount Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle, 429 U.S. 274, 97 S.Ct. 568, 50 L.Ed.2d 471 (1977); Rule 56, Fed.R.Civ.P.; cf. Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, 490 U.S.-, 109 S.Ct. 1775, 104 L.Ed.2d 268 (1989). Although I initially thought that the state of the record was such as to bar summary judgment on whether the Few testimony was a substantial factor in the discharge, the analysis set forth in the instant opinion persuades me that if the case went to trial, there is no way Mr. Canitia could carry his burden of proof on that issue. Given the demands now being made on the time of most district courts, it seems to me that a full-scale trial in a case as lopsided as this one would probably be a misallocation of judicial resources.