Court Opinion

ID: 9467624
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:52:38.721757+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:26.226957
License: Public Domain

FIELD, Senior Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
This case, which I fear is one of the first of many, portends serious problems for employers in this circuit for, to me, the caveat is clear that any management reorganization which adversely affects an employee within the age bracket of forty to seventy years will expose the employer to a costly and disruptive law suit. In my opinion, legitimate and non-discriminatory personnel decisions can be protected in such a case only by adherence to the orderly presentation of proof and even-handed instructions to the jury, bearing in mind that the ADEA proscribes only those personnel decisions in which age is the determinative factor.
I agree with the majority that the format of proof of McDonnell Douglas should not be applied inflexibly to a case tried to a jury such as the one before us, but I have serious reservations concerning the observation that “[t]he reliance on direct evidence instead of inferences obviated any need for an independent showing that Whirlpool’s asserted justifications were ‘pretextual’ ”. Ante, 1113. While the production of direct evidence might relieve the plaintiff of the necessity of proving each of the elements of a McDonnell Douglas prima facie case, it does not justify a complete departure from the sensible and orderly presentation of evidence under that case. We recognized the desireability of such a pattern in Smith v. Flax, 618 F.2d 1062 (4th Cir. 1980), when we observed:
*1116[A] prima facie showing is rebutted if the employer shows a legitimate non-discriminatory reason for the employee’s discharge. Board of Trustees v. Sweeney, 439 U.S. 24, 25 n. 2, 99 S.Ct. 295, 296 n. 2 (1978); McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 1824, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973). After the employer has come forward with such evidence, the ultimate burden of persuasion remains upon the plaintiff to show that age was a determining factor in his discharge. Loeb v. Textron, Inc., 600 F.2d 1003, 1011-12 (1st Cir. 1979); Marshall v. Airpax Elec., Inc., 595 F.2d 1043, 1044 (5th Cir. 1979); Marshall v. Westinghouse Elec. Corp., 576 F.2d 588, 592 (5th Cir. 1978) (Footnote omitted).
My examination of the record in the present case indicates that the district court’s failure to follow the basic format of proof under McDonnell Douglas made it extremely difficult for the jury to intelligently appraise the evidence in the light of the issues before it.
In a ease such as this I think we would be well advised to heed the admonitions of Judge Campbell in his thorough and perceptive opinion in Loeb v. Textron, 600 F.2d 1003, 1019 (1st Cir. 1979):
At least until the Supreme Court further clarifies when proof along the lines of the prima facie case in McDonnell Douglas is required, we would suggest that, unless the parties themselves agree otherwise, the court depart only cautiously from the general McDonnell Douglas framework in this third type of case.
Whatever the role of McDonnell Douglas in the particular case, we strongly encourage the court to go beyond the bare outlines of the issues mentioned here, and to provide the jury with a helpful and meaningful explanation of the relevance of the evidence introduced and of the interests of the parties. It would be useful to discuss the policies of the Age Discrimination Act and the plaintiff’s rights thereunder, as the court did here to some extent. The court should also, especially when a management level job is involved, explain that an employer is entitled to make its own subjective business judgments, however misguided they may appear to the jury, and to fire an employee for any reason that is not discriminatory. (Emphasis added.)
Finally, I cannot agree with the majority that the district court’s instructions properly embodied the standard of causation articulated in Loeb v. Textron, supra, and which was applied by us in Smith v. Flax, supra. In Loeb, the court stated:
we do think, however, that the court should have instructed the jury that for plaintiff to prevail he had to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that his age was the “determining factor” in his discharge in the sense that, “but for” his employer’s motive to discriminate against him because of age, he would not have been discharged. (Emphasis added.)
600 F.2d at 1019.
A reading of the charge in the present case indicates to me that the jury was permitted to return a verdict against Whirlpool merely upon its finding that the plaintiff’s age was “a factor” in his demotion.
For these reasons, I would reverse the judgment and remand this case for a new trial.