Court Opinion

ID: 9494184
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:31:31.365014+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:56:16.072827
License: Public Domain

STRAUB, Circuit Judge,
dissenting in part.
I concur with the majority opinion in all but one respect. However, because I believe that the District Court correctly dismissed Ms. Holtz’s claim of age discrimination based on RCI’s failure to train, I respectfully dissent from that portion of the majority opinion.
Ms. Holtz claims that RCI discriminated against her because of her age when it failed to train her in the principles of accounting. She alleges that the company promised that it would train her to be an accountant; but that promise was never fulfilled because her supervisor preferred to train younger women. To support her claim, she relies solely on statements attributed to her supervisor that he preferred to train only younger women. As noted by the majority, this claim must be assessed according to the burden shifting framework of McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973). Under that framework, if RCI is able to proffer a legitimate, non-discriminatory justification for its actions, the burden shifts to Ms. Holtz to prove discrimination by demonstrating that the justification proffered by RCI was pretextual. See, e.g., Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Prods., Inc., 530 U.S. 133, 143, 120 S.Ct. 2097, 147 L.Ed.2d 105 (2000). This, I believe, is where Ms. Holtz’s claim falls short.
To set the stage for this claim, it should be remembered' that Ms. Holtz made it abundantly clear that she had no intention of remaining at RCI or ever serving in an accountant position for the company. Although trained as a lawyer, Ms. Holtz accepted a position at RCI as a temporary secretary and later as an invoice processor. While there she openly interviewed for positions with other companies and announced her intention to remain at RCI only until she found a position more suitable to her interests and education. The evidence clearly shows that she wanted neither to remain an invoice processor nor become an accountant with RCI. Despite all this, she now seeks monetary damages because the company discriminated against her when it did not invest in training her in the principles of accounting.
In response, RCI asserts that it did not train Ms. Holtz for an accountant position because she was unqualified for such a position. According to company policy, only persons with accounting degrees are qualified to be company accountants. Although the evidence supporting RCI’s claimed policy is far from overwhelming, it is uncontroverted and I believe sufficient to satisfy RCI’s burden. For example, at least two RCI executives, including the company’s manager of personnel, asserted in affidavits that accounting degrees were a prerequisite for accountant positions within the company. Because Ms. Holtz concedes that she does not possess the prerequisite accounting degree, RCI was justified in not training Ms. Holtz for a position for which she was not qualified.
Once RCI made its requisite showing, the burden shifted to Ms. Holtz to produce *86evidence that the justification cited by RCI was pretextual. She could do this, for example, by demonstrating that other similarly situated persons were provided with the training that she desired. While Ms. Holtz cites several other individuals to whom RCI provided accounting training, none are similarly situated because all had the requisite education to qualify for an accounting position. Nor did Ms. Holtz offer any other evidence suggesting that RCI did not in fact have or enforce the claimed policy.
To be clear, although Ms. Holtz’s claim is that she was denied promised training in accounting because of her age rather than being denied the opportunity to serve in the position of an accountant, this is a distinction without meaning. It is true that RCI cannot deny an employee benefit (such as training) because of the age of an employee. But the question here is whether RCI met its burden under McDonnell Douglas by providing a legitimate, non-discriminatory justification for not training Ms. Holtz. Surely, a company may legitimately decide to not invest in training an employee (particularly an employee who has no intention of remaining with the company) for a position that the employee can never hold. In order to create a genuine factual issue for jury determination, Ms. Holtz must rebut that justification. This Ms. Holtz has not done.
Thus, even if a jury were to credit all of Ms. Holtz’s allegations — which are little more than uncorroborated second hand statements attributed to her supervisor— the independent reason cited by RCI for not training Ms. Holtz (she was not qualified) would still provide a non-diserimina-tory justification for its actions. It, I believe, is inadequate for Ms. Holtz to simply point to the evidence which established her prima facie case when that evidence does not rebut the independent and sufficient justification offered by RCI. In the absence of evidence rebutting RCI’s nondiscriminatory policy, summary judgment on this claim was entirely appropriate.
Accordingly, I believe that the District Court properly dismissed this claim.1

. Of course, if RCI made specific promises to train Ms. Holtz in order to induce her to accept employment, these promises may constitute contractual obligations which were breached by RCI. But a claim based on contract law is very different from a discrimination claim. Broken promises should not preclude the District Court from dismissing her discrimination claim.