Court Opinion

ID: 9494077
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:28:46.462529+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:08.012423
License: Public Domain

DIANE P. WOOD, Circuit Judge, concurring in the judgment.
It may be true that there are some people so obtuse that they cannot recognize the condition of a woman six or seven months along in her pregnancy, and that there are some pregnancies that are not detectable until the day of delivery. These, however, are the rare cases. I make this point in order to disagree with the majority’s conclusion, ante at 1007, that “the record does not support Clay’s allegation that Seliga knew about her pregnancy before he selected her for the RIF.” To the contrary, as the district court recognized and as even the majority’s opinion tacitly acknowledges, there are genuinely disputed issues of fact about the state of his knowledge.
The record shows that Pamela Clay became pregnant in late October 1997 and that she delivered a full-term baby in mid-July 1998. It also shows, according to Clay’s affidavit, that she had become visibly pregnant by February 1998. This is not only a fact of which Clay obviously had personal knowledge; it is one she was willing to back up with contemporaneous photographs of herself, which she proffered at the summary judgment stage. Beyond that, common experience suggests that most women are “showing” well before that time, as a brief glance at the *1010patrons in a maternity clothing store would confirm. The record, taken in the light most favorable to Clay’s position, also shows that she attended either two or three hospital conferences or meetings with Bill Seliga between February 1998 and before April 1998, when he became engaged in the RIF process. The majority’s opinion does not take issue with any of these points. See ante at 1004. Instead, it appears to place decisive weight on the fact that Clay did not “disclose” (verbally) her pregnancy to Seliga until May 6, 1998, approximately two months before she delivered the baby. A trier of fact might believe Seliga’s story that he (a hospital manager) was oblivious to Clay’s visible pregnancy at the time of those meetings, but a trier of fact with the photographs in front of it equally might find such a story incredible. I see no warrant for the majority’s decision to resolve this issue of fact in the Hospital’s favor, at the summary judgment stage. Indeed, in light of its subsequent discussion of pretext, this part of the opinion is little more than dicta in any event. I would find that Clay successfully established her prima facie case of discrimination.
This case turns, as so many do, on the issue of pretext. If we now assume that Seliga knew that Clay was pregnant, lied about his knowledge, and chose her for termination in the RIF procedure, is this enough to cast doubt on the other reasons the Hospital proffered for asking Clay to leave? That, I believe, is a much closer question. The Hospital points to substantial evidence all of which shows that Clay was not the kind of “team player” or financial performer it wanted. Clay has made two mistaken assumptions here. First, she apparently believes that her case is won if she can prove that Seliga was lying about his knowledge of her condition; that, however, is not true. The question remains whether that lie is enough to taint all the rest of the Hospital’s evidence about its reasons for including her in the RIF. It is not, as the majority explains, if an untainted reason remains that independently supports the employment decision. Second, Clay appears to think that the way to raise a genuine issue of fact on the pretext question is to present evidence that would refute the Hospital’s ultimate conclusion that she was not likely to be a good doctor, a good business generator, and a good financial risk. That, too, is not correct; the question instead is whether there is any evidence that suggests that these were not bona fide reasons for the Hospital’s actions. If the Hospital wanted people to attend its own marketing events rather than addressing the topic of marketing with a free-lance approach, it was entitled to take this position. Clay’s earnings hardly made her a star among the doctors; she was instead squarely in the middle, ranked financially as number 32 out of 70. For these reasons, as well as the others the majority discusses in the opinion, ante at 1007-09, I would affirm the district court’s decision on the basis that Dr. Clay has not raised a genuine issue of material fact on the question of pretext. I therefore concur in the judgment.