Court Opinion

ID: 9482112
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:40:33.857473+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:46.233837
License: Public Domain

KENNEDY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
Because the majority expands the scope of so-called “mixed-motive” discrimination under Title VII past its limits, I respectfully dissent.
Title VII forbids an employer to “discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual's race.” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(l) (emphasis added). The source of my disagreement with the majority concerns whether, accepting the magistrate judge’s factual findings, Simpson has shown that he was discharged “because of” his race under Title VII.
*161This case involves three separate incidents for which Roosevelt Simpson was disciplined by his employer for violations of company rules, culminating in his discharge. The trial judge found as a fact that there was no racial animus or evidence of any racial bias on the part of the actual decision makers who disciplined plaintiff on the three occasions, including his discharge. The magistrate judge therefore found that defendant had carried its burden of proving that the ultimate decision to discipline plaintiff on each of the three occasions would have been made in the absence of any racial animus. This is a factual finding which is not clearly erroneous.
The only evidence of racial animus which the lower court substantially credited was the testimony of Mark Eckhart, that Richard Ruckman used a racial epithet when referring to plaintiff. The remarks were made in the office where Ruckman was doing his paper work and accompanied by Ruckman’s complaints that the plaintiff was lazy and not doing his job. Simpson was not present.
The sole finding of the lower court with respect to racial animus is “I find that Ruckman had on occasion used that term [a racial epithet], and that such use manifests some perceptible degree of racial animus.” Magistrate Judge’s Opinion at 13.1 It found that this racial animus “played a role in Ruckman’s response to the second incident” which, taken together with the first incident, led to the Last Chance Agreement, the violation of which led to Simpson’s discharge. Id. at 13-14.2
The majority finds that “Ruckman disciplined Simpson in February 1987 because of his race.” Majority at 160. The lower court did not make that finding. Rather, it found only that racial animus played “a role" in Ruckman’s response to the incident. The evidence showed that whites were also disciplined for insubordination or for being away from their departments. The magistrate judge made the findings that plaintiff was insubordinate without cause on this second occasion and that plaintiff’s contention that he had been permitted to take a break in that area was not supported by credible evidence. The discharge after the second incident was grieved. Plaintiff agreed to the Last Chance Agreement at a grievance hearing. The lower court rejected plaintiff’s testimony that he entered into that agreement involuntarily.
The majority does not question the magistrate judge’s finding that Simpson was insubordinate or that the conduct was grounds for discharge or that the decision to discharge was made not by Ruckman, but was made by his superiors who were not motivated by racial animus. Rather, the Court is adopting some sort of a “but for” causation test in order to classify this as a mixed-motive discrimination case. Apparently, the majority’s syllogism is as follows: (1) “but for” Ruckman’s racial animus, Simpson’s violation of company rules at the time of the second incident would have been overlooked by Ruckman and would not have come to the attention of the actual decision makers; (2) the second incident was a factor in the ultimate decision to discharge Simpson (as one of the three *162separate infractions that together led to the decision to discharge); and, therefore (3) Simpson was discharged “because of” his race.
Suppose the misconduct had been a theft which was reported by a fellow employee in part due to racial animus. A neutral decision maker then decided to discharge based on the theft. Under the majority’s reasoning, that discharge would be “because of” race. Here the causation is far more attenuated, as it was the combined effect of three separate infractions that led to Simpson’s dismissal. The lower court found that racial animus played no part in the first and third incidents that led to Simpson’s dismissal. Nor is there any question but that Simpson was guilty of the second infraction and the final decision maker in that episode harbored no racial animus.
Under the test of causation adopted by the majority today, if any part of an employee’s disciplinary record can be shown to have been influenced by racial animus— apparently even where the employee was guilty of misconduct on such occasion — any subsequent action taken by an unbiased decision maker who is considering the entire record is a decision “because of” race under Title VII. Surely that is not the law. The “but for” test is not the test of legal causation ordinarily used in tort law because it is over-inclusive. It is over-inclusive here.3
The majority fails to recognize that the focus of the causation question itself must be on the decision maker making the challenged employment decision. The majority focuses on the supervisor’s response to the second incident. However, the challenged employment decision is Simpson’s final discharge.4 Once the question is properly framed, the flaw in the majority’s causation analysis becomes clear.
In discussing when a case becomes a mixed-motive case under Title VII, the Supreme Court has held that “[t]he critical inquiry, the one commanded by the words of § 703(a)(1) [of Title VII], is whether [the illegitimate consideration] was a factor in the employment decision at the moment it was made.” Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, 490 U.S. 228, 241, 109 S.Ct. 1775, 1785, 104 L.Ed.2d 268 (1989) (Brennan, J. plurality opinion) (emphasis in original). See also id. at 241, 109 S.Ct. at 1785 (“When, therefore, an employer considers both gender and legitimate factors at the time of making a decision, that decision was ‘because of’ sex_”) (emphasis added); id. at 250, 109 S.Ct. at 1790 (“In saying that gender played a motivating part in an employment decision, we mean that, if we asked the employer at the moment of the decision what its reasons were and if we received a truthful response, one *163of those reasons would be that the applicant or employee was a woman.”) (emphasis added); id. at 246 n. 11, 109 S.Ct. at 1788 n. 11 (the focus is on whether “gender was a factor in a particular decision when it was made”) (emphasis added).
Here it has been found that racial animus played no part in any of the following decisions: (1) the decision to file a report regarding the first incident; (2) the decision to discharge Simpson after the second incident; (3) the decision to allow Simpson to return to work if he signed a Last Chance Agreement; (4) the decision to report the third incident; and (5) the decision to discharge Simpson after he violated the Last Chance Agreement. It is the final decision listed here, to discharge Simpson, which is being challenged. Under the Supreme Court’s analysis the critical question is as follows: Was race a factor in the decision to discharge Simpson following the third incident, at the moment the decision to discharge was made? The magistrate judge answered this question “no.” Therefore, I would hold that this is not a mixed-motive case as no prima facie case has been shown to establish that Simpson was discharged “because of” his race.
Finally, the magistrate judge concluded that defendant met its burden of proof that the “same ultimate decision would have been made in the absence of the racial animus that appears to have motivated Ruckman’s suspension of the plaintiff prior to the Last Chance Agreement.” Magistrate Judge’s Opinion at 14. That factual conclusion was not clearly erroneous and should be upheld.
The judgment in favor of Diversitech should be AFFIRMED.

. The court did not find, as the majority asserts, that Ruckman "often” racially slurred Simpson. Majority at 158. The majority also credits the testimony of several witnesses respecting Ruck-man’s racial animosity. Id. However, the magistrate judge in his opinion painstakingly summarized the testimony of each of those witnesses and found it to be substantially unbelievable, crediting the testimony only to the extent that it corroborated Eckhart that Ruckman had "on occasion” used the racial epithet "nigger."
The racial discrimination about which other of plaintiff’s witnesses testified and which was found not credible by the magistrate judge was that Ruckman disciplined black employees but not white employees. However, the discipline records showed that both black and white employees were in fact disciplined for unauthorized absence from their departments or for insubordination. Of the 39 disciplinary actions, discipline was given to 15 Whites, 6 Blacks and 3 Hispanics. Only one other employee was discharged for these offenses and he was white. Simpson did not produce evidence that any specific white employee was not disciplined for conduct similar to his own.

. I note that the lower court never found nor implied that Ruckman had engaged in any efforts to discharge Simpson.

. The prevailing pattern of American legal thought is that “but for” cause is a necessary but not sufficient ground for establishing legal causation. See, e.g., Restatement (Second) of Torts §§ 430-433, and comments (1965); 4 Harper, James and Gray, The Law of Torts ch. 20 (2d ed. 1986); H. Hart and A. Honoré, Causation in the Law chs. IV, V (2d ed. 1985); Prosser and Kee-ton on the Law of Torts §§ 41-44 (5th ed. 1984). I see no reason why causation in Title VII cases should be treated differently, nor has the majority articulated any reason for its departure from the causation principles historically applied in such cases.
It is true that the Supreme Court in McDonald v. Santa Fe Trail Transportation Co., 427 U.S. 273, 282 n. 10, 96 S.Ct. 2574, 2580 n. 10, 49 L.Ed.2d 493 (1976), stated that when a Title VII plaintiff seeks to show that an employer’s explanation for a challenged employment decision is pretextual, "no more is required to be shown than that race was a 'but for' cause.” However, as the Price Waterhouse Court pointed out, McDonald dealt with the question whether the employer’s stated reason for the challenged employment decision was a pretext. 490 U.S. at 240 n. 6, 109 S.Ct. at 1785 n. 6. Here, on the other hand, there is no claim that Diversitech used Simpson’s three rules violations as a pretext for race discrimination. The only question is whether Ruckman's response to the second incident can fairly be said to be the "cause" of Simpson’s discharge.

. Even if Simpson is viewed as challenging the discipline he received following the second incident itself, the result is the same because it has been found that "Ruckman played no role in the final decisions that were implemented following each of the incidents.” Magistrate Judge's Opinion at 14 (emphasis added). William Dudgeon, the Director of Human Relations for Diversi-tech, made the final disciplinary decision following the second incident. Id. The majority does not hold these findings clearly erroneous.