Emmanuel Noel v. The Boeing Co..

• Decision Date: 18 October 2010
• Docket Number: No. 08-3877.,08-3877.
• Parties: Emmanuel NOEL, Appellant v. THE BOEING COMPANY.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

622 F.3d 266

Emmanuel NOEL, Appellant

v.THE BOEING COMPANY.

No. 08-3877.

United States Court of Appeals,Third Circuit.

Submitted Jan. 26, 2010.

Opinion Filed: Oct. 1, 2010.

As Amended Oct. 18, 2010.

Albert J. Michell, Esq., Albert J. Michell, PC, Philadelphia, PA, Attorney for Appellant.

Thomas K. Johnson II, Esq., Leora F. Eisenstadt, Esq., Dechert LLP, Philadelphia, PA, Attorneys for Appellees.

Before: FUENTES, FISHER, Circuit Judges, and KANE, District Judge. ^*

OPINION OF THE COURT

FUENTES, Circuit Judge:

Defendant, the Boeing Company, filed a pretrial motion for summary judgment with the District Court, which was granted in part and denied in part. The District Court then conducted a four-day bench trial. During the trial, Boeing presented a motion for judgment on partial findings of fact, which was also granted n part and denied in part. After the trial, the District Court entered judgment in favor of Boeing on all counts. Plaintiff, Emmanuel Noel appeals these rulings, arguing that the recently enacted Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 renders his otherwise out-of-time administrative filing timely, preserving his failure to promote claim. For the following reasons, we will affirm the District Court's rulings.

I.

A. Background

Noel is a black Haitian national, who began working for Boeing in 1990 as a sheet metal assembler at its Ridley Park, Pennsylvania facility. ¹ Noel was hired at Labor Grade 5 and repaired Chinook 47 aircraft. The terms of Noel's employment were governed by a collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”) between Boeing and the International Union of United Automobile Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America Local 1069, as well as internal Boeing policies.

Boeing employees were occasionally offered an opportunity to work at offsite locations. Because employees working offsite received greater pay, per diems and additional training, offsite positions were coveted and individuals volunteered for these assignments. Any promotions and corresponding raises were limited to the duration of the offsite assignment. According to the CBA that governed Noel's employment, seniority was not the only factor that Boeing considered when assigning workers offsite. Rather, skill and ability were the determining factors, and seniority was only considered when those factors were equal.

Noel took his first offsite assignment in 1991 at a Boeing facility in Shreveport, Louisiana; this lasted approximately six months. Although he sought an offsite assignment in May 2002, Noel was not assigned offsite again until November 2002, when he was designated an aircraft mechanic to work on modifications to the V-22 Osprey at the Bell Helicopter facility in Amarillo, Texas. That assignment resulted in Noel's labor grade rising from 7 to 8; he also received a $57 per diem. After two weeks of working in Amarillo, Noel's salary was increased from $26.11 per hour to $28.75 per hour.

Around the same time, Chris Carlin and Gary Newman, both white employees, were also assigned to Amarillo from the Ridley Park facility. They too were reclassified from Labor Grade 7 aircraft assemblers to offsite mechanics at Labor Grade 8. After working in Amarillo for seven months, Carlin and Newman were promoted to Offsite Mechanic General, Labor Grade 11, while Noel remained at the lower paying Grade 8. In September 2003, Noel complained about these promotions to a union representative and a Boeing labor relations representative. His complaints went unanswered. Noel filed a Title VII suit against Boeing and one of its managers alleging discrimination based on race and national origin. On March 25, 2005, Noel filed a formal grievance with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”).

On June 20, 2006, Noel filed a four-count Title VII complaint against Boeing. He thereafter amended the complaint. Count I of the Amended Complaint accused Boeing of intentional discrimination and disparate treatment based on Noel's race and national origin. Count II raised the same issue under the Pennsylvania Human Rights Act. Count III levied a retaliation claim against Boeing, and Count IV demanded punitive damages. These claims were based on several specific incidents referenced by Noel in his complaint. Relevant to this appeal, Noel complained: (1) that Boeing did not send him offsite to Amarillo in May 2002 when white, non-Haitian employees who held the same job as Noel but were junior to him were sent offsite; and (2) in 2003, while offsite at Amarillo, he was promoted to Labor Grade 8 while his junior, white, U.S.-born co-workers were promoted to Labor Grade 11. ²

B. The District Court's Ruling

Before trial, Boeing filed a motion for summary judgment. The District Court granted that motion as it related to Noel's claim that Boeing violated Title VII when it failed to send him offsite to Amarillo in May 2002 and when he was not promoted to offsite mechanic Labor Grade 11 in 2003, holding that this claim was time-barred since Noel did not file a charge of discrimination with the EEOC until March 2005, well outside the 300-day statutory time period. At the subsequent bench trial, the District Court also granted Defendant's motion for Judgment on Partial Findings on Noel's claim that he should have been promoted to lead mechanic upon his return to Ridley Park. Judgment was also awarded in Boeing's favor regarding Noel's erroneous placement on Boeing's offsite list, which stymied his promotion, since Defendant subsequently promoted Noel and awarded him backpay.

Next, the District Court granted judgment in Defendant's favor on Noel's claim that race- and national origin-based discrimination animated Boeing's decision not to transfer him to the position of offsite material handler while it did transfer Carlin and Newman. Although the District Court noted that Noel had established a prima facie case of discrimination, it nonetheless granted judgment in Defendant's favor because Boeing successfully rebutted that case. Specifically, the District Court found credible Boeing's assertion that the sole reason Carlin and Newman were sent offsite to work as material handlers was because they were the “only employees who directly expressed interest in and volunteered for the jobs and that in doing so, it followed the Collective Bargaining Agreement guidelines to the letter.... As [Noel] himself acknowledges, he never sought to have another job in Amarillo other than the one which he was then performing-mechanic.” (App. at 39-40.) Thus, the District Court granted judgment in Defendant's favor because Noel did not “convince” it that Boeing's stated reason for moving Carlin and Newman offsite was false and “that discrimination was the real reason for the decision.” ( Id. at 40.) ³

II.

The only aspect of the District Court's ruling that Noel challenges is its determination that he failed to administratively preserve his claim that, in 2003, Defendant failed to promote him to Offsite Mechanic General Labor Grade 11 in violation of Title VII. ⁴ According to Noel, because of this discriminatory employment action, he received less pay than his white co-workers throughout his time at the Amarillo plant. Noel contends that the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 (“FPA”) ⁵ makes clear that “in pay discrimination matters an unlawful employment practice occurs each time an individual is affected by application of a discriminatory compensation decision.” Appellant's Br. at 8. Noel argues that the District Court erred as a matter of law when it granted summary judgment in Defendant's favor since Boeing's failure to promote him resulted in lower pay, and, therefore, each paycheck he received started the administrative clock anew.

Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act makes it unlawful for an employer “to ... discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment ... or ... to limit ... or classify his employees ... in any way which would deprive ... any individual of employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect his status as an employee, because of such individual's race ... or national origin.” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1)-(2). Before filing a claim in federal court, a Title VII plaintiff in Pennsylvania must file a charge of discrimination with the EEOC within 300 days of the alleged unlawful employment practice. See Mikula, 583 F.3d at 183; 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(e)(1). If a claimant fails to exhaust his or her claim within the requisite time period, that claim is administratively barred. This statute of limitations applies to discrete employment actions, including promotion decisions. See Nat'l R.R. Passenger Corp. v. Morgan, 536 U.S. 101, 114, 122 S.Ct. 2061, 153 L.Ed.2d 106 (2002).

Here, the adverse employment actions Noel complained of occurred between July and September 2003. Because Noel did not file his EEOC charge until March 25, 2005, well after the 300-day time period expired, the District Court ruled that any claims of discrimination stemming from the 2003 employment decisions were barred as a matter of law. Nevertheless, Noel argues that the FPA revives his claim since each paycheck he received during the requisite time period started the administrative clock ticking anew.

Congress passed the FPA in response to the Supreme Court's decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Inc., which held that “pay-setting” was a discrete act and therefore the period for filing an EEOC claim commences when the unlawful act occurs. 550 U.S. 618, 621, 127 S.Ct. 2162, 167 L.Ed.2d 982 (2007), superseded, in part, by statute, Fair Pay Act of 2009, Pub. L. No. 111-2, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(e)(3), as recognized in Mikula, 583 F.3d at 183-84, 186. Ledbetter worked for Goodyear from 1979 until 1998; she introduced evidence at trial that throughout her employment, Goodyear supervisors evaluated her poorly because of her sex, resulting in lower pay than if her evaluations...