Shannon v. Ford Motor Co.

• Decision Date: 03 January 1996
• Docket Number: No. 95-1092,95-1092
• Parties: 69 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1339 Frangena A. SHANNON, Appellant, v. FORD MOTOR CO., a Delaware Corporation, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 678

72 F.3d 678

69 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1339

Frangena A. SHANNON, Appellant, v. FORD MOTOR CO., a Delaware Corporation, Appellee.

No. 95-1092.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Oct. 20, 1995.

Decided Jan. 3, 1996.

Thomas E. McEllistrem, St. Paul, Minnesota, argued (Bonnie J. Bennett, on the brief), for appellant.

Paul Edward Donnelly, Kansas City, Missouri, argued (David L. Heinemann and Scott C. Hecht, on the brief), for appellee.

Before RICHARD S. ARNOLD, Chief Judge, WOLLMAN and MORRIS SHEPPARD ARNOLD, Circuit Judges.

RICHARD S. ARNOLD, Chief Judge.

Fragena A. Shannon, an African-American woman, claims Ford Motor Company failed to promote her to supervisor because of her race and sex. She appeals the District Court's ¹ order granting summary judgment for Ford. The District Court held that Ms. Shannon had failed to establish a prima facie case of race discrimination under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1981, and that she had not exhausted her administrative remedies for her Title VII sex-discrimination claim. We affirm.

I.

In early 1985, Ms. Shannon was an "assembler" at Ford's Twin Cities plant. Assemblers are "non-skilled" workers, paid by the hour. In March, Ms. Shannon learned that Ford was accepting applications for salaried, supervisor positions, and she applied for the job. Ms. Shannon successfully completed the required skill-assessment process, which Ford calls the "Manufacturing Supervisor Selection System" ("MSSS"), and Ford put her on the waiting list for a supervisor position. Also in 1985, Ms. Shannon applied for an apprenticeship in the skilled-trades program operated jointly by Ford and her union, the United Auto, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America ("UAW"). She once again passed the required tests, and was placed on another, entirely separate, waiting list for placement as an apprentice.

In the Fall of 1987, after ten months' absence from work due to a broken ankle, Ms. Shannon was offered a position as an apprentice electrician. She was told, however, that she could not stay on the supervisor waiting list if she accepted the apprenticeship; she had to pick one or the other. Ms. Shannon says she protested, asking why she had to give up her spot on the list. Still, she decided to accept the apprenticeship because "[she] didn't want to pass up the opportunity of going into the skilled trades...." Ford then took her name off the list, and Ms. Shannon never tried to get back in line for a supervisor position.

In August 1989, Ms. Shannon filed a complaint with the St. Paul Department of Human Rights, alleging race and sex discrimination. She claimed that "throughout my apprenticeship ... I have been subjected to harassment and differential treatment." ² The Department, however, found "no probable cause" for her allegations. ³ Ms. Shannon lodged another complaint, also claiming race and sex discrimination, with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") in November, 1989. In February 1992, the EEOC gave Ms. Shannon the right to sue.

In her three-count complaint, Ms. Shannon charged Ford with sex discrimination in violation of Title VII, race discrimination under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1981, and "reprisal discrimination" under the Minnesota Human Rights Act, Minn.Stat. Sec. 363.01 et seq., and Title VII. All three counts rested on the same allegations: Ms. Shannon claimed that (1) she was subjected to a sexually hostile and abusive environment in the skilled-trades program; (2) she was not given adequate training in the program; (3) male apprentices enjoyed preferential treatment in training, education, and work assignments; and, finally, (4) she was not promoted to supervisor. Ford moved for summary judgment. In August 1994, the District Court granted Ford's motion on Ms. Shannon's failure-to-promote claims, but, after reviewing the litany of alleged insulting incidents during her apprenticeship, the Court denied the motion in all other respects. ⁴

Ms. Shannon now appeals the District Court's decision, claiming that the Court erred by deciding that her failure-to-promote claim was not "reasonably related" to the sex-discrimination charges she filed with the EEOC, and by finding that she did not establish a prima facie case that Ford failed to promote her because of her race. We review the District Court's order granting summary judgment de novo.

II.

Using the ubiquitous three-step burden-shifting framework set out in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973), the District Court held that Ms. Shannon failed to establish a prima facie case of race discrimination. To raise a presumption of discrimination in failure-to-promote cases, a plaintiff must show that (1) she is a member of a protected group; (2) she was qualified and applied for a promotion to an available position; (3) she was rejected; and (4) similarly situated employees, not part of the protected group, were promoted instead. Patterson v. McLean Credit Union, 491 U.S. 164, 186-87, 109 S.Ct. 2363, 2377-78, 105 L.Ed.2d 132 (1989); Marzec v. Marsh, 990 F.2d 393, 395-96 (8th Cir.1993). If a plaintiff establishes her prima facie case, the burden of production shifts to the employer, who must rebut the presumption of discrimination with evidence "that the plaintiff was rejected, or someone else was preferred, for a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason." Texas Department of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 254, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 1094, 67 L.Ed.2d 207 (1981). Once the employer meets its burden, the plaintiff may win by pointing to evidence which, if believed, would expose the employer's reason as a mere pretext for intentional discrimination. Krenik v. County of Le Sueur, 47 F.3d 953, 958 (8th Cir.1995) (citing St. Mary's Honor Center v. Hicks, --- U.S. ----, ----, 113 S.Ct. 2742, 2747, 125 L.Ed.2d 407 (1993)). We agree with the District Court that because Ms. Shannon accepted her skilled-trades apprenticeship knowing full well that her name would come off the supervisor waiting list, she was not "rejected" for a supervisor position. ⁵

We emphasize, however, that there is nothing magical about the McDonnell Douglas three-stage framework. The framework itself is simply a "sensible, orderly way to evaluate the evidence in light of common experience as it bears on the critical question of discrimination." Patterson, 491 U.S. at 186, 109 S.Ct. at 2377 (quoting Furnco Construction Corp. v. Waters, 438 U.S. 567, 577, 98 S.Ct. 2943, 2949, 57 L.Ed.2d 957 (1978)). Put differently, the framework is a helpful tool, but it is still just a tool. We should not confuse the means--McDonnell Douglas 's three-step process--with the end, which is deciding whether or not an employer illegally discriminated. See, e.g., Winbush v. Glenwood State Hospital, 66 F.3d 1471, 1480 (8th Cir.1995) (citing United States Postal Serv. Bd. of Governors v. Aikens, 460 U.S. 711, 713-15, 103 S.Ct. 1478, 1480-82, 75 L.Ed.2d 403 (1983)) ("central question" is not whether district court correctly found prima facie case, but whether there was sufficient evidence of intentional discrimination). After all, the McDonnell Douglas framework exists to provide discrimination plaintiffs a way to prove their case when they do not have "explicit, inculpatory evidence of discriminatory intent." Hutson v. McDonnell Douglas Corp., 63 F.3d 771, 776 (8th Cir.1995). If a plaintiff does have such evidence, burden-shifting analysis is unnecessary.

The District Court stated that even if the removal of Ms. Shannon's name from the waiting list was somehow improper or discriminatory, the fact remains that she could not be considered and rejected for promotion once her name was off the list, and therefore could not establish her prima facie case. But if Ms. Shannon had produced any evidence that the removal of her name from the list was an act of intentional discrimination, aimed at preventing her promotion because she is black, then her failure to establish the usual prima facie case would not, by itself, doom her case. It would be ironic--bizarre, in fact--if a victim of discrimination were unable to vindicate her rights because she had the peculiar misfortune of being discriminated against in a way that necessarily prevented her from making her prima facie case. See International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. United States, 431 U.S. 324, 367, 97 S.Ct. 1843, 1871, 52 L.Ed.2d 396 (1977) (noting District Court's finding that a "per se prohibition of relief to nonapplicants could ... put beyond reach of equity the most invidious effects of employment discrimination"). For example, if black employees were told by their employer that they should not bother applying for supervisor positions, and so black employees never applied, they would, strictly speaking, be unable to establish all the elements of a prima facie case. See Winbush, 66 F.3d at 1481 (reason plaintiffs did not apply for promotions "was either that they did not know how or when to apply or that they were led to believe that applying would do no good"). ⁶ But this inability would certainly not be fatal to their case if they had solid evidence that their employer's discouragement was discriminatory. Proof of actual discrimination--the real issue, after all--may excuse a plaintiff's failure to establish a prima facie case via the usual route. Id. at 1481 n. 16 ("[D]iscriminatory practices can excuse plaintiffs from making a typical prima facie case of employment discrimination.")

Winbush illustrates our point. In that case, the District Court found overwhelming evidence that the defendants used "discretionary promotion policies [that] discouraged promotional opportunities for [the plaintiffs] and reflected systematic and purposeful discriminatory treatment of them based on their race." Id. at 1480. The court also found evidence of a "hostile racial working environment." Ibid. Despite this evidence, the defendants insisted that the...