Adeyemi v. District of Columbia

• Decision Date: 16 May 2008
• Docket Number: No. 07-7077.,07-7077.
• Citation: 525 F.3d 1222
• Parties: James ADEYEMI, Appellant v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

525 F.3d 1222

James ADEYEMI, Appellant v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Appellee.

No. 07-7077.

United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued April 10, 2008.

Decided May 16, 2008.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (No. 04cv01684).

Leah M. Quadrino argued the cause for appellant. With her on the briefs was Steven Reed.

Mary T. Connelly, Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, argued the cause for appellee. With her on the brief were Peter J. Nickles, Interim Attorney General, Todd S. Kim, Solicitor General, and Donna M. Murasky, Deputy Solicitor General. Edward E. Schwab, Deputy Attorney General, entered an appearance.

Before: GRIFFITH and KAVANAUGH, Circuit Judges, and SILBERMAN, Senior Circuit Judge.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge KAVANAUGH.

KAVANAUGH, Circuit Judge:

James Adeyemi is deaf. After failing to obtain an information technology position in the D.C. Public School System, he sued the District of Columbia for unlawful employment discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The District of Columbia responded that it hired two candidates who were better qualified than Adeyemi. The U.S. District Court granted summary judgment for the District of Columbia. We affirm: Adeyemi did not produce sufficient evidence for a reasonable jury to find that the District of Columbia's legitimate, non-discriminatory reason — that it hired better-qualified candidates — was not the actual basis for the decision and that it intentionally discriminated against Adeyemi on account of his disability.

I

In 2002, the D.C. Public School System (DCPS) abolished its existing employment positions and advertised the resulting job "vacancies" both within DCPS and to the general public. Incumbent workers could re-apply but were not guaranteed their old jobs.

The DCPS Office of Information Technology announced seven vacancies for Level 11 Information Technology Specialists. The vacancy announcement listed the necessary qualifications in general terms and requested that each applicant submit a resumé and written statement.

The DCPS Human Resources Department screened the applications and selected 20 interviewees for the Level 11 positions. Five of the 20 interviewees were incumbents; they already worked for DCPS in the Office of Information Technology. Two IT employees were assigned to interview the 20 Level 11 candidates. Ulysses Keyes, the Director of Enterprise Information Systems for the Office of Information Technology, was responsible for making the final hiring decisions after considering the applicants' resumés, written statements, experience, and interview performances, as well as DCPS's particular needs.

James Adeyemi applied for the Level 11 position, as well as for a higher-grade Level 12 position. His application did not note his disability. Based on Adeyemi's application, DCPS's Human Resources Department initially determined he possessed the minimal qualifications for the Level 11 position (but not for the higher-grade Level 12 position) and selected him as one of the 20 Level 11 interviewees.

Manuel Farfan and Henry Thompson interviewed Adeyemi. Farfan and Thompson first learned that Adeyemi was deaf when he arrived for his interview. Because a sign-language interpreter was not available on such short notice, Farfan and Thompson typed questions that appeared on a computer screen and Adeyemi then typed his responses. During the interview, Thompson also passed Adeyemi a note asking how he communicated in offices where no one knew sign language. Adeyemi responded that he often used written communication, and he explained that he had "no problem with writing as [his] basic communication." Interview Notes, Joint Appendix ("J.A.") 130.

When Farfan, Thompson, and Keyes later met to discuss the applicants, Farfan asked Keyes how DCPS could accommodate Adeyemi if he were hired. Keyes stated "we can always accommodate him." Farfan Deposition, J.A. 331.

After all of the interviews were completed, DCPS offered five of the seven available Level 11 positions to the five incumbents who had interviewed. Keyes later explained that the incumbents had desirable "qualifications, experience, and backgrounds" and performed well in their interviews. Keyes Deposition, J.A. 21. Moreover, he had concerns about starting the school year with an entirely new staff; the incumbents' institutional knowledge gave them "a very big advantage coming back on board." Id. at 55.

For the remaining two Level 11 vacancies, however, Keyes was not satisfied with the pool and decided not to extend offers at that time to any of the numerous other Level 11 candidates. Instead, he asked the Human Resources Department to readvertise for the remaining two Level 11 vacancies. But this renewed effort still did not produce any viable candidates. At that point, Keyes had his back "against the wall timewise": He had to fill the vacancies within days or risk losing the positions altogether due to funding constraints. Id. at 33.

Out of time to find new candidates for the remaining two Level 11 vacancies and not particularly happy with the remaining Level 11 candidates, Keyes looked to the pool of applicants for the separate Level 12 positions. To qualify for the higher-grade Level 12 position, applicants had to meet more demanding knowledge and experience requirements. As noted above, Adeyemi himself had applied for a Level 12 position but did not make the initial cut for the Level 12 interviews.

Keyes asked the Human Resources Department if he could fill a Level 11 position with a candidate who had applied and was qualified for the Level 12 position. Human Resources informed Keyes it was permissible because candidates qualified for the Level 12 positions were automatically qualified for the lower-grade Level 11 positions.

Keyes then offered the last two Level 11 positions to two Level 12 candidates: Qaiser Iqbal and Cynthia Wang. According to Keyes, Iqbal had desirable skills from his 10 years as a programmer/analyst working with enterprise-wide computer systems in the corporate world; that experience would be useful because Level 11 Specialists used mainframes on a daily basis. Keyes later stated that Iqbal's corporate experience "was really what it came down to." Id. at 49. Keyes further explained that Iqbal "was more qualified" and a "better match for [DCPS] than anybody else in the untapped pool, including Mr. Adeyemi." Id. at 48.

Keyes stated that he chose Wang for the Level 11 position because she had "documented experience" with the PeopleSoft application. Id. at 37. This experience was "very attractive" to DCPS because it was "in the middle of a PeopleSoft implementation" and "in the process of hiring consultants and trying to get staff up to speed with someone who understood the HR portion." Id. at 37, 51. None of the Level 11 candidates — including Adeyemi — had PeopleSoft experience.

After learning that he did not obtain the position, Adeyemi filed an administrative complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claiming that DCPS had discriminated against him in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq. Following an unsuccessful mediation, Adeyemi filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. After discovery was completed, the District Court granted the District of Columbia's motion for summary judgment, finding that Adeyemi had not established a prima facie case of disability discrimination. Adeyemi v. District of Columbia, 2007 WL 1020754, at *21 (D.D.C.2007). In the alternative, the District Court concluded that Adeyemi had not produced sufficient evidence to cast doubt on DCPS's legitimate, nondiscriminatory explanation that it had hired Iqbal and Wang because they were better qualified. See id. Adeyemi appeals; we review the District Court's summary judgment de novo.

II

A

The Americans with Disabilities Act makes it unlawful for an employer to "discriminate against a qualified individual with a disability because of the disability of such individual in regard to job application procedures, the hiring, advancement, or discharge of employees, employee compensation, job training, and other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment." 42 U.S.C. § 12112(a). Putting aside the issue of reasonable accommodation, the two basic elements of a disability discrimination claim are that (i) the plaintiff suffered an adverse employment action (ii) because of the plaintiff's disability.

The District Court in this case first carefully analyzed whether Adeyemi had made out a "prima facie case" under the McDonnell Douglas analysis. McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973). On appeal, the parties — particularly the plaintiff — similarly have devoted large portions of their briefs to that question. As we recently explained in Brady v. Office of the Sergeant at Arms, however, "the prima facie case is a largely unnecessary sideshow." 520 F.3d 490, ___, 2008 WL 819989, at *3 (D.C.Cir.2008). As Supreme Court precedents establish, the prima-facie-case aspect of McDonnell Douglas is irrelevant when an employer has asserted a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for its decision — as an employer almost always will do by the summary judgment stage of an employment discrimination suit. See St. Mary's Honor Ctr. v. Hicks, 509 U.S. 502, 510-11, 113 S.Ct. 2742, 125 L.Ed.2d 407 (1993); U.S. Postal Serv. Bd. of Governors v. Aikens, 460 U.S. 711, 714-16, 103 S.Ct. 1478, 75 L.Ed.2d 403 (1983); see also Rodgers v. U.S. Bank, N.A., 417 F.3d 845, 856 (8th Cir.2005) (Colloton, J., concurring in judgment); Wells v. Colorado Dep't of Transp., 325 F.3d 1205, 1221, 1224-28 (10th Cir.2003) (Hartz, J., concurring). Therefore, if an employer asserts a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for an adverse employment action, ...