Anthony v. Btr Automotive Sealing Sys.

• Citation: 339 F.3d 506
• Decision Date: 08 August 2003
• Docket Number: No. 01-6028.,01-6028.
• Parties: Lawrence E. Anthony, Jr., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Btr Automotive Sealing Systems, Inc. Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

339 F.3d 506

Lawrence E. Anthony, Jr., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Btr Automotive Sealing Systems, Inc. Defendant-Appellee.

No. 01-6028.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: December 5, 2002.

Decided and Filed: August 8, 2003. Pursuant to Sixth Circuit Rule 206

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Stephen Talbert Hyder (argued and briefed), Maryville, TN, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Homer L. Deakins, Jr., Robert O. Sands (argued and briefed), Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, Atlanta, Georgia, for Defendant-Appellee.

Before: COLE and CLAY, Circuit Judges; BERTELSMAN, Senior District Judge.^*

OPINION

BERTELSMAN, District Judge.

Plaintiff Lawrence E. Anthony, Jr., appeals the district court's grant of summary judgment to defendant on Anthony's claims for race and age discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, 29 U.S.C. § 621 et seq., 42 U.S.C. § 1981, and the Tennessee Human Rights Act. For the reasons set forth, this court AFFIRMS the district court.

Factual Background

Plaintiff Lawrence E. Anthony, Jr., a black male over the age of forty, was hired by defendant at the age of nineteen. Beyond high school, Anthony attended the University of Tennessee at Martin for approximately one year before his employment with the defendant. Anthony does not possess a college degree or Certified Quality Engineer "CQE" status.

Defendant BTR Automotive Sealing Systems, Incorporated ("BTR")¹ manufactures door seals for new automobiles, primarily sold to the "Big Three" automobile makers — General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. BTR has historically had three operations on site: the mixing plant and the extrusion plant² located within one building, and the finishing plant³ located a few yards away. Each of the three operations had separate laboratories.

Anthony appeals the grant of summary judgment to BTR on his claims that BTR's refusal to promote him on four separate occasions was discriminatory based on his race and age.⁴ He also appeals the grant of summary judgment by the district court four days before trial because by that time he had already expended money on witness per diem and service fees for the trial.

Anthony argues that he was a long-time faithful employee of BTR with a good work record, including never missing a day of work or being tardy. During his twenty-seven years with BTR, he spent twenty-two years in the quality laboratory under the supervision of Debbie Massey.

Anthony maintains that, early in his employment, BTR's then-vice president for technical operations, John McManus, a graduate from the National College of Polymer Technology in London, taught Anthony directly from class notebooks. Anthony contends a jury should have been permitted to hear how this early experience in Anthony's employment "set the tone" for his loyalty and enthusiasm for the company during his employment and ultimately demonstrates that he was indeed qualified for the promotions.

The four promotions at issue include: (1) a job given to Tim Wilham in late 1997; (2) a job given to Mark Ledbetter in June of 1998; (3) a job given to Leann Abston in December of 1998; and (4) a job given to Rusty Kreyling in August of 1999. The facts of each promotion follow.

The promotion given to Tim Wilham

In 1997, Debbie Massey, laboratory supervisor of the extrusion plant and supervisor to Anthony, transferred to the company's Rockford, Maryland office. Massey had a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Tennessee with an additional year of education in chemistry and psychology. In addition to supervising Anthony, Massey supervised two other employees in the finishing and extrusion plant laboratories. Anthony had no responsibilities in the finishing plant. While Anthony was primarily performing lab tests for the extrusion lines, Massey was covering duties in a variety of locations, including incoming materials as well as the finishing plant.

Anthony maintains that he performed all supervisory and nonsupervisory duties in the laboratory when there was no supervisor after Massey was transferred. Anthony submitted his resume to Denny Moore, the human resources manager, to apply for Massey's position. Moore told Anthony that BTR was not looking to fill the position as a laboratory supervisor and, instead, wanted to fill it with someone who was a CQE or who had a technical decree.

The job was given to Tim Wilham, a white male under the age of forty. He did not have a college degree and was not a CQE. Wilham began working for BTR as a production supervisor in December of 1994.

In 1997, Wilham had been assigned to work as a supervisor in the mixing plant. The mixing plant employees objected to Wilham's presence because of a previous arrangement between BTR and the union that a supervisor would not be assigned to this particular group of employees. J.W. Burton, the operations manager, and Terry Brosi, the general manager, conceded to the employees' request for Wilham's removal, which was determined not to be through any fault of Wilham. Because Wilham was an experienced supervisor for BTR, the company did not want to terminate him. According to BTR, Brosi and Burton assigned Wilham to Massey's former position as a laboratory supervisor because there was no other place to put him. This was considered only a temporary placement for Wilham until another position was available for him.

Moore testified that neither Wilham nor Anthony was qualified for the position. However, Brosi and Burton made the promotion decision. After Wilham's initial period in the laboratory, the company decided it was not going to work out and that Wilham was not qualified. Within a few months he was transferred to another position. The promotion given to Mark Ledbetter

After Wilham was moved out of the position, BTR maintains it determined that it would seek candidates for the position who were qualified as quality engineers. BTR preferred someone with a college degree, technical background or CQE credentials to succeed Wilham, instead of a lab supervisor. BTR further contends that prior experience within the automotive supply industry to the "Big Three" automakers was considered a plus.

In May of 1998, Patrick Hood was employed as a quality manager while BTR was undergoing an attempt to improve its quality standards and regain a "Ford Q1" status. This status would require the implementation of the new standard of quality within the industry, designated as QS-9000.⁵ BTR maintains that it needed to change its approach to quality oversight by attempting to identify the root cause of problems, rather than testing materials after the fact.

Hood hired Mark Ledbetter, a white male under the age of forty, to fill the position in June of 1998. Ledbetter had a CQE status, a technical education, and experience within the automotive industry. Ledbetter's job comprised more than just supervising the extrusion lab. His duties also included identifying and solving problems, conducting designs of experiments, performing statistical studies to bring processes in control, and generally identifying and developing better test procedures.

The promotion given to Leann Abston

Ledbetter quit after five months to take another job in November of 1998. At that time Leann Abston, a white female under the age of forty, replaced him as the quality engineer responsible for the projects which Ledbetter had been doing as well as supervising Anthony in the extrusion lab. Abston was a CQE who had been employed by BTR since October 1991 in various quality engineer/supervisor positions within the quality assurance department. She had a significant educational background, including an engineering degree and a master's degree in business administration. She also had previous automotive experience with the Ford Motor Company.

Abston had been selected for a reduction in force in early 1998. After she contested this decision, she was reinstated during late 1998. Since Ledbetter departed about the same time, Abston was given Ledbetter's position because BTR had agreed to return Abston to work. While Hood testified that Abston was technically qualified to perform the job, he did have reservations about her personality and her absenteeism from work. Nonetheless, he was told by the acting interim general manager at that time that Abston was coming back to work in quality engineering.

The promotion given to Rusty Kreyling

Abston resigned in August of 1999, and Rusty Kreyling was hired permanently in early 1999 to work as a quality technician in the finishing plant. Kreyling was considered highly qualified by Hood because of his degree in statistics from the University of Tennessee and his advanced knowledge of statistics. Kreyling was not a CQE. Nonetheless, because of his statistics degree, Hood testified that Kreyling was more qualified than other CQEs with whom he had worked in the past.

BTR's reasons for not promoting Anthony after Wilham was transferred

While Hood was aware of Anthony's interest in a laboratory supervision position he explained to Anthony that he had no such position available after Wilham was moved. Wilham was the only one of the individuals above who was ever designated as a laboratory supervisor. The other three were quality engineers.

Hood also testified concisely in his deposition that BTR wanted someone with a technical degree or a CQE status for the position. Hood was also looking for someone with experience in statistical studies, experiment design, QS-9000 administration, one-on-one customer problem solving, and PPAPs.⁶ The persons hired after Wilham all had these or equivalent qualifications according to Hood.

Hood testified that the majority of Anthony's job included the testing of parts and entering the data. Anthony also filed certain documentation in regard to the QS-9000 as a clerk would. He had never done any statistical studies or designed any...