Ashton v. Pall Corp.
| Decision Date | 15 January 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. 96-CV-3870 (JS).,96-CV-3870 (JS). |
| Citation | 32 F.Supp.2d 82 |
| Parties | Igor ASHTON, Plaintiff, v. PALL CORPORATION, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York |
Lee M. Albin, Albin & Richman, Garden City, NY, for plaintiff.
Michael J. Volpe, Clifton Budd & DeMaria, LLP, New York City, for defendant.
Presently pending before the Court is Defendant's motion for summary judgment pursuant to Rule 56(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The Plaintiff, Igor Ashton (hereinafter "Ashton" or "Plaintiff"), commenced this action on or about August 5, 1996, against his former employer, Pall Corporation (hereinafter "Pall" or "Defendant"), alleging a claim of unlawful termination in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, as amended, 29 U.S.C. § 621 et seq. ("ADEA").
Plaintiff, Igor Ashton, was hired in or about March 1988 by the Defendant Pall Corporation as a mechanical engineer. (Pl.'s Dep. at 21.) At that time Plaintiff was 41 years of age. (Pl.'s Dep. at 14.) For the first six years Plaintiff received positive performance reviews and commensurate salary increases. (Pl.'s Local Rule 56.1 Statement (hereinafter "56.1") ¶ 1.) On or about November 1992, Plaintiff assumed the role of maintenance manager. (Def.'s 56.1 ¶ 1.) Plaintiff's new position entailed, among other things, delegating assignments and training subordinates. (Def.'s 56.1 ¶ 2.)
In 1993 there was a merger of two subsidiary departments, and as a result, Plaintiff was moved to the Engineering Department. (Pl.'s 56.1 ¶ 2.) On or about June 7, 1993, Plaintiff began reporting to George Grippo, the Director of Manufacturing. (Def.'s 56.1 ¶ 3.)
On or about February 23, 1994, Plaintiff received a memorandum from George Grippo regarding his unsatisfactory work performance, which stated in relevant part:
I have instructed you, on several occasions, to make sure that your staff is trained. To date, you have not followed my instructions, resulting in the inefficiency of our operations.... This situation must change. Please accept this as formal notification that you are required to train your staff immediately.
(Def.'s 56.1 ¶ 4; Def.'s Ex. C.) This was followed by a second memorandum also entitled "Unsatisfactory Work Performance," dated on or about April 26, 1994, which read in pertinent part:
I want to bring to your attention some items related to maintenance that you have direct responsibility for.... I have expressed my concerns over the poor state of affairs with the maintenance for this area. You have also not addressed the training issues for the department. There is no plan in place to assure that the mechanics are properly trained. You must follow-up with me and then let me know the status. This issue must be straightened out immediately.... These issues must be straightened out immediately. If they are not, you will be subject to further disciplinary action.
(Def.'s 56.1 ¶ 5; Def.'s Ex. D.)
A meeting was held on or about April 27, 1994, in attendance were Igor Ashton, George Grippo and Voula K. Serres, a Human Resources Generalist at Pall. The meeting was convened to discuss Plaintiff's performance. Voula Serres memorialized her impression of the meeting and the specific areas discussed included Plaintiff's "inability to manage the maintenance staff effectively; the lack of technical training that the maintenance staff has; and why [Plaintiff] has not taken proactive steps to change that since the last time this issue was raised over a month ago." (Def.'s Ex. E.) Ms. Serres concluded that the Plaintiff
realizes that he is not capable of handling the managerial and maintenance responsibilities of this job. He iterated on several occasions, `I am an engineer, not a manager.' When I asked him if he felt he can handle the maintenance staff for this operation he said, `no, I can't.'
When queried at deposition about this specific exchange, Aston was asked: "During your meeting with Mr. Grippo and Ms. Serres, did you tell Ms. Serres that you were an engineer not a manager?" To which he replied: "Yes, I did." He was then asked: "Did you tell her that you felt that you were not capable of performing the managerial functions?" Ashton replied: "On certain — on existing conditions, no."
On or about May 16, 1994, Grippo conducted Plaintiff's performance evaluation. Grippo indicated that Plaintiff's quality of work, communication skills, and participation and contribution of ideas and solutions were unsatisfactory. (Def.'s 56.1 ¶ 7; Def.'s Ex. F.) On a scale of 1 to 5, representing in ascending order outstanding, above average, proficient, adequate, and unsatisfactory, Plaintiff received proficient in one category, adequate in three categories and unsatisfactory in four categories. (Def.'s Ex. F.) Plaintiff does not claim that Grippo's memos or the performance evaluations evince his claims of age discrimination. (Pl.'s Dep. at 74).
In or about May 1994, Plaintiff met with Patricia Lowy, Corporate Director of Human Resources at Pall, and requested a transfer. (Def.'s 56.1 ¶ 8; Pl.'s Dep. at 84-85.) In describing this conversation, Ashton recounted that Lowy informed him: (Pl.'s Dep. at 84-85.) Soon thereafter, Vlado Matkovich, Pall's Senior Corporate Vice-President, informed Plaintiff that he would be transferred into the Engineering Department. (Def.'s 56.1 ¶ 8; Pl.'s Dep. at 84-85.)
Sometime between May 1994 and August 1994, Chris Bush, age 32, became Igor's supervisor in the Engineering Department. (Pl.'s 56.1 ¶ 3; Def.'s 56.1 ¶ 10.) Ashton became a Project Engineer and his former responsibilities were assumed by Robert Hoffman, who was also over 40 years of age at the time. (Def.'s 56.1 ¶ 10.)
Plaintiff claims that once Bush became his supervisor he was no longer included in production meetings and received very little work. (Pl.'s Dep. ¶ 4.) In or about the Fall of 1994, two young engineers were hired including James Muldoon who practically took over all of Plaintiff's responsibilities. (Pl.'s 56.1 ¶ 4.)
On or about March 14, 1995, Bush conducted Ashton's performance evaluation, which reads in pertinent part:
Igor has been given assignments with clear objectives that require feeding back information to me; and has, over a time, failed to report on their status. Furthermore, the position he fills requires taking aggressive action to accomplish tasks that arise in the production environment, and has not demonstrated the appropriate decisiveness. This lack of initiative has resulted in my having frequently to follow-up on assignments to assure their success. With the exception of the recent past, Igor applies himself minimally.
(Def.'s Ex. H.) Plaintiff signed the performance evaluation under protest. (Def.'s Ex. H.)
Prior to receiving the evaluation, Bush informed Ashton that he is the highest paid engineer in Bush's group and that he could hire someone much younger than Igor to do the same job at a lesser salary. (Pl.'s 56.1 ¶ 5.) Plaintiff immediately thereafter took a voluntary leave of absence for unrelated medical reasons and returned to work on June 5, 1995. (Def.'s 56.1 ¶ 12.)
While the Plaintiff was on leave, Bush prepared a memo to clarify his March 14 evaluation. When the Plaintiff returned, Bush gave him the memo which cited specific examples of poor performance and areas for improvement. In particular, the three paragraphs touched on the following areas: (1) the failure to report on the status of assignments; (2) taking action on the information obtained when determining downtime; and (3) communicating problems to other engineering groups. The memo concluded by stating, (Def.'s Ex. I.)
Plaintiff maintains that no follow-up meeting ever occurred nor did Bush ever mention a meeting to discuss Ashton's performance. (Pl.'s 56.1 ¶ 6.) However, the Joint Pre-Trial Order (hereinafter "JPTO") contains "A Statement of Stipulated Facts" denominated Schedule C, which includes the following entry: Bush spoke with the plaintiff several times between June 1995 and February 1996 about work assignments and the need to follow up and/or take initiative. (Def.'s Ex. J, p. 3 at line 19.) Plaintiff did not receive a salary increase in 1994 or 1995. (Def.'s 56.1 ¶ 16.)
On February 16, 1996, Plaintiff's employment was terminated. Plaintiff was given a termination memo. The memo set forth Plaintiff's performance deficiencies including lack of initiative to take on new assignments and failure to report on the status of existing assignments, and concludes by stating "in light of these previously noted examples of failure to meet job requirements, we have no alternative but to terminate your employment." (Def.'s 56.1 ¶ 14; JPTO, Ex. J. p. 3 at line 21.) Although Plaintiff was terminated on March 8, 1996, the termination memo was dated February 16, 1996. (Pl.'s 56.1 ¶ 8.) Two weeks prior to Ashton's termination, Bush hired another young engineer and his first day of employment was on Monday, March 11, 1996, the first business day following Plaintiff's termination. (Pl.'s 56.1 ¶ 7.)
At the time of his termination, Plaintiff was 49 years old. (Def.'s 56.1 ¶ 15.) After Plaintiff's termination, the Defendant did not hire a replacement. (Bush Dep. at 65.) Following his termination, Plaintiff worked for Metex, in New Jersey, as a production equipment maintenance manager. He worked from May through August 1996. He earned $55,000 per year. Plaintiff voluntarily resigned from this position. (Def.'s 56.1 ¶ 18; JPTO Ex. J p. 3 at line 23.)
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