Carlile v. South Routt School Dist.

• Decision Date: 02 August 1984
• Docket Number: RE-3J,No. 82-1672,82-1672
• Citation: 739 F.2d 1496
• Parties: 35 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 689, 34 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 34,568, 19 Ed. Law Rep. 71 Nettie G. CARLILE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SOUTH ROUTT SCHOOL DISTRICTIN the COUNTY OF ROUTT, STATE OF COLORADO, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 1496

739 F.2d 1496

35 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 689,

34 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 34,568, 19 Ed. Law Rep. 71

Nettie G. CARLILE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SOUTH ROUTT SCHOOL DISTRICT RE-3J IN the COUNTY OF ROUTT, STATE OF COLORADO, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 82-1672.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

Aug. 2, 1984.

John H. Love, Boulder, Colo., for plaintiff-appellant.

C. Scott Crabtree of Cogswell & Wehrle, Denver, Colo., for defendant-appellee.

Before BARRETT, McKAY and LOGAN, Circuit Judges.

McKAY, Circuit Judge.

This is an employment discrimination action. See Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. Secs. 2000e to 2000e-17 (1982). We are asked to review the prima facie test used by the trial court and to determine whether that test, adopted to reflect the particular facts of this case, comports with the guidelines and standards set forth by the United States Supreme Court in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802-03, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 1824-25, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973), and its progeny.

Nettie Carlile, a public high school teacher, brought this employment discrimination action against her employer, the South Routt School District (District). She alleged that the District's failure to renew her contract and to grant her tenure was based upon gender, in violation of Title VII. Title VII provides that it shall be unlawful for an employer:

(1) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin; or

(2) to limit, segregate, or classify his employees or applicants for employment in any way which would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect his status as an employee, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e-2(a) (1982). After tailoring the McDonnell Douglas prima facie test to suit the facts of a tenure and teacher nonrenewal case, the trial court held that Ms. Carlile failed to establish a prima facie case. Ms. Carlile appeals.

From August 1972 through June 1975, Ms. Carlile was employed as a teacher at the Soroco High School in rural Colorado. Ms. Carlile holds an undergraduate degree in English and education as well as a masters degree in history; when hired she was an experienced English teacher and had been the head of a high school English Department in another Colorado school district. During her three years at Soroco High School, Ms. Carlile taught both history and English to students in all high school grades. During her first two and one-half years there she received good to excellent teaching evaluations from Mr. Baker, the high school principal. However, in March 1975, Mr. Baker gave Ms. Carlile a poor evaluation and recommended that her contract not be renewed for a fourth year.

The events which took place during the first half of 1975 essentially give rise to this lawsuit. During the first few weeks in January, Ms. Carlile was ill and unable to work; a substitute teacher was hired in her place. Mr. Baker was also ill and unable to work from the middle of January until the first part of March. Mr. Meek, the District Superintendent, acted as principal during Mr. Baker's absence. During this same period, rumors were circulating that the head coach of the boys' basketball team would resign. The coach did resign, but not until May, one month after the District formally denied the renewal of Ms. Carlile's contract. On July 17, 1975, the District hired Dan England to replace Ms. Carlile as the history teacher and also to become the head coach of the boys' basketball team.

At trial, the District attempted to justify the sudden change in Ms. Carlile's evaluations from excellent to poor. The District argued that during the first part of 1975 Ms. Carlile's activities were more closely scrutinized because she would automatically receive tenure by operation of Colorado law if her contract were renewed for a fourth year. ¹ The District claimed that it was concerned about Ms. Carlile's general attitude toward teaching and ultimately concluded that she "was not the type of teacher [they] wanted on tenure in [their] school district." Record, vol. 1, at 47. Ms. Carlile contended, however, that Messrs. Meek and Baker had known since January that the basketball coach was planning to resign, even though he did not formally resign until May. Thus, she argued, the reason for her nonrenewal, and hence her disqualification for tenure, was that the District wanted to replace her with a man, someone who could coach basketball and fulfill her teaching duties at the same time. Id. at 48.

The trial court held that Ms. Carlile failed to establish a prima facie case that the motive underlying her termination was discriminatory in nature. The court, however, found that the termination was not based on the quality of Ms. Carlile's teaching. Rather, the trial court found that the evolving needs of the District required that Ms. Carlile be terminated in favor of another teacher with somewhat different abilities--e.g., one who could teach history and English as well as coach boys' basketball. The trial court added that even if she had satisfied her prima facie burden the evolving needs of the District would be a legitimate nondiscriminatory reason for Ms. Carlile's termination. See Texas Department of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 253, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 1093, 67 L.Ed.2d 207 (1981).

On appeal, Ms. Carlile argues that the prima facie test formulated by the trial court was erroneous. Although other circuits have tailored the McDonnell Douglas prima facie test to suit the needs of employment discrimination cases in academic settings, this circuit has not. This case presents the opportunity to review the McDonnell Douglas test, as modified by its progeny, and as applied to allegations of employment discrimination in an academic setting.

In McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 1824, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973), the Supreme Court held that the plaintiff in a Title VII case has the initial burden of establishing a prima facie case of discrimination. The plaintiff can satisfy that burden by showing:

(1) that he or she belongs to the protected class;

(2) that he or she applied and was qualified for the position;

(3) that despite such qualifications plaintiff was rejected; and

(4) that after plaintiff's rejection, the position remained open and the employer continued to seek similarly qualified applicants.

Id. The rationale for requiring plaintiff to carry this initial burden is to eliminate "the most common nondiscriminatory reasons for the plaintiff's rejection," and to raise the inference of discrimination, since acts which meet the four pronged test, " 'are more likely than not based on the consideration of impermissible factors.' " Texas Department of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 254, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 1094, 67 L.Ed.2d 207 (1981) (citation omitted).

The establishment of the prima facie case creates a rebuttable presumption of unlawful discrimination by the employer. The Court has been careful, however, to acknowledge that the requirement of prima facie proof be adaptable to differing fact situations and that the four prongs of the test be flexible. See McDonnell Douglas, 411 U.S. at 802 n. 13, 93 S.Ct. at 1824 n. 13, and Texas Department of Community Affairs, 450 U.S. at 253-54 n. 6, 101 S.Ct. at 1093-94 n. 6. The language of Title VII itself requires that any test tailored to aid in discerning violations of the statute be flexible. By prohibiting discrimination in matters of "compensation, terms, conditions or privileges of employment, based upon an individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin," Congress presumed that the fact situations to which the statute would be applied would be wide ranging and necessarily evidence varying degrees of dissimilitudes.

Other circuits have consistently approved the adaptation of the McDonnell Douglas test to allegations of employment discrimination in academic settings. ² Both the Ninth Circuit, in Lynn v. Regents of the University of California, 656 F.2d 1337, 1341-45 (9th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 823, 103 S.Ct. 53, 74 L.Ed.2d 59 (1982), and the Fourth Circuit, in Smith v. University of North Carolina, 632 F.2d 316, 339-46 (4th Cir.1980) have applied the McDonnell Douglas criteria to academic environments wherein female professors were denied contract renewals and tenure appointments. Both circuits agreed that the applicable elements of the prima facie test in such cases should require plaintiff to show:

1. that she is a member of a class protected by Title VII;

2. that she was qualified for the position or rank sought;

3. that she was denied tenure or reappointment; and

4. that in cases of reappointment or tenure others with similar qualifications were reappointed or granted tenure.

See Lynn, 656 F.2d at 1341 and Smith, 632 F.2d at 340.

We agree that these elements are applicable to an academic setting. Moreover, there is no reason to limit these elements to employment decisions made only by universities. ³ Rather, consistent with the purposes of Title VII and the rationale of cases like McDonnell Douglas and Texas Department of Community Affairs, these elements are flexible enough to be applied to employment decisions regarding the initial hiring, tenure, reappointment, or promotion by local school boards of teachers similar to Ms. Carlile who fall within the class of persons protected by Title VII. There is nothing in the rationale of those cases which have approved the application of the McDonnell Douglas test to allegations of discrimination in university settings to preclude the application of that same test to employment decisions made by...