Clark v. Matthews Intern. Corp.

• Decision Date: 27 December 2010
• Docket Number: No. 10-1037,10-1037
• Citation: 628 F.3d 462
• Parties: Eddy CLARK, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MATTHEWS INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

628 F.3d 462

Eddy CLARK, Plaintiff-Appellant,

v.MATTHEWS INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 10-1037.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: Sept. 20, 2010.

Filed: Dec. 27, 2010.

Lawrence P. Kaplan, argued, Joshua M. Avigad, on the brief, St. Louis, MO, for appellant.

Charles E. Reis, IV, argued, Amy L. Nixon, on the brief, St. Louis, MO, for appellee.

Before RILEY, Chief Judge, MELLOY and COLLOTON, Circuit Judges.

MELLOY, Circuit Judge.

Matthews International Corporation ("Matthews") terminated Eddy Clark in January 2007. Alleging that he was terminated and suffered other adverse employment actions due to his age, Clark sued Matthews under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA") and the Missouri Human Rights Act ("MHRA"). The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Matthews, and Clark appealed. We affirm in part and reverse in part.

I. Background

Matthews is a Pennsylvania corporation whose Graphics Division offers graphic-design services to commercial vendors. The Graphics Division has facilities across the United States, including one in St. Louis. The St. Louis Graphics Division hired Eddy Clark, who was age forty-three at the time, to work as an artist in 1992. Clark was hired to design corrugated-cardboard packaging as a member of the St. Louis Graphics Division's Art Department.¹

Corrugated-packaging design was the primary service that the St. Louis Graphics Division offered its clients when it hired Clark. By 2000, however, the market for corrugated-packaging design had become increasingly competitive. As a result, not only was Matthews's share of the corrugated-packaging-design market shrinking, but the profit margin for corrugated-packaging design was shrinking as well. Thus, Matthews sought to diversify its packaging-design services at the St. Louis Graphics Division. Specifically, although it had no plans of abandoning its design of corrugated packaging at thattime, Matthews wanted to begin designing primary packaging at its St. Louis facility.

Primary packaging is substantially different from corrugated packaging. Primary packaging is the packaging that firms use to enclose their products; as a result, it is the packaging that consumers actually see. Primary packaging consists of the colorful labels and packages that are intended to catch a consumer's eye as they browse products in a retail store. Corrugated packaging, on the other hand, consists of the cardboard boxes that products are shipped and stored in.

In 2000, to spur development of its primary-packaging-design services at the St. Louis facility, Matthews hired a person with primary-packaging-design experience, Randall Peek, to be a manager within the site's Art Department and to oversee the nine artists who designed packaging. Peek formally divided the artists into three teams—Blue, Red, and Purple—with three artists per team. The Blue Team designed basic one- and two-color corrugated packaging, the Red Team designed intermediate-level corrugated packaging, and the Purple Team designed multi-color primary packaging.

According to Peek, he formed the teams based upon the artists' previous work experiences. Peek placed the three artists who had already been designing primary packaging on the Purple Team. Peek selected Clark, age fifty-one at the time, for the Blue team. Although Clark had twenty-five years of experience in designing magazine advertisements, promotional brochures, flyers, catalogs, and corrugated packaging, Clark did not have the type of experience and training in primary packaging that the three Purple Team members had. After the division, the ages of the Purple Team members (27, 28, 37) were relatively lower than the ages of the members of the Red Team (31, 43, 50) and the Blue Team (35, 51, 54).

After the initial division in 2000, artists generally designed either corrugated or primary packaging exclusively. This is because, according to Peek, designing primary packaging requires different experience, training, and natural ability than designing corrugated packaging. During his deposition, Peek described the difference between designing these forms of packaging as similar to the difference between "drawing a cartoon and doing a Picasso." As a consequence, primary-packaging designers generally need to use different computers and software than corrugated-packaging designers. Clark asked to join the Purple Team in 2005, but Peek did not feel Clark was sufficiently skilled to design primary-packaging.

Peek claims his reluctance to place Clark on the Purple Team was due in part to Clark's performance reviews. From 2000 onward, the St. Louis Graphics Division consistently tried to increase its sales-per-employee ratio. As a result, artists were required to produce better work at a quicker pace. However, Clark's performance reviews indicate he was unable to keep up with these rising expectations. In 2002, Clark's review indicates he was not meeting the company's standards for volume of work produced, that he needed to improve his work on VIP orders, and that he needed to reduce his number of errors. A 2004 review indicates that Peek told Clark that he would issue him a written warning if he did not begin working more quickly while committing fewer errors. Although Clark's review improved slightly in 2005, his review in 2006 again indicates that he was not meeting the company's productivity standards.

Matthews also tried to boost its sales-per-employee ratio at the St. Louis Graphics Division by routinely conducting reductions-in-force("RIF"). The terminations for the RIF relevant to this case occurred from August 18, 2006, through January 31, 2007. Prior to the RIF, Matthews officials determined how many employees needed to be cut at the St. Louis Graphics Division. Then, Peek ² and Matthews's Vice-President of Operations, Kerry Beaver, claimed that they compiled a list of employees who should be cut at the St. Louis facility based upon the fit between their skills and the future work to be performed with a reduced staff. They then sent this list to the Regional Human Resources Manager, who claimed she reviewed the list to compare those selected for the RIF with those who were not selected to ensure terminations were based upon job performance.

Clark, age fifty-seven at the time, was selected for the RIF and terminated on January 31, 2007. According to Peek, Clark was chosen, at least in part, because he did not have the skills for primary-packaging design, which had a greater profit margin than corrugated-packaging design. Additionally, Peek claimed Clark's performance reviews indicating poor productivity contributed to his termination.

For a number of reasons, however, Clark believes his selection for the RIF was due to his age, not his abilities. First, fourteen of the fifteen employees terminated from August 18, 2006, to January 31, 2007, were over the age of forty. Second, Clark alleges that, shortly before his termination, Peek asked him and another employee if they were "just trying to make it to retirement" and suggested to the other employee that "he could always get a job at Wal-Mart as a greeter." Third, Clark claims that Matthews sent employees unsolicited mailings from AARP when they turned fifty-six years old. Finally, Clark claims that Matthews retained employees who were younger than him even though they also received poor performance reviews.

After his termination, Clark received notices of his right to sue Matthews from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Missouri Commission on Human Rights. Clark then brought this action against Matthews in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. Clark alleged that Matthews violated both federal and Missouri anti-age-discrimination laws. Matthews brought a motion for summary judgment, and the district court granted the motion on all of Clark's claims. Clark now appeals, arguing that Matthews committed age discrimination in violation of the ADEA in two ways. First, Clark argues that Matthews committed age discrimination by conducting a RIF that disparately impacted employees over the age of forty. Second, Clark argues that he suffered disparate-treatment age discrimination because Matthews denied his request to design primary packaging and ultimately terminated him because of his age. Finally, Clark also argues that Matthews committed age discrimination in violation of the MHRA because his age was a contributing factor in Matthews's decision to terminate him.

II. Discussion

"We review a district court's grant of summary judgment de novo." Anderson v. Durham D & M, L.L.C., 606 F.3d 513, 518 (8th Cir.2010). Summary judgment is appropriate if the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the non-movant,shows that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Schultz v. Windstream Commc'ns, Inc., 600 F.3d 948, 951 (8th Cir.2010). "A genuine issue of material fact exists if a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the party opposing the motion." Humphries v. Pulaski County Special Sch. Dist., 580 F.3d 688, 692 (8th Cir.2009).

A. Age Discrimination in Employment Act

The ADEA generally prohibits employers from discriminating against employees, age forty and over, because of their age. 29 U.S.C. §§ 623(a)(1), (2); 631(a). Under the ADEA, a plaintiff may prove age discrimination on either a disparate-treatment or disparate-impact theory. According to the disparate-treatment theory, a plaintiff must prove that his employer intentionally discriminated against him because of his age. Gross v. FBL Fin. Servs., Inc., --- U.S. ----, 129 S.Ct. 2343, 2350, 174 L.Ed.2d 119 (2009). According to the disparate-impact theory, however, proof of intent is not required. Meacham v. Knolls Atomic Power Lab., 554 U.S. 84, 95-96, 128 S.Ct. 2395, 171 L.Ed.2d 283 (2008). Instead, an employer is liable for age discrimination on a...