Dunaway v. International Broth. of Teamsters

• Decision Date: 15 November 2002
• Docket Number: No. 01-7122.,01-7122.
• Citation: 310 F.3d 758
• Parties: Lynda DUNAWAY, Appellant, v. INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

310 F.3d 758

Lynda DUNAWAY, Appellant, v. INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, Appellee.

No. 01-7122.

United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued October 7, 2002.

Decided November 15, 2002.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (No. 98cv01317).

Steven G. Polin argued the cause and filed the brief for appellant.

James A. McCall argued the cause for appellee. On the brief was Nicole R. Pollard.

Before: SENTELLE, ROGERS and GARLAND, Circuit Judges.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge ROGERS.

ROGERS, Circuit Judge:

Lynda Dunaway appeals the grant of summary judgment on her claim of unlawful termination from employment on the grounds that the district court erred in ruling that she failed to establish a prima facie case of discrimination based on gender, national origin, or age, and that she failed to show that she was a permanent employee, rather than an at-will employee, by virtue of an implied contract with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters ("Teamsters"). Because the record indicates that there are genuine issues of material fact regarding whether Dunaway was discharged because of gender or national origin, we reverse and remand for trial on those claims; otherwise we affirm.

I.

Dunaway, an Asian-American woman, worked for the Teamsters for twenty-five years. Between 1971 and 1987, she performed sufficiently well to merit a salary increase and a promotion, over James Bosley, to the position of Payroll Supervisor. Dunaway had a perfect employment record in that position through 1992. In 1992, union elections were held, and Thomas Sever became the new General Secretary-Treasurer of the Teamsters. He appointed Bosley director of the newly merged Accounting and Payroll Departments, which made Bosley Dunaway's immediate supervisor as of February 1992. In 1993, Bosley gave Dunaway her first negative work evaluation in twenty-two years of working for the Teamsters.

By memorandum of August 19, 1993, Bosley informed Dunaway that she needed to improve her performance with respect to timely payment of both employee health and welfare insurance premiums and domestic and Canadian payroll taxes. From time to time through October 1994, Dunaway received other memoranda from Bosley stating that he considered her work performance unacceptable, again citing her tardiness in making health and welfare insurance payments as well as her delayed reply to his previous queries about tax levies and failure to meet with a designated computer specialist about implementing a new human resources software program. By Bosley's own admission, these problems were all rectified or explained to his satisfaction. Dunaway did not receive any negative performance evaluations after October 1994.

Then, in January 1997, without prior notice, Bosley asked Dunaway to submit her resignation because the Teamsters planned to take the Payroll Department in a new direction and wanted to make personnel changes. When she declined to resign, Bosley told her she was terminated from employment, effective immediately. Dunaway filed a complaint in June 1997 with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

In June 1998, Dunaway sued the Teamsters for gender and national origin discrimination in employment under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq.; age discrimination in employment under both the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, 29 U.S.C. § 621 et seq., and the Human Rights Act of the District of Columbia, D.C.Code § 2-1402.01 et seq.; and breach of implied contract. The Teamsters filed an answer and discovery followed. Thereafter, the Teamsters filed a motion for summary judgment, which Dunaway opposed.

The district court granted summary judgment for the Teamsters. The court found that Dunaway had not established a prima facie case of discrimination because she had failed to show that she was qualified for the position of Payroll Supervisor in light of "uncontroverted evidence that shows that ... [she] was not meeting her employer's expectations." The court also found that because Dunaway failed to show a connection between "alleged stray remarks relating to [her] protected characteristic[s]" and the decision to terminate her employment, the evidence was "not probative of the fact that Dunaway had been discharged because of her national origin." Upon reviewing the Teamsters' Retirement and Family Protection Plan ("Retirement Plan"), Local 2 Collective Bargaining Agreement ("Local 2's Agreement"), Teamsters' Confidentiality Agreement and an Accounting Department personnel manual, the court further found that Dunaway failed to present sufficient evidence to establish an implied contract for employment of any duration.

II.

On appeal from the grant of summary judgment, our review is de novo, and we apply the same standards as the district court. Tao v. Freeh, 27 F.3d 635, 638 (D.C.Cir.1994). Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(c) provides that a district court shall grant summary judgment "if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." There is a genuine issue as to a material fact "if the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party." Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). If factual issues can "reasonably be resolved in favor of either party," there is a need for a trial. Id. at 250, 106 S.Ct. at 2511. The court, therefore, "should review all of the evidence in the record," Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Prods., Inc., 530 U.S. 133, 150, 120 S.Ct. 2097, 2110, 147 L.Ed.2d 105 (2000); cf. Waterhouse v. Dist. of Columbia, 298 F.3d 989, 992 (D.C.Cir.2002), viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party and according that party the benefit of all reasonable inferences. Anderson, 477 U.S. at 255, 106 S.Ct. at 2513 (citing Adickes v. S.H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. 144, 158-59, 90 S.Ct. 1598, 1608-09, 26 L.Ed.2d 142 (1970)); cf. Fed. R.Civ.P. 50. See also Reeves, 530 U.S. at 150, 120 S.Ct. at 2110; Waterhouse, 298 F.3d at 991; Forman v. Small, 271 F.3d 285, 291 (D.C.Cir.2001). At this stage of the proceedings, the court is not to make credibility determinations or weigh the evidence. Reeves, 530 U.S. at 150, 120 S.Ct. at 2110. Only if, after examining the evidence, the court finds that a party has failed "to make a showing sufficient to establish the existence of an element essential to that party's case, and on which that party will bear the burden of proof at trial," is summary judgment appropriate. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2552, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986); Jackson v. Finnegan, 101 F.3d 145, 150 (D.C.Cir.1996).

A.

When reviewing discrimination claims in which the plaintiff alleges that a discriminatory motive was the only basis for the employer's action, the court employs the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting scheme, McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973), as refined in St. Mary's Honor Ctr. v. Hicks, 509 U.S. 502, 113 S.Ct. 2742, 125 L.Ed.2d 407 (1993), Texas Dep't. of Cmty. Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 67 L.Ed.2d 207 (1981), and Reeves, 530 U.S. 133, 120 S.Ct. 2097, 147 L.Ed.2d 105. See Aka v. Washington Hosp. Ctr., 156 F.3d 1284 (D.C.Cir.1998) (en banc); cf. Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, 490 U.S. 228, 109 S.Ct. 1775, 104 L.Ed.2d 268 (1989), superseded in part by 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(m). The McDonnell Douglas framework establishes an order for the presentation of proof in discriminatory-treatment cases. First, the plaintiff must establish a prima facie case of discrimination. Reeves, 530 U.S. at 142, 120 S.Ct. at 2105-06; Aka, 156 F.3d at 1288. Once the plaintiff has done so, the burden of production shifts to the defendant to articulate legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons for the challenged employment decision. Id. If the employer presents such reasons, then the burden shifts back to the plaintiff, who is "afforded the `opportunity to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the legitimate reasons offered by the defendant were not its true reasons, but were a pretext for discrimination.'" Reeves, 530 U.S. at 143, 120 S.Ct. at 2106 (citing Burdine, 450 U.S. at 253, 101 S.Ct. at 1093); see also Aka, 156 F.3d at 1288-89. Although the "presumption of discrimination `drops out of the picture' once the defendant meets its burden of production, the trier of fact may still consider the evidence establishing the plaintiff's prima facie case, `and inferences properly drawn therefrom ... on the issue of whether the defendant's explanation is pretextual.'" Reeves, 530 U.S. at 143, 120 S.Ct. at 2106 (citing Hicks, 509 U.S. at 511, 113 S.Ct. at 2749, and Burdine, 450 U.S. at 255 n. 10, 101 S.Ct. at 1095 n. 10).

Following instruction of the Supreme Court in U.S. Postal Serv. Bd. of Governors v. Aikens, 460 U.S. 711, 103 S.Ct. 1478, 75 L.Ed.2d 403 (1983), our analysis begins with the assumption that Dunaway presented a prima facie case of discrimination based on gender, national origin, and age. See also Waterhouse, 298 F.3d at 993; Mungin v. Katten Muchin & Zavis, 116 F.3d 1549, 1554 (D.C.Cir.1997). In Aikens, the Court, in reviewing a judgment following a full trial on a Title VII claim of racial discrimination in the failure to promote, expressed surprise that the parties were still addressing whether the plaintiff had made out a prima facie case. Id. at 714, 103 S.Ct. at 1481. By framing the issue in those terms, the Court was of the view that the parties "unnecessarily evaded the ultimate question of discrimination vel non." Id. Rejecting the view that the prima facie case method established in McDonnell Douglas was...