Garner v. Arvin Industries Inc.

• Decision Date: 26 February 1996
• Docket Number: No. 95-2926,95-2926
• Citation: 77 F.3d 255
• Parties: Salena G. GARNER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. ARVIN INDUSTRIES INC./ARVIN NORTH AMERICAN AUTOMOTIVE, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 255

77 F.3d 255

Salena G. GARNER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. ARVIN INDUSTRIES INC./ARVIN NORTH AMERICAN AUTOMOTIVE,

Defendant-Appellee.

No. 95-2926.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Jan. 11, 1996.

Decided Feb. 26, 1996.

David C. Howard, St. Louis, MO, argued, for appellant.

Kenneth J. Yerkes, Indianapolis, IN, argued, for appellee.

Before LOKEN, REAVLEY, ^* and HANSEN, Circuit Judges.

HANSEN, Circuit Judge.

Salena Garner brought this action against Arvin Industries/Arvin North American Automotive (Arvin), alleging that she had been terminated in connection with a reduction in force (RIF) on the basis of her age, in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), 29 U.S.C. §§ 621-634, and the Missouri Human Rights Act (MHRA), Mo.Ann.Stat. § 213 (Vernon 1996). Arvin moved for summary judgment, contending that Garner had failed to set forth sufficient facts to establish either a prima facie case or that Arvin's proffered reasons for the adverse employment action were pretextual. The district court ¹ granted Arvin summary judgment on both bases. Garner v. Arvin Indus., Inc., 885 F.Supp. 1254 (E.D.Mo.1995). We affirm.

I.

Arvin Industries Inc. consists of several divisions, including the Arvin North American Automotive division. The Arvin North American Automotive division has a production facility in Dexter, Missouri, which produces automobile exhaust systems to be installed in new cars.

Salena Garner began working for Arvin at the Dexter facility in 1975. Initially, she worked in bargaining unit positions (union jobs), first as a unit operator and subsequently as a clerk/dispatcher. In May of 1981, Garner began working in the engineering department as a maintenance clerk, which was classified as a non-union salaried position. Garner performed a variety of tasks in this position, including: recording work-order records, reading air compressor meters, general office filing, running errands, issuing return goods notices, making copies, running maintenance work orders, and answering the phone. Her primary duty consisted of reading and extracting pertinent data from maintenance work orders and entering the data into a computer. Garner worked in this position until her termination from Arvin.

In 1991, Arvin determined that conditions in the automobile industry necessitated a RIF. The Dexter plant manager, Phil Davis, was instructed to eliminate 20 non-union salaried employees to reduce costs. Davis was not provided with specific instructions or criteria for selecting individuals to be included in the RIF but he was aware that the positions held by employees in the RIF were being permanently eliminated. Davis met with the Dexter plant's six department heads and informed them that a RIF was to be implemented, that the layoffs were permanent in nature, and accordingly, the department heads should select individuals whose departure would impact plant operations the least. Davis left to the department heads the responsibility of selecting employees for the RIF because the department heads were more familiar with the capabilities of the individual employees and the responsibilities required for each position. Garner's department head at the time of the RIF was Robert Willis; Tom Holt, the maintenance general foreman of the Dexter plant and Garner's immediate supervisor, reported directly to Willis.

Garner and 18 other non-union salaried employees were selected for the RIF. Of this group, 5 employees were able to acquire union positions in the Dexter plant, and the remaining 14, including Garner, were terminated. At the time of the RIF, Garner was 58 years of age. Garner's various clerical duties in the engineering department were absorbed by a number of remaining employees. Resa Foushee, a clerk in Garner's department who was 28 years of age at the time of the RIF, assumed Garner's responsibility for processing maintenance work orders.

Garner brought this action alleging that she was terminated because of her age. After extensive discovery, the district court granted summary judgment to Arvin and denied Garner's various motions to strike portions of Arvin's summary judgment briefs and exhibits. The district court later denied Garner's Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59(e) motion to alter or amend the judgment. Garner appeals.

II.

In reviewing a district court's grant of summary judgment, we apply the same standards as the district court. McLaughlin v. Esselte Pendaflex Corp., 50 F.3d 507, 510 (8th Cir.1995). Summary judgment is appropriate when the record, viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, shows that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. Id.; Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). We review the district court's grant of summary judgment de novo. Seltzer-Bey v. Delo, 66 F.3d 961, 963 (8th Cir.1995).

Garner relies on indirect evidence to support her age discrimination claim, and accordingly our analysis is governed by the McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973), three-step burden shifting method of proof. ² Garner must first satisfy the elements of a prima facie case applicable in the RIF context. Bashara v. Black Hills Corp., 26 F.3d 820, 823 (8th Cir.1994). If she satisfies this standard, the burden of production shifts to Arvin "to articulate a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for the adverse employment action," i.e., Garner's termination. Hutson v. McDonnell Douglas Corp., 63 F.3d 771, 776-77 (8th Cir.1995). If Arvin proffers a legitimate reason, the burden shifts back to Garner to demonstrate that Arvin's proffered reason is merely a pretext for age discrimination. Id. at 777. Finally, Garner at all times carries the burden of persuasion to show that the adverse employment action was motivated by intentional discrimination. Id. (citing St. Mary's Honor Center v. Hicks, 509 U.S. 502, 510-11, 113 S.Ct. 2742, 2749, 125 L.Ed.2d 407 (1993)).

In this case, the district court granted summary judgment to Arvin on the basis that Garner failed to set forth sufficient facts to establish a prima facie case of age discrimination. Garner, 885 F.Supp. at 1262. In the alternative, the court held that Garner had not come forth with sufficient evidence to create a jury issue on whether Arvin's proffered reasons were pretextual. Id. at 1264. We will assume for the purposes of this appeal that Garner has established a prima facie case, because even granting her this assumption, the district court properly granted summary judgment to Arvin on the issue of pretext. ³

Arvin submits that it terminated Garner pursuant to a RIF caused by an economic downturn in the automobile industry which necessitated the termination of 19 non-union salaried employees at the Dexter plant. The department heads were informed that the positions held by employees selected for the RIF were being permanently eliminated. Accordingly, the department heads were to select employees for the RIF whose departure would affect plant operations the least in the long run. Garner's superiors, Willis and Holt, stated that they selected individuals for the RIF whose positions could be eliminated or combined with others and still leave the department operational. Other factors Willis and Holt considered were the employee's existing work skills and capacity to absorb new and additional responsibilities.

Willis and Holt determined that Garner's various clerical duties could be easily assumed by other employees. Willis selected Garner for the RIF rather than Foushee, another engineering department clerk who was responsible for the tool order and purchase process, because he believed that the computer system Foushee operated for purchase orders was more complex than the menu-driven computer system Garner used to process maintenance work orders. Thus, Willis thought that Foushee could learn Garner's computer responsibilities more quickly than vice-versa. Along the same lines, around the time of the RIF, Arvin decided to decentralize its purchasing process from its Indiana headquarters to each of its seven manufacturing plants, and Willis and Holt believed that this development would dramatically...