Hudson v. Southern Ductile Casting Corp., 87-7261

Decision Date20 July 1988
Docket NumberNo. 87-7261,87-7261
Citation849 F.2d 1372
Parties47 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 554, 47 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 38,135, 11 Fed.R.Serv.3d 1003 John D. HUDSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SOUTHERN DUCTILE CASTING CORP., Defendant-Appellee.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Henry L. Penick, Penick, Williams & Jones, Birmingham, Ala., for plaintiff-appellant.

James W. May, Bradley, Arant, Rose & White, Stephen E. Brown, Birmingham, Ala., for defendant-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Before JOHNSON, Circuit Judge, HENDERSON *, Senior Circuit Judge, and PITTMAN **, Senior District Judge.

PER CURIAM:

John D. Hudson appeals from an order entered by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama granting summary judgment in favor of the Southern Ductile Casting Corporation ("Southern Ductile"). We affirm.

This case began when Hudson, a fifty-eight-year-old black male, filed a complaint against Southern Ductile, his former employer, in the district court, alleging violations of (1) Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e et seq.; (2) the Civil Rights Act of 1866, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1981; and (3) the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 621 et seq. ("ADEA"). Hudson was employed by Southern Ductile from November 11, 1946 until July 2, 1985. During his employment, he held a variety of jobs including coreroom foreman, the position he held on the date of his termination, at the company's foundry in Bessemer, Alabama.

In the late 1970s, Southern Ductile began a program of expansion and modernization at its Bessemer facility. These improvements included additions of equipment and processes and the construction of a new plant building, permitting Southern Ductile to expand its space allotted for coremaking. In January, 1982, Southern Ductile hired Charles Hardin, a twenty-seven-year-old white male with a degree in engineering, as general coreroom foreman, a newly created supervisory position. Hardin's duties as general coreroom foreman included managing the expanded coreroom operations and providing problem-solving/trouble-shooting skills in the startup of the new equipment and processes in the new plant. Both Hudson, as first shift coreroom foreman, and Donald Shierling, a thirty-one-year-old white male, as second shift coreroom foreman, reported to Hardin who, in turn, was responsible to Mike Widick, the operations manager. Prior to the creation of the general coreroom foreman position, Hudson and Shierling had reported directly to Widick.

Hardin resigned from the company after about ten months and was replaced by George Whitlow, another white male who was transferred from his position as general foundry foreman. Hudson characterizes Southern Ductile's failure to promote him to general coreroom foreman on these two occasions as acts of discrimination. 1

Although Hudson worked primarily in the coreroom, he received several temporary assignments during the period relevant to this lawsuit. For a portion of 1982, he served as a plant guard and from late November, 1984 until May, 1985, approximately one month before he was terminated, he served as the second shift grinding room foreman. These temporary transfers, according to Hudson, were demotions and were motivated by discrimination. 2

In late June, 1985, Southern Ductile eliminated several jobs as part of an alleged reduction in force ("RIF"). The employees and positions terminated in the RIF were (1) James W. Hill, a white, thirty-six-year-old personnel manager; (2) John E. Moore, a white, thirty-six-year-old industrial engineer/technician; (3) George Davis, a black, thirty-four-year-old first shift gatebreaking foreman; (4) Harvey Prater, a white, fifty-nine-year-old second shift gatebreaking foreman; and (5) Hudson. A sixth employee, Thomas Haisten, a white, twenty-five-year-old foreman trainee, was allowed to return to an hourly position in the bargaining unit. Pursuant to a collective bargaining provision, Haisten was entitled to return to the bargaining unit and to retain his seniority because he had been classified as a supervisor for less than six months. A seventh employee, Harry Burton, a white, sixty-four-year-old maintenance foreman, had lost his job a short time earlier as a result of reassignments following elimination of the position of plant engineer. Southern Ductile offered Hudson, Prater and Davis employment as hourly employees in the bargaining unit without seniority rights, because they were not eligible under the bargaining agreement, or, alternatively, a severance package providing insurance coverage for ninety days and one week's pay for each year worked. Prater and Davis accepted the severance package. Hudson rejected both options and was terminated. In the face of these facts in evidence, Hudson maintains that his discharge was motivated by discrimination.

On July 23, 1985, Hudson filed a discrimination charge with the local Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC"). In addition to the foregoing, Hudson asserts that his termination resulted from unlawful retaliation because he consulted with the EEOC with respect to purported discriminatory employment practices and because his son, Stassonia Leon Hudson, filed a prior charge of employment discrimination with the EEOC against Southern Ductile. On May 21, 1986, following receipt of a right-to-sue letter, Hudson filed this action in the district court. On March 17, 1987, the district court granted Southern Ductile's motion for summary judgment. This appeal followed.

Hudson urges that he should have been promoted over Hardin and Whitlow to the newly created position of general coreroom foreman in 1982. Southern Ductile asserts that Hudson was not offered the position because he lacked the technical and supervisory skills needed for the job. One of the most important functions associated with that job involved the calculation and revision of standards by which the company measured its efficiency and established the cost basis for its products. It is undisputed, however, that at the time Hardin was hired, Hudson did not know how to calculate the standards. 3 It is also without contradiction that around the time Whitlow and Hudson were being considered as replacements for Hardin, Whitlow himself tried several times unsuccessfully to teach Hudson how to calculate the standards properly. Although Hudson maintains that he subsequently learned this ability from another supervisor, 4 there is no evidence that he ever communicated this fact to the company or that the company's proffered reason for transferring Whitlow to the position of general coreroom foreman rather than Hudson was pretextual.

Hudson charges that he was "demoted" for several months in late 1982 when he was temporarily assigned as a plant guard. However, Hudson suffered no reduction in pay or loss of benefits as a result of this alleged demotion. It is also undisputed that several white supervisors, including Widick, were similarly assigned plant guard duties at that time.

Hudson also apparently...

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