Johnson v. Cambridge Industries, Inc.

Decision Date09 April 2003
Docket NumberNo. 02-1749.,02-1749.
PartiesDaryl L. JOHNSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CAMBRIDGE INDUSTRIES, INCORPORATED and Meridian Automotive Systems, Incorporated, Defendants-Appellees.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Richard L. Darst (argued), Cohen, Garelick & Glazier, Indianapolis, IN, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Brent D. Rector (argued), Miller Johnson, Snell & Cummiskey, Grand Rapids, MI, for Defendant-Appellee.

Before CUDAHY, DIANE P. WOOD, and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.

DIANE P. WOOD, Circuit Judge.

Not every genuine difficulty on the job amounts to impermissible discrimination in violation of federal statutes. Instead, distinctions like the difference between an "adverse employment action" and lesser problems, or between an employee's actual performance and the employer's perception of that performance, abound. When Daryl Johnson sued his current employer, Meridian Automotive Systems, Inc., as well as its predecessor Cambridge Industries, Inc., alleging violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e et seq., the district court was required as a matter of law to observe these subtle distinctions when it ruled on Meridian's motion for summary judgment. The district court was also entitled to rely on the materials each party cited as a basis for its decision. We conclude that the court correctly determined that Johnson did not produce enough evidence to warrant a trial, although some of our reasons for reaching this decision are different from the district court's. We therefore affirm the judgment of the district court.

I

Since 1996, Johnson, an African-American male, has worked as a production associate building fiberglass automotive replacement parts for Cambridge Industries, now owned by Meridian. Johnson has been an outstanding employee with an excellent history of performance evaluations and a company-wide reputation for high quality work. This generally favorable assessment of Johnson is tarnished only by a single write-up, which was mistakenly given to Johnson on two separate occasions. The write-up documents various employment-related problems on Johnson's part over an eight-month period.

When Cambridge advertised an opening for two team leaders in May 1999, Johnson and white co-worker Josh Goad applied for and were elected to these positions by their colleagues. That positive event was clouded, however, by two separate racist remarks made by co-workers Ross Springman and Brian Durham that came to Johnson's attention more or less contemporaneously. Specifically, when Springman was asked why he was not going to run for the team leader position, he proclaimed that there was no need to compete for that job since it was a foregone conclusion who would receive the position. Pressed by a co-worker to explain his comment, Springman apparently said, "Eenie, meenie, minie, moe, pick a nigger by his toe," in reference to the fact that Johnson was a candidate for the position. (In any event, Goad reported that he overheard Springman's comment to this effect.) In an unrelated incident, Durham told co-worker Travis Irvine that he did not know why Irvine would "want that one-eyed nigger over here." The comment could only have referred to Johnson, who lost the sight in one of his eyes as a child. Neither Springman nor Durham was a supervisor of Johnson, and both received some form of management censure. Springman was suspended for three days (and served at least one day of his suspension), and Durham's employment was terminated, although the record does not establish whether or not he left Cambridge voluntarily, and whether his departure was in response to his racist remark.

Shortly after Johnson and Goad complained to management about these racist remarks, the company announced that it was rescinding altogether the positions of team leader to which the two had been elected. When asked by Johnson to explain, Acting Plant Manager Ron Szydlowski told him, "[I]t came down from corporate that there will be no other team leader positions, just the ones that are already appointed previously." Johnson asserted in his deposition and affidavit that in the fall of 1999, Goad was put in a team leader position, but Johnson was not. He did not call any other evidence of such a promotion to the district court's attention, however, which led to problems we discuss below.

Other facts pertinent to Johnson's appeal relate to both his race discrimination and retaliation charges. For example, on October 15, 1999, Johnson injured his back on the job and went to a local hospital emergency room for treatment. The doctor prescribed painkillers and recommended a lumbar back support brace for him. Nonetheless, upon his return to work a few days later, he was assigned to work that aggravated his injury. The company would not permit him to work while taking certain prescription medications. Worse, despite the promises from company officials that he would receive the back brace through a company program, he did not get the brace until he produced a doctor's prescription and told the company his waist size. Johnson believed that this treatment was in retaliation for his complaints about racial discrimination in the workplace. Likewise, Johnson asserts that he was assigned harder tasks than his white co-workers and was left to perform these tasks alone, which, because of the racial lines these assignments reflected, also evidenced a discriminatory workplace. Finally, Johnson offers evidence of various encounters with Cambridge's management as proof that he was the victim of discrimination and impermissibly retaliated against for engaging in protected conduct. These encounters include (among other things) being told by a supervisor to wear safety goggles; receiving a warning about alleged violations of Cambridge's vacation policy; receiving a written notification of nine instances of unsatisfactory job performances that spanned a period of eight months; and being threatened with termination for insubordination.

Johnson filed his first charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on October 18, 1999. A week later he filed a second charge with the EEOC alleging that Cambridge retaliated against him for filing the first charge. Curiously, neither complaint alleges that Johnson was denied the promotion to team leader for impermissible or discriminatory reasons. The EEOC issued right-to-sue letters in both cases, and Johnson subsequently filed this lawsuit against both Meridian and Cambridge on October 4, 2000. (Johnson's claims against Cambridge are stayed because Cambridge in the meantime has filed for bankruptcy, and thus it is protected by the automatic stay. This does not affect our substantive analysis, however, and procedurally the case is properly here because the district court entered a judgment pursuant to FED. R. CIV. P. 54(b) with respect to Meridian. Because all of the conduct at issue occurred while Johnson was employed by Cambridge, we sometimes refer to both defendants as Cambridge.)

II

Our review of the district court's decision to grant summary judgment for Meridian is de novo. Gordon v. United Airlines, 246 F.3d 878, 885 (7th Cir.2001). In deciding the appeal, we draw our own conclusions of law and fact from the record and will uphold summary judgment in Meridian's favor only if there is no genuine issue of material fact and Meridian is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Id. See also FED. R. CIV. P. 56(c).

It is now well established that a plaintiff may show that she was the victim of discrimination or impermissible retaliation in the workplace either by providing direct evidence of discrimination or by proceeding under the indirect, burden-shifting method of McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973). See Wallace v. SMC Pneumatics, Inc., 103 F.3d 1394, 1397 (7th Cir.1997). In spite of the alleged racist comments from certain co-workers, Johnson lacks direct evidence of race discrimination or retaliation and thus is proceeding under the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting method.

The McDonnell Douglas approach requires a plaintiff first to establish certain prima facie elements for either race discrimination or retaliation. See Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Prods., Inc., 530 U.S. 133, 142, 120 S.Ct. 2097, 147 L.Ed.2d 105 (2000). Once this is done, through competent evidence, the burden of production shifts to the defendant to offer a permissible, noninvidious reason for the alleged discrimination. Id. If the defendant meets this production burden, the plaintiff may then rebut that evidence by showing that the employer's reasons are a pretext for discrimination or that the decision was tainted by impermissible, race-based motives. Id. at 143, 120 S.Ct. 2097; see also Gordon, 246 F.3d at 886. "`The ultimate burden of persuading the trier of fact that the defendant intentionally discriminated against the plaintiff remains at all times with the plaintiff.'" Reeves, 530 U.S. at 143, 120 S.Ct. 2097 (quoting Texas Dep't of Cmty. Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 253, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 67 L.Ed.2d 207 (1981)).

A. Failure to Promote Claims

As the district court noted, Johnson's complaint that he was denied the team leader promotion can be read to state a claim of either race discrimination or retaliation. Therefore we analyze it under both theories. To establish a prima facie case for race discrimination, Johnson must show that he belongs to a protected class, that he was performing his job at Cambridge to his employer's satisfaction, that he suffered an adverse employment action, and that a similarly-situated employee who was not a member of a protected class was treated more favorably by Cambridge. Stalter v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 195 F.3d 285, 289 (7th Cir.1999). The prima facie case for a retaliation claim requires ...

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