Kusak v. Ameritech Information Systems, Inc., s. 95-1935
| Decision Date | 13 May 1996 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 95-1935,95-1982,s. 95-1935 |
| Citation | 80 F.3d 199 |
| Parties | 70 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 641, 67 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 43,994 Lloyd KUSAK, Plaintiff-Appellee, Cross-Appellant, v. AMERITECH INFORMATION SYSTEMS, INC., Defendant-Appellant, Cross-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 93 C 1004--James B. Moran, Judge.
Thomas J. Dillon (argued), Roger J. McFadden, Tyrrel J. Penn, McFadden & Dillon, Chicago, IL, for Lloyd Kusak.
Charles C. Jackson (argued), Ronald J. Kramer, Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather & Geraldson, Chicago, IL, Hubert O. Thompson, Carney & Brothers, Chicago, IL, for Ameritech
Information Systems, Inc. in No. 95-1935.
Hubert O. Thompson, Deborah A. Richard, Carney & Brothers, Chicago, IL, for Ameritech Information Systems, Inc. in No. 95-1982.
Before EASTERBROOK, DIANE P. WOOD, and EVANS, Circuit Judges.
When Ameritech Information Systems (AIS) told Lloyd Kusak, an experienced systems engineer, in November of 1990 that his position had been declared "surplus," he was understandably displeased with the news. Kusak eventually brought a complaint under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA") and prevailed at a jury trial, winning both actual damages and liquidated damages for a "willful" violation. Both parties appeal to this court. AIS claims that the district court should have granted its post-trial motion for judgment as a matter of law, or at least its motion for a new trial, while Kusak asserts that his award should have included money for "front pay," in addition to the other items of damages. We conclude that the district court erroneously conflated two distinct theories of ADEA liability--wrongful termination and discriminatory employment practices--and thus allowed this case to go to the jury even though Kusak had not carried his burden of establishing a prima facie case. Because the evidence was insufficient as a matter of law to support a finding of age discrimination in AIS's treatment of Kusak, we reverse.
In October 1988, AIS hired Kusak (then 60 years old) to work as a systems engineer. Approximately two years later, as part of a general corporate restructuring effort, AIS declared that a number of positions were "surplus." Three individuals in Kusak's eleven member group were among those whose jobs disappeared that way: Kusak (age 63), Shari Lawrence (age 32), and Eileen Wallace (age 36). As part of the November 16, 1990 notice giving him the bad news, AIS informed Kusak that it would begin "intensive internal placement activities" for him for a period of 60 days, if he so desired. Kusak immediately requested these services. AIS Manager of Staffing and Affirmative Action Beckie Harris subsequently contacted him and told him that she would assist him in finding alternative employment within both AIS and other Ameritech subsidiaries in the Chicago area. Harris also reminded Kusak that he would also need to review job announcements on his own.
Harris' initial efforts were at least partially successful. One week before Kusak's release deadline, she located a temporary position for him as an assistant to Jerome Chaney. Chaney had been assigned to be the director of strategic alliances for Ameritech's Data Strategy Task Force. Chaney told Kusak that the assistant's position he had been offered was temporary, and that it would last only for the duration of the Task Force. Kusak was the only member of the Task Force whose former position had been declared surplus. In December 1991, true to Chaney's predictions, the Task Force completed its work and Kusak was told that he would be terminated effective December 20, 1991.
Neither Kusak nor AIS had been idle during the period between November 1990 and December 1991, but the extent of AIS's efforts to help Kusak find alternative employment was disputed at the trial. During that period, Harris submitted Kusak's application (known as a PR-36 in Ameritech jargon) for a total of thirteen positions, six before he began working for the Task Force and seven after. Of the seven submitted while he was working for the Task Force, Harris submitted three on her own initiative and four upon Kusak's request.
Kusak emphasizes that during the same time period there were at least 174 positions within AIS that were reflected on 168 of the company's internal "PR-20" forms in Harris' office. Harris did not submit Kusak's PR-36 for a single one of these postings. Kusak testified, without rebuttal, that he was qualified for at least 25 of these positions. The record reflected that nine of the 25 positions for which he was qualified were filled by individuals under the age of 40. Kusak also presented other examples of positions for which he believed he was qualified, for which company representatives did not submit his PR-36 to the selecting official.
Kusak did not file a complaint of age discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission until May 15, 1992. Thus, as the district court correctly held, he was time-barred from challenging the initial November 1990 decision to declare his job "surplus." See 29 U.S.C. § 626(d)(2); Stark v. Dynascan Corp., 902 F.2d 549, 551 (7th Cir.1990). In addition, Kusak's complaint did not contend that his position on the Task Force was anything but temporary. Before this Court, he argues briefly that the Task Force had not yet completed its work, that Chaney still had some use for him and that his Task Force duties were reassigned to younger individuals. The district court, however, concluded that the evidence tending to show that the elimination of the Task Force position was pretextual was insufficient to support the jury's verdict, and we agree. The court put it succinctly: "[p]laintiff's position, along with others, was eliminated in 1990; the company found him a temporary slot, and then that temporary position came to an end, as temporary positions inevitably do." Thus, the district court correctly held in its Memorandum and Order denying judgment as a matter of law that Kusak's claim could not rest on either the November 1990 or the December 1991 terminations.
Time-barred from complaining about the critical November 1990 decision, and without enough evidence to show that the Task Force job was not what it appeared to be, Kusak is left with one argument: that AIS did not live up to its promise to search intensively to find alternative employment for him within the company (or its corporate family), and its lethargy reflected age discrimination. We must therefore consider whether the evidence at trial could support a jury's finding that AIS's operation of its job placement service for employees whose positions were eliminated was conducted in an impermissibly discriminatory manner, or if the ineffective job search program was in effect a...
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