Legrand v. Trustees of University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff

• Decision Date: 16 June 1987
• Docket Number: No. 86-1789,86-1789
• Citation: 821 F.2d 478
• Parties: 44 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 60, 43 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 37,164, 45 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 37,651, 56 USLW 2011, 40 Ed. Law Rep. 116 Sylvester LEGRAND and Henry Rayfus, Appellants, v. TRUSTEES OF UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT PINE BLUFF; Bradley D. Jesson; Jacqueline Douglas; Robert D. Pugh; Hugh B. Chalmers; Jack L. Williams; Hall McAdams, III; Keneaster Hodges, Jr.; Gun Blass, II; M.A. Jackson, W. Sykes Harris, Sr.,; and Dr. Lloyd V. Hackley, Chancellor, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 478

821 F.2d 478

44 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 60, 43 Empl. Prac.

Dec. P 37,164,

45 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 37,651, 56 USLW 2011,

40 Ed. Law Rep. 116

Sylvester LEGRAND and Henry Rayfus, Appellants, v. TRUSTEES OF UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT PINE BLUFF; Bradley D. Jesson; Jacqueline Douglas; Robert D. Pugh; Hugh B Chalmers; Jack L. Williams; Hall McAdams, III; Keneaster Hodges, Jr.; Gun Blass, II; M.A. Jackson, W. Sykes Harris Sr.,; and Dr. Lloyd V. Hackley, Chancellor, Appellees.

No. 86-1789.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Jan. 13, 1987.

Decided June 16, 1987.

Marion A. Humphrey, Little Rock, Ark., for appellants.

Ginger P. Crisp, Fayetteville, Ark., for appellees.

Before LAY, Chief Judge, HEANEY, Circuit Judge, and CAHILL, ^* District Judge.

LAY, Chief Judge.

Sylvester Legrand and Henry Rayfus appeal the dismissal of their claims against the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) alleging employment discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. Secs. 2000e-17, and 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1981. The district court ¹ found that the plaintiffs had not made a prima facie case of discrimination and the defendant had established legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons both for discharging the plaintiffs and for failing to rehire them when positions became available. The plaintiffs challenge these conclusions. We reverse and remand for further proceedings.

Facts

Legrand and Rayfus are black, certified journeymen electricians who were employed in the electrical department of the Physical Plant at UAPB. Legrand had been with UAPB since 1975 and Rayfus since 1974. The university employed both men on a contractual basis. Both testified at trial that they knew their contracts were subject to renewal every year. The only other employee in the electrical department was their supervisor Willie Pree, who is also black. Pree was responsible for the work schedules of Legrand and Rayfus, and he had prepared their employee evaluations for several years.

Vice Chancellor Benson Otovo testified that in 1983, UAPB instituted budget cutbacks. Nineteen positions in the Physical Plant were eliminated, including one of the two journeyman electrician positions. On July 1, 1983, twenty-seven contracts in the Physical Plant, including the plaintiffs', were not renewed for fiscal 1983-84. After their contracts were not renewed, Legrand and Rayfus applied for any parttime or fulltime position at UAPB. Nineteen positions eventually were filled in the Physical Plant after the plaintiffs' contracts were not renewed. ² Blacks filled twelve of the positions, and whites filled seven; neither plaintiff was interviewed or offered any of these jobs.

On July 5, 1983, Michael Cummings, a white male, applied for the journeyman electrician position, and he was hired on a temporary basis on July 15. On August 25, 1983, Burton Henderson, who is white and who had served as director of the Physical Plant since March, 1983, recommended Cummings for permanent appointment to the journeyman electrician position. Cummings eventually became supervisor of the electrical department when Pree retired.

The plaintiffs filed suit against UAPB, alleging discrimination in the nonrenewal of their contracts and in the failure of UAPB to consider or hire them for jobs for which they applied and were qualified. UAPB contends that the decision to terminate the plaintiffs was based on budget cutbacks and the need to employ only the best qualified, most productive workers.

Discussion

Under traditional guidelines, a plaintiff establishes a prima facie case of racial discrimination in a Title VII and Sec. 1981 discharge action by showing that: (1) he belongs to a racial minority; (2) he was qualified for the job and satisfied its normal requirements; (3) he was discharged; and (4) after his discharge, the employer assigned a non-minority employee to perform the same work. McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 1824, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973). The district court concluded that white is the minority race at UAPB and black is the dominant race because UAPB is classified as a traditionally black campus of the university and the overwhelming majority of employees in the Physical Plant is black. The court also found that the plaintiffs were unqualified for the job because they were not dependable. On these bases, the court held that the plaintiffs had failed to establish a prima facie case. We find the failure of the trial court to recognize a prima facie case to be legal error.

The proof required to establish a prima facie case of discrimination will necessarily vary in different fact situations. The operative inquiry is whether the plaintiff has produced sufficient evidence to create an inference--that is, a rebuttable presumption--that an employment-related decision was based on an illegal racial criterion under the Act. See McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. at 802 n. 13, 93 S.Ct. at 824 n. 13.

Title VII prohibits employment discrimination against "any individual" because of the individual's race. ³ Its terms are not limited to discrimination against members of any particular race. McDonald v. Santa Fe Trail Transp. Co., 427 U.S. 273, 278-79, 96 S.Ct. 2574, 2577-78, 49 L.Ed.2d 493 (1976). Instead, the Act proscribes "[d]iscriminatory preference for any [racial] group, minority or majority." Id. at 279, 96 S.Ct. at 2578 (quoting Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424, 431, 91 S.Ct. 849, 853, 28 L.Ed.2d 158 (1971)). In McDonald v. Santa Fe Trail, 427 U.S. at 279 n. 6, 96 S.Ct. at 2578 n. 6 the Court noted that the racial minority requirement of McDonnell Douglas "was set out only to demonstrate how the racial character of the discrimination could be established in the most common sort of case, and not as an indication of any substantive limitation of Title VII's prohibition of racial discrimination." Cf. Byrd v. Roadway Express, Inc., 687 F.2d 85, 86 (5th Cir.1982) (prima facie case of racial discrimination in discharge may be established even if plaintiff is replaced by individual of his own race). Thus, we think it clear that it is not an essential element to the establishment of a prima facie case that a plaintiff prove he is within a minority group. Each case must withstand an independent analysis. The overall circumstances may dictate, as they do here, that a prima facie inference of discrimination based upon race has been established. Cf. Leichihman v. Pickwick Int'l., 814 F.2d 1263, 1269 (8th Cir.1987) (prima facie case in age discrimination action turns on particular facts that create an inference of discrimination).

UAPB is not an autonomous institution; it is but one campus in a multiple-campus system of the University of Arkansas (UA). The overwhelming majority of students and employees at UA is white. The board of trustees, which has ultimate policymaking authority at UA, consists of nine whites and one black.

The plaintiffs' immediate supervisor Willie Pree and the acting director of the Physical Plant at the time of the decision to discharge plaintiffs, James Collins, are both black. Benson Otovo, the Vice Chancellor for Fiscal Affairs and Administrative Services, is also black. On Collins' recommendation, Otovo determined in January, 1983, not to renew the plaintiffs' contracts. Burton Henderson, who is white, became permanent director of the Physical Plant in March, 1983. In the years that the plaintiffs had worked for UAPB, there had never been a white director of the Physical Plant. Collins testified that although the recommendation to lay off plaintiffs had been made before March of 1983, Henderson retained the final authority to decide which positions would be eliminated. Henderson reviewed the recommended cuts and approved the nonrenewal of plaintiffs' contracts. Henderson also made the decision to hire Cummings for the remaining journeyman electrician position.

The district court also found that the plaintiffs were not qualified for the job because they were "unreliable," an assessment that turned largely on subjective evidence produced by the defendant. Even if we assume that this finding is valid, it should not affect the district court's evaluation at the prima facie stage of whether the plaintiffs have established that they are qualified for the job. ⁴ For purposes of establishing a prima facie case, the plaintiffs need only show their objective qualifications for the job. Lynn v. Regents of the Univ. of Cal., 656 F.2d 1337, 1344-45 (9th Cir.1981) (for prima facie case, plaintiff need only prove objective job qualifications; subjective judgments of relative qualifications should be established by employer at step two), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 823, 103 S.Ct. 53, 74 L.Ed.2d 59 (1982); Davis v. Califano, 613 F.2d 957, 964 (D.C.Cir.1979) (court should consider only minimum objective qualifications to establish prima facie case). Here, the plaintiffs proved by a preponderance of the evidence that they were experienced, journeymen electricians, and UAPB does not dispute this. They also adduced evidence through employee evaluations that they satisfied the normal requirements of the job prior to their dismissal. This is all that is required at the prima facie stage. We conclude that there is sufficient evidence to establish a prima facie case of racial discrimination under Title VII.

The defendant urges that whether the plaintiffs made out a prima facie case is irrelevant since the district court reached the ultimate issue and found that there was no unlawful discrimination. See United States Postal Serv. Bd. v. Aikens, 460 U.S. 711, 714, 103 S.Ct. 1478, 1481, 75 L.Ed.2d 403 (1983). To accept this proposition is to ignore the allocation of burdens set out by the Supreme Court in McDonnell Douglas and to disregard the inference of discriminatory intent to which these plaintiffs are entitled. When a district court erroneously fails to recognize a prima facie case under ...