Merillat v. Metal Spinners, Inc.

• Decision Date: 06 December 2006
• Docket Number: No. 05-4053.,05-4053.
• Citation: 470 F.3d 685
• Parties: Janet M. MERILLAT, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. METAL SPINNERS, INCORPORATED, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

470 F.3d 685

Janet M. MERILLAT, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. METAL SPINNERS, INCORPORATED, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 05-4053.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued May 8, 2006.

Decided December 6, 2006.

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Neal Lewis (argued), Lewis & Associates, Orland, IN, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Robert D. Moreland (argued), Baker & Daniels, Fort Wayne, IN, for Defendant-Appellee.

Before BAUER, RIPPLE and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge.

Janet M. Merillat brought this action against her former employer, Metal Spinners, Inc., ("Metal Spinners"). She alleged age discrimination in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA"), 29 U.S.C. § 621 et seq.; sex discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq.; and a violation of the Equal Pay Act ("EPA"), 29 U.S.C. § 206(d). Metal Spinners filed a motion for summary judgment; the district court granted that motion. For the reasons set forth in the following opinion, we affirm the judgment of the district court.

I BACKGROUND

A. Facts

Metal Spinners provides a variety of metal-forming services, including metal spinning. Olin Wiland has been its chief executive officer since 1997.

Ms. Merillat began her employment with Metal Spinners in September 1983. At all times relevant to this litigation, she worked in the materials department, which consisted of Ms. Merillat and Amy Stevenson, who initially was supervised by Ms. Merillat. Until December of 2002, Ms. Merillat's title was Purchase Manager; she then became the Senior Buyer. As the Senior Buyer, her duties included creating various reports, purchasing, entering orders, shipping, meeting with management, scheduling trucks, supervising department employees, negotiating with suppliers, evaluating suppliers and creating a plan for reducing the costs of tools. Ms. Merillat tracked suppliers, shipments and inventory by using three different computer programs: Vantage, Al-Net and Excel. Consequently, Ms. Merillat sometimes had to enter the same data into more than one computer program. Ms. Merillat admitted that some of her computer tasks were redundant, but maintains that Metal Spinners failed to give her the computer upgrades and training that would have enabled her to create all necessary reports on only one program.

In August of 2002, Metal Spinners created a new position, "Vice President of Procurement and Materials Management," and Wiland began a search for an individual to fill this position. The duties of this position included managing the materials department employees (Ms. Merillat and Stevenson), as well as establishing strategies to reduce inventory costs and increase profitability. The successful candidate would be expected to implement a new computer system. In November, Wiland offered the position to Craig Wehr. Wehr was 38 years old when he was hired; his starting salary was $62,500. At that time, Ms. Merillat earned $49,800. Ms. Merillat helped to train Wehr after he was hired.

Ms. Merillat had kept a cartoon posted on her bulletin board that lampooned the difference between salaries for men and women. The cartoon, which reasonably could be described as somewhat crude, had been displayed on her board for over fifteen years. On the day that Wiland told Ms. Merillat that Wehr had been hired, he asked her to take the cartoon down.

In late 2002 and the first half of 2003, Metal Spinners experienced significant financial difficulties and decided to eliminate some positions to decrease costs—a reduction in force ("RIF"). Ms. Merillat and another individual, Patrick O'Beirne, were terminated on June 3, 2003. Two other individuals were terminated on June 4, 2003. One of those individuals, John Johnson, retired. The other, Jim Cranfull, had his position eliminated, but he was allowed to return to a former position on the production floor.

On the date of her termination, Ms. Merillat was 49 years old; Wehr was 38 years old. Some of Ms. Merillat's former duties, such as creating various reports, are now performed by the Vantage computer system, following a technical upgrade by Metal Spinners; other of Ms. Merillat's tasks have been absorbed into the positions occupied by Wehr and Stevenson.

B. District Court Proceedings

In addressing the merits of Metal Spinners' summary judgment motion, the district court first observed that Ms. Merillat had offered no direct evidence of either sex or age discrimination. The court then proceeded to assess both of these claims under the burden-shifting framework set forth in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973). The district court determined that Ms. Merillat could not establish two elements of the McDonnell Douglas prima facie test: that she was performing her job to her employer's reasonable expectations and that similarly situated employees outside of the protected classes were treated more favorably than she.

With regard to her work performance, the court noted that Wiland's deposition testimony was that Ms. Merillat had failed to meet his expectations because: (1) she was unable "to entertain strategic concepts and manage new projects"; (2) she was "unable to adequately supervise subordinates"; (3) she "did not get along well with her co-workers"; and (4) she was "unwilling to implement a corporate-wide computer system." R.50 at 7 (citing Wiland Dep., R.35 at 16-17). The district court also determined that Metal Spinners' evaluations of Ms. Merillat from 2000-2002 confirmed Wiland's deposition testimony. Although the evaluations contained numerical ratings that indicated that Ms. Merillat was performing satisfactorily during those years, the court credited Metal Spinners' contention that the comments on those reviews "indicate that Merillat was performing marginally at best." Id. at 9.

The district court further explained that: If Merillat had simply been fired from her job in the absence of a RIF, then she might have been able to argue that she was performing satisfactorily enough to not warrant being fired. But in this case she was not terminated for cause, but terminated due to reduction in force. This court agrees with Metal Spinners that what constitutes "satisfactory" work shifts a bit in a reduction in force case. Thus, while the record shows that Merillat was performing in the mid-range in some respects, the reviews also show that Merillat had some problems that concerned Metal Spinners enough that they were included in her evaluations. Thus, in this regard, the record supports Metal Spinners['] view that Merillat was a non-satisfactory performer.

Id.

Next, the district court examined the fourth prong of the traditional RIF McDonnell Douglas inquiry regarding the treatment of similarly situated employees not within the protected classes. Earlier in the opinion, the district court had noted that this circuit's precedent recognizes variations on the McDonnell Douglas analysis for a traditional RIF, where positions and duties are eliminated, and for what this court has called a "mini-RIF," where a discharged employee's duties are absorbed by other existing staff. See Bellaver v. Quanex Corp., 200 F.3d 485, 493-95 (7th Cir. 2000); Paluck v. Gooding Rubber Co., 221 F.3d 1003, 1011-12 & n. 5 (7th Cir. 2000). Specifically, the district court noted that under the modified McDonnell Douglas test appropriate in a "mini-RIF" situation, the fourth prong of the plaintiff's prima facie case is satisfied when the plaintiff demonstrates that her duties were absorbed by persons not in the protected class. When actually applying the McDonnell Douglas test, however, the district court looked to whether Ms. Merillat presented anyone similarly situated to her, an inquiry, which, as we have noted, is suited to the McDonnell Douglas test in a traditional RIF situation. See Bellaver, 200 F.3d at 494. Applying this test, the district court stated that Ms. Merillat failed to show that similarly situated, younger employees or similarly situated men were treated more favorably. Id. at 9. Although Ms. Merillat claimed that she and Wehr were similarly situated, the district court determined that they were not, based on its findings that Wehr was her supervisor and had more education and broader work experience than Ms. Merillat.

The district court also held that, even if Ms. Merillat had established a prima facie case, Metal Spinners had a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for terminating her: The company was experiencing an economic down-turn. The court noted that many of Ms. Merillat's tasks now could be done by the new Vantage computer system, making her a plausible candidate for termination to cut costs. Additionally, the court stated that her poor job performance was a separate legally sufficient reason for her discharge.

Finally, the district court turned to Ms. Merillat's EPA claim in which she alleged that she was paid less than Wehr because of her gender. Relying upon Cullen v. Indiana University Board of Trustees, 338 F.3d 693, 698 (7th Cir. 2003), the district court stated that, in order to establish a prima facie case of an EPA violation, Ms. Merillat needed to show that her job and Wehr's job required comparable skill, effort and responsibility. The court then held the jobs did not require comparable "skills" because Wehr's job required him to "supervise the department and implement new strategies to improve supplier relationships," while Ms. Merillat's did not. Id. at 19. The court also held that the jobs did not require equal "effort," because Wehr's added responsibilities "created more stress." Id. Finally, the court stated that the jobs did not require equal "responsibility," because Wehr had supervisory responsibility of the entire department, including Ms. Merillat. Id. Therefore, the district court held that Ms. Merillat could not establish a prima facie case of wage discrimination.

The district court...