Miles v. Dell, Inc.

• Citation: 429 F.3d 480
• Decision Date: 22 November 2005
• Docket Number: No. 04-2500.,04-2500.
• Parties: Kimberly MILES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. DELL, INCORPORATED, Defendant-Appellee. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Amicus Supporting Appellant.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (4th Circuit)

429 F.3d 480

Kimberly MILES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. DELL, INCORPORATED, Defendant-Appellee.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Amicus Supporting Appellant.

No. 04-2500.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued September 21, 2005.

Decided November 22, 2005.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

ARGUED: Mona Lyons, Washington, D.C., for Appellant. Elizabeth Ellen Theran, United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Washington, D.C., for Amicus Supporting Appellant. Jonathan S. Franklin, Hogan & Hartson, L.L.P., Washington, D.C., for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Eric S. Dreiband, General, Carolyn L. Wheeler, Acting Associate General, Vincent J. Blackwood, Assistant General, United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Washington, D.C., for Amicus Supporting Appellant. Jessica L. Ellsworth, Hogan & Hartson, L.L.P., Washington, D.C., for Appellee.

Before LUTTIG, Circuit Judge, HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge, and JAMES C. DEVER, III, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina, sitting by designation.

Affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded by published opinion. Judge LUTTIG wrote the opinion, in which Senior Judge HAMILTON and Judge DEVER joined.

LUTTIG, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff-appellant Kimberly Miles, a former account manager at Dell, Inc., sued Dell for sex discrimination, pregnancy discrimination, and retaliation under Title VII. The district court granted Dell's motion for summary judgment as to all three claims, concluding that, under governing circuit precedent, Miles failed to make out a prima facie case of sex or pregnancy discrimination because she was replaced by another female, and that Miles failed to exhaust her administrative remedies with respect to her retaliation claim because she did not allege retaliation in the charge she filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Because the district court did not consider whether Miles' case falls within the different-decisionmaker exception to the fourth prong of the Title VII prima facie case that we recognize today, we vacate the grant of summary judgment with respect to Miles' sex and pregnancy discrimination claims. We affirm the grant of summary judgment with respect to Miles' retaliation claim.

I.

From January 1999 to June 2002, plaintiff-appellant Kimberly Miles worked as an account manager for defendant-appellee Dell, Inc.¹ J.A. 45, 240. From March 2001 until her dismissal, Miles' supervisor was James Glaze, a regional sales manager who oversaw Miles' sales team. Id. at 418, 439. On March 21, 2001, Miles informed Glaze that she was pregnant. Id. at 430.

In April 2001, Glaze reduced Miles' sales territory and reassigned her key accounts in Northern Virginia, where she lived, to another employee who had no prior sales experience and lived in Texas. Id. at 422. Miles asked Glaze if he had reassigned her territory because of her pregnancy, but he would not discuss the matter with her. Id. at 425. Miles complained to one of Glaze's superiors about her mistreatment and told Glaze that she had done so. Id.

In May 2001, Glaze increased Miles' individual sales quotas and told her that she would remain responsible for achieving those quotas during any maternity leave she might take. Id. at 431, 442-43. Glaze also reported (falsely, Miles says) to Dell's human resources officer that Miles had lied to him about the status of a contract with one of Dell's customers. Id. at 326. Glaze requested permission to terminate Miles, but that request was refused. Id. On June 30, 2001, Miles gave birth to her daughter. Id. at 427. After taking two weeks of maternity leave, Miles returned to work. Id. at 169. Nine months later, on March 28, 2002, Glaze gave Miles an unsatisfactory rating for her performance in 2001 and shortly thereafter placed her on a performance-improvement plan ("PIP"). Id. at 200-06, 207-09. Miles again informed Glaze that she intended to complain to his supervisor about her mistreatment, and she did so. Id. at 425-26. Miles told Glaze's supervisor that Glaze had been hostile towards her from the time she told him she was pregnant. Id.

On May 1, 2002, Glaze forwarded an e-mail from one of Miles' disgruntled clients to Dell management, along with a request that Miles be terminated. Id. at 214. Shortly thereafter, a member of Dell's human resources department contacted Glaze, advised him that she agreed that termination was the right decision, and instructed him to draft a termination letter. Id. at 148-49. Miles claims that the disgruntled customer whose e-mail Glaze forwarded was one that she had brought to his attention, and that Glaze had assured her she was handling the situation appropriately and refused her request that he assign extra help to that account. Id. at 251.

On June 24, 2002, while she was on her way to the airport for a business trip, Miles received a call from Glaze, who told her to meet him at the airport Hilton to discuss her PIP. Id. at 240. When they met, Glaze handed Miles her termination letter, demanded that she surrender her company cell phone and laptop, and, according to Miles, said: "So, what do you think of me now?" Id. Miles alleges that throughout the time she worked under Glaze, she met Dell's legitimate expectations and indeed that she outperformed her male colleagues, who were not placed on PIPs or fired. Id. at 234. She claims that the reasons for her dismissal stated in her termination letter were inaccurate, inflated, or false, and that Glaze had told her all along that she was doing fine, while in fact he was setting her up for failure. Id. at 241-42.

In August 2002, Dell offered Miles' position to Susan Patrick. Id. at 366. Miles claims that Glaze first tried to fill her position with a male, Michael McGill, but was vetoed by his superiors, who insisted on hiring another female account manager. Id. at 289-90. Melissa Phillips, an account executive under Glaze, submitted an affidavit in which she testified:

After [Glaze] fired [Miles] in June, 2002, I talked with him several times about his plans for hiring a new account manager for the Navy sales team. [Glaze] told me, and others in my presence, that he wanted to hire Mike McGill, a member of Dell's support staff. [Glaze] said he was pushing hard to get Mike hired, and hoped and expected that he would get approval to do so.... In August, 2002 ... [Glaze] told me that Mike had not been approved for the account manager position. [Glaze] also told me that [Glaze's boss] had insisted that [Glaze] hire Susan Patrick because they needed another female account manager. [Glaze] expressed disappointment and frustration to me about having to hire Susan, and told me he had no choice in the matter.

Id.

On November 13, 2002, Miles filed a charge with the EEOC. Id. at 228-29. On her charge form, she checked the box for sex discrimination, but not the box for retaliation. Id. In her narrative explaining her charge, Miles stated that Glaze had been hostile to her after finding out she was pregnant, that she complained of Glaze's hostile attitude to Glaze's supervisor, and that, after firing her, Glaze refused to answer her questions about why she was fired, but answered only, "So, what do you think of me now?" Id. On April 16, 2003, Miles' attorney sent a letter to the EEOC that explicitly alleged retaliation. Id. at 483-86. That letter was not served on Dell.

On November 21, 2003, Miles filed a complaint against Dell in the Eastern District of Virginia, alleging sex discrimination, pregnancy discrimination, and retaliation. Id. at 7-14. The district court granted Dell's motion for summary judgment as to all three claims. Id. at 538. The district court concluded that Miles' sex and pregnancy discrimination claims failed as a matter of law "because she [did] not state a prima facie case of discrimination since she was replaced by a member of her protected class." Id. at 533. The district court held that Miles' retaliation claim failed because she did not exhaust her administrative remedies. Id. at 536-38. We examine each of Miles' claims in turn.

II.

In McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, the Supreme Court held that "[t]he complainant in a Title VII trial must carry the initial burden under the statute of establishing a prima facie case" of discrimination. 411 U.S. 792, 802, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973). The Fourth Circuit has held that, under the McDonnell Douglas framework, a Title VII plaintiff relying on indirect evidence must establish a prima facie case of discrimination by showing that "(1) she is a member of a protected class; (2) she suffered adverse employment action; (3) she was performing her job duties at a level that met her employer's legitimate expectations at the time of the adverse employment action; and (4) the position remained open or was filled by similarly qualified applicants outside the protected class." Hill v. Lockheed Martin Logistics Mgmt., 354 F.3d 277, 285 (4th Cir.2004) (en banc). Because Miles was replaced by another woman, the district court held that Miles could not satisfy prong four of the prima facie case and that her sex and pregnancy discrimination claims accordingly failed as a matter of law.

We conclude that, in appropriate cases, a Title VII plaintiff can make out a prima facie case without satisfying prong four. Specifically, we hold that, in cases where the plaintiff can show that the firing and replacement hiring decisions were made by different decisionmakers, the plaintiff can make out a prima facie case without showing replacement by someone outside the protected class.

This court's requirement that Title VII plaintiffs show replacement outside the protected class as part of their prima facie case is not dictated by Supreme Court precedent. The fourth prong of the prima facie case laid out by the Court in McDonnell Douglas, a refusal-to-hire case, did not require the plaintiff to show that the individual...