Mintz v. Caterpillar Inc.

• Decision Date: 05 June 2015
• Docket Number: No. 14–1881.,14–1881.
• Citation: 788 F.3d 673
• Parties: Myron MINTZ, Plaintiff–Appellant, v. CATERPILLAR INC., Defendant–Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

788 F.3d 673

Myron MINTZ, Plaintiff–Appellant

v.CATERPILLAR INC., Defendant–Appellee.

No. 14–1881.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued Dec. 2, 2014.

Decided June 5, 2015.

Stephen L. Richards, Attorney, Chicago, IL, for Plaintiff–Appellant.

Jason M. Torres, Attorney, Seyfarth Shaw LLP, Chicago, IL, for Defendant–Appellee.

Before WOOD, Chief Judge, and WILLIAMS and TINDER, Circuit Judges.

Opinion

TINDER, Circuit Judge.

Myron Mintz sued his employer Caterpillar, Inc., alleging claims of race discrimination and retaliation in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Caterpillar sought summary judgment, Mintz did not file a timely response, and the district court granted Caterpillar's motion. That prompted Mintz to file a motion to vacate the district court's order, for an extension of time to file a summary judgment response, and/or to file a motion to reconsider. Thereafter, Mintz filed a response to Caterpillar's summary judgment motion. Treating Mintz's motions collectively as a motion for relief from judgment under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b), the district court denied relief. Mintz appeals. Although the district court erred in treating Mintz's motions as a Rule 60(b) motion, we affirm its judgment.

I. FACTS

Mintz, an African American, began working at Caterpillar in 2005 in its manufacturing engineering development program. Caterpillar manufactures a variety of heavy industrial equipment. This case focuses on Caterpillar's manufacture of track-type tractors at its East Peoria, Illinois facility. For simplicity, this type of tractor is the central part of what most readers would think of as a bulldozer. These tractors are built in various sizes for many different uses and are sold all over the world. The purchasing customers often specify that the tractors be built in particular configurations offered by Caterpillar to meet the varied uses that may be required. An assembly line construction process is used by Caterpillar, with the sequence of construction being conducted in different letter designated buildings throughout the East Peoria site, but more about that later.

Mintz was promoted to the position of manufacturing engineer in December 2007. As such, he was an intermediary between the engineering design department and the production floor. The engineering design department would give him design prints of various tractors to be constructed. Mintz was then responsible for reviewing the prints and writing detailed work instructions for production employees, identifying the tooling and materials that would be needed to build specific parts of the tractors. His initial manufacturing engineering assignment involved supporting what was called the “black iron” assembly line which was located in Building SS of the East Peoria site, and his immediate supervisor was Chuck Turpen. In the first quarter of 2010, Mintz moved to building LL to support the “track roller frame” assembly line and he continued to be supervised by Turpen until January 2011 when he began reporting to Ryan Rumler instead, although his duties remained unchanged.

A central function of Mintz's duties as a manufacturing engineer was to manage “grief” and “engineering change orders.” The “change order” term is common in many manufacturing and construction settings but “grief” has a special meaning in the Caterpillar world which requires explanation. Simply put, “grief” as used at Caterpillar and throughout the rest of this opinion means discrepancy between what the customer ordered and what the production employees are scheduled to build on the production line. If there is variance between the customer's order and the parts, quantities, and materials projected by the manufacturing engineer in issuing instructions for the construction of the tractor, the difference is referred to as grief. Grief is tracked in Caterpillar's computer system, and it must be fixed, or resolved, before a tractor is built. Caterpillar categorizes two types of grief: MBM grief and 1410 grief. MBM grief is all of the grief in the Caterpillar system throughout the course of a particular build. 1410 grief is more urgent because it is grief that remains in the production system close to the build date of a particular tractor. Resolving all of the grief is important but eliminating the 1410 grief is a critical priority because it consists of errors and discrepancies for building projects that will soon come down the production line. The goal is to have zero grief because if all of the grief is not resolved, adverse consequences could include shutting down the production line, having to tear down and reconstruct a particular tractor, or building the wrong tractor for a customer. Responsibility for resolving the grief ultimately falls to the manufacturing engineer, and it must be done before any particular tractor is built.

Engineering change orders are initiated by the design department and are then sent to the manufacturing engineers to have new work instructions written. The manufacturing engineers receive the change orders with a due date by which the new instructions must be completed. The timeliness of the new instructions is also critical to the smooth functioning of the production line. If not timely, the production line can build an incorrect configuration or an assembly that deviates from a customer order. As with zero grief, Caterpillar's expectation is that all change orders will be completed by manufacturing engineers by their due dates.

Caterpillar evaluates the performance of its manufacturing engineers four times annually, once each of the first three quarters on an interim basis, and at year end. The year-end evaluation covers performance for the entire year and is used as the basis of determining raises and the employee's status going forward. The interim evaluations do not affect an employee's pay or other status. Caterpillar used an evaluation scale for manufacturing engineers of 1 through 5 with 1 being highest and 5 the worst. A 3 rating had three subcategories, A, B and C, with A being the highest and C the lowest.

In January 2011, Mintz was provided his year-end evaluation for 2010, which had been prepared by Turpen. Mintz received an overall rating of “3B–Valued Performance.” However, the portion of his evaluation that involved grief and engineering change orders was rated “does not meet.” Specific criticisms were made regarding both change orders and grief. As to change orders, the evaluation indicated: “Myron was not able to stay current on his folders and the quantity of past due folders at a reasonable level. His daily average for past due folders was 5.5, which was about twice the average for the manufacturing engineering team as a whole.” As to grief, it reported: “Myron had difficulty keeping his grief at an acceptable level. There was some downtime experienced on the line as a result of processing grief.” Mintz does not dispute his 2010 evaluation. Rather, he contends that race discrimination began when his supervision was transferred to Rumler.

Before the switch in supervision, Turpen attempted to address with Mintz his grief and change-order deficiencies. In June 2010, Turpen emailed Mintz stating: “Myron, you currently have 1/3rd of our (manufacturing engineering including G & DI) total MBM grief, 1410 grief and past due folders. 1) [W]hat is causing the grief? 2) [H]ow are you going about dealing with it? 3) [W]hen will we have this under control?” Turpen met with Mintz in December 2010 to develop a plan to lower the amount of Mintz's grief. Turpen said that Mintz resisted taking responsibility for his grief.

In January 2011, Rumler met with Mintz to discuss goals and expectations, including Rumler's expectation that Mintz would reduce his grief levels and number of past due change orders. Thereafter, they met on a monthly basis, attempting to assess and lower Mintz's 1410 and MBM grief. But his first interim quarterly review of 2011 resulted in a lower “3C–Valued Performance” rating. Although all of the “3” ratings (A, B and C) are considered acceptable, a 3C rating indicates that the employee needs additional coaching and supervision in order to perform his job. While discussing this interim evaluation, Rumler told Mintz that his MBM and 1410 grief were too high and that he needed more coaching than other manufacturing engineers.

Mintz believed that his 3C rating was discriminatory on the basis of race. Mintz was the only African American engineer working in the area at Caterpillar. He believed that he “gave [his] all in the job” and that his rating did not account for his accomplishments on the line. His second quarter 2011 rating was also a 3C, and Rumler's explanation of it to Mintz was similar. Mintz again believed that this rating was discriminatory and retaliatory. As with the other rating, he believed that it did not account for his accomplishments.

For the third quarter, Mintz received a “4–Needs Improvement,” which signifies unacceptable performance and requires an improvement plan. It also foreshadows potential termination. Rumler based that rating on what he deemed to be unacceptable grief, past due engineering change folders, and errors that resulted in having to tear down and rebuild tractors at substantial cost to Caterpillar. Mintz believed that this rating was discriminatory and retaliatory because he was the only African American engineer in his department, he had complained about discrimination, and, in his view, the rating was unfair and did not account for his accomplishments.

As a result, Mintz was placed on an employee action plan in October 2011. The plan indicated that it was based on “[u]nacceptable levels of 1410 and MBM grief—Myron currently has 129 lines of 1410 grief and 4460 lines of MBM grief,” “[p]ast due engineering change folders—Myron has 25 past due engineering folders currently,” “[w]ork ticket errors resulting in tractor rework—[o]ver thirty-six hours of rework from incorrect...