Pace v. Southern Ry. System

• Decision Date: 25 November 1981
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. C79-1403A.
• Citation: 530 F. Supp. 381
• Parties: Rayford C. PACE, Plaintiff, v. SOUTHERN RAILWAY SYSTEM, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Georgia

530 F. Supp. 381

Rayford C. PACE, Plaintiff, v. SOUTHERN RAILWAY SYSTEM, Defendant.

Civ. A. No. C79-1403A.

United States District Court, N. D. Georgia, Atlanta Division.

November 25, 1981.

William Hazleton, Atlanta, Ga., for plaintiff.

Carey De Deyn, Judith O'Brien, Atlanta, Ga., for defendant.

ORDER OF COURT

HORACE T. WARD, District Judge.

This is an action for relief under the Age Discrimination In Employment Act of 1967, 29 U.S.C. §§ 621 et seq. ("ADEA"). Plaintiff Rayford C. Pace ("Pace") alleges that his employer Southern Railway Company ("Southern") discriminated against him on the basis of his age in connection with his demotion in November of 1978. Plaintiff contends that Southern's action violated the ADEA, and seeks declaratory relief, reinstatement to his former position, back pay, liquidated damages, punitive damages, costs and attorney's fees. This matter is currently before the court on Southern's motion for summary judgment.

Pace, 51 years old at the time of the demotion, was first employed by Southern in 1944. Except for two relatively brief interruptions — from 1950 until 1953 and from 1966 until 1968 — he has been employed by Southern since that date, a total of approximately 30 years. Plaintiff has held a variety of jobs during his career at Southern, generally climbing the promotional ladder. In January of 1971, Pace was promoted to the position of Superintendent of Southern's Signal and Electrical ("S&E") Department. The S&E Department subsequently merged with the Communications Department to form the Communications and Signals ("C&S") Department. The former Superintendent of the Communications Department, J. T. Hudson ("Hudson"), became General Superintendent of Operations in the newly formed C&S Department. Plaintiff initially served as Assistant General Superintendent-Operations in the newly merged department, but after approximately one year he was transferred to the position of Senior Construction Engineer. Plaintiff considered his transfer to this position to be a promotion. It is unclear as to exactly how Pace's superiors evaluated his performance as Senior Construction Engineer, but the record indicates that he received some criticism.¹

As a result of several personnel changes in the C&S Department in 1974, plaintiff was reassigned to the position of Assistant General Superintendent-Operations, a position he held for approximately a year prior to becoming Senior Construction Engineer. During the same period of time, Hudson, the General Superintendent-Operations in the C&S Department was promoted to Assistant Vice-President of the C&S Department. F. H. McIntyre ("McIntyre") was promoted to the position of General Superintendent-Operations to fill the vacancy created by Hudson's promotion to Assistant Vice-President. McIntyre's prior position had been that of Assistant General Superintendent-Operations, and plaintiff's reassignment to that position was necessitated by McIntyre's promotion. Plaintiff considered his transfer from the position of Senior Construction Engineer to the position of Assistant General Superintendent-Operations to be a demotion.²

Pace served as Assistant General Superintendent until November of 1978. At that time, plaintiff, then 51 years of age, was transferred to the position of Senior Development Engineer in the C&S Department. Plaintiff's replacement as Assistant General Superintendent-Operations was D. E. Barker ("Barker"). Barker was then 49 years of age, two years younger than Pace, and had been with Southern for approximately 22 years. For purposes of this motion, it will be assumed that Pace's transfer to Senior Development Engineer was a demotion. It is this transfer about which plaintiff now complains.

The position of Assistant General Superintendent-Operations from which plaintiff was transferred involved considerable administrative responsibilities. Defendant argues that plaintiff exhibited an inability to master the administrative tasks of the job, and that this resulted in his transfer. McIntyre, Pace's immediate supervisor, felt that Pace did not do a satisfactory job of accepting the administrative responsibilities of his position as Assistant General Superintendent, and that Pace failed to follow up and make sure that proper results were achieved. It was McIntyre's assessment that Pace had a poor attitude with regard to his job, and lacked sufficient motivation. Although conceding that Pace possessed considerable technical knowledge and skills, defendant felt that he did not perform up to his full capabilities, and that he could not handle the administrative duties. It is argued that Pace was aware of the criticisms of his performance, and that McIntyre had discussed the criticisms with him.

Plaintiff disagrees with most of the criticisms of his performance, and points to the fact that he received only one "Job Performance Appraisal" during the period of time that he served as Assistant General Superintendent-Operations. He apparently takes the position that he was not fully apprised of the criticism until this Job Performance Appraisal. Although the appraisals are supposed to be made annually, the record reflects only one appraisal of Pace while he was Assistant General Superintendent, in May of 1976. In that appraisal, McIntyre gave plaintiff an overall rating of adequate, the second lowest rating one can receive. Most of the above criticisms of plaintiff's performance were made in the appraisal. McIntyre's supervisor, Hudson, changed Pace's overall rating to competent. However, he stated that an officer on Pace's level should have received a better evaluation. Pace did discuss his performance evaluation with McIntyre, and although he disagreed with some aspects of the evaluation, he admitted that some of the criticisms of his performance were reasonable.

Pace argues that his superiors exhibited a bad attitude towards him. Specifically, he complains of his regular exclusion from decisionmaking meetings, the failure to invite him to attend trips to company-owned resort areas, the lack of opportunities to ride inspection trains, and other indications of differential treatment. He argues that these factors had a negative effect on his motivation. Further, Pace points to the fact that he received a six percent merit pay increase in 1977 as an indication that he was performing satisfactorily.

McIntyre testified in his deposition that during the time from the 1976 job appraisal until plaintiff's eventual transfer, plaintiff failed to improve his performance in the specific areas which had been subject to criticism. He further stated that he frequently counseled Pace with regard to the continuing problems, and that he also discussed the matter with Hudson. Hudson testified that he did have discussions with McIntyre regarding Pace's performance, and that he was sure he had also discussed the matter with Pace.

Pace testified that he first became aware of the extent to which there was dissatisfaction with his performance in a meeting with Hudson and McIntyre in July of 1978. In that meeting, Hudson then informed Pace of his intention to move Pace to another job position. Pace testified that he was totally surprised at that revelation, and he told his superiors that he intended to do all he could to fight a transfer. McIntyre stated that this meeting was the first instance that a position change for Pace was explicitly discussed, although there had been previous discussions regarding Pace's allegedly deficient performance. In September of 1978, McIntyre wrote a letter to Hudson regarding Pace's performance. In the letter, McIntyre made criticisms of Pace's performance similar to those discussed above. McIntyre recommended that Pace be given another position within the department where his skills could be better utilized. Subsequent to receiving the letter, Hudson discussed it with McIntyre. McIntyre reiterated his position that a transfer was necessary, stating that Pace's performance had not shown any improvement over the years. In November of the same year, Pace was "demoted" to the position of Senior Development Engineer.

Southern argues that, under the above facts, it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law because plaintiff has failed to establish a prima facie case of age discrimination. Additionally, Southern contends that even if the court was of the opinion that a prima facie case had been established, it would still be entitled to summary judgment because plaintiff cannot sustain his burden of proving age discrimination. In other words, Southern contends that even if plaintiff has established a prima facie case of age discrimination, he cannot rebut defendant's evidence that plaintiff was discharged for reasons other than his age.

In McDonnell Douglas Corporation v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973), the Supreme Court set forth a four-pronged test for establishing a prima facie case of employment discrimination in a case under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq.³ The Fifth Circuit has adapted the McDonnell Douglas for purposes of establishing a prima facie case under the ADEA. See Marshall v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, 554 F.2d 730 (5th Cir. 1977); Wilson v. Sealtest Foods Division of Krafto Corporation, 501 F.2d 84 (5th Cir. 1974).⁴ Thus, a prima facie case of age discrimination can be established by a plaintiff's demonstration that "(1) he was a member of the protected group, (2) he was discharged, (3) he was replaced with a person outside the protected group, and (4) he was qualified to do the job." Price v. Maryland Casualty Company, 561 F.2d 609 (5th Cir. 1977). In Price, the Court held that the plaintiff employee had failed to establish a prima facie case because he could not show that he was replaced by a person outside of the protected group.⁵

Since the decision in Price, the applicability of the above test has been reaffirmed. See ...