Parker v. Board of School Com'rs of City of Indianapolis, 83-1616

• Decision Date: 13 March 1984
• Docket Number: No. 83-1616,83-1616
• Citation: 729 F.2d 524
• Parties: 34 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 453, 33 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 34,229, 16 Ed. Law Rep. 792, 15 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 320 Anna E. PARKER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. The BOARD OF SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS OF the CITY OF INDIANAPOLIS, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 524

729 F.2d 524

34 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 453,

33 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 34,229, 16 Ed. Law Rep. 792,

15 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 320

Anna E. PARKER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. The BOARD OF SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS OF the CITY OF

INDIANAPOLIS, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 83-1616.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued Nov. 2, 1983.

Decided March 13, 1984.

Belle T. Choate, Choate, Visher & Haith, Indianapolis, Ind., for plaintiff-appellant.

James S. Cunning, Ice, Miller, Donadio & Ryan, Indianapolis, Ind., for defendant-appellee.

Before PELL and COFFEY, Circuit Judges, and CAMPBELL, Senior District Judge. ^*

COFFEY, Circuit Judge.

The plaintiff-appellant, Anna E. Parker, brought this action alleging that the Board of School Commissioners of the City of Indianapolis, the defendant-appellee, failed to hire her for a vice-principal position because of her sex in violation of Title VII, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e et seq., and 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983. The district court, 558 F.Supp. 680 (D.C.Ind.1983), entered judgment for the defendants. We AFFIRM.

I.

In May of 1980 the Indianapolis Public School System ("IPS") gave notice that three positions were available for a secondary school vice-principal. Thirty-six people applied for the positions and the plaintiff was one of eight females in the group of twenty-six who were selected for an initial interview after a screening of the applications. The selection committee ranked and rated each candidate based upon specified criteria and placed the plaintiff in the tenth position out of twenty-six candidates while ranking three other female applicants above her. At the time of her application the plaintiff was employed by the IPS at Arsenal Technical High School ("Tech"), and had some forty-three years' experience in education. The plaintiff also had a master's degree and had completed the additional requirement of thirty graduate hours. ¹ The plaintiff was without supervisory experience within the school system and had never applied for a supervisory position within the system before 1980.

Based upon the selection committee's rankings, an independent review of the candidate's personnel files and a review by the IPS Affirmative Action Officer, the School Superintendent recommended three candidates to the School Board. The School Board accepted these recommendations and hired two men and a woman, each of whom had been ranked higher than the plaintiff, for the three available vice-principal positions. ² Joseph McGeehan, the person hired for the position at Tech High School, was ranked first by the selection committee on the basis of his prior experience and qualifications. The plaintiff challenges the district court's finding of no discrimination and the court's denial of her request to allow one of her former students to testify as an expert witness.

II.

"The 'factual inquiry' in a Title VII case is 'whether the defendant intentionally discriminated against the plaintiff.' " United States Postal Service Board of Governors v. Aikens, --- U.S. ----, 103 S.Ct. 1478, 1482, 75 L.Ed.2d 403 (1983) (quoting Texas Department of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 253, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 1093, 67 L.Ed.2d 207 (1981)). The plaintiff had the burden of persuading the district court that the IPS intentionally discriminated in not appointing her to the vice-principal position at Tech. Burdine, 450 U.S. at 253, 101 S.Ct. at 1093. A three-step analysis, initially set forth in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973), is used to determine whether a plaintiff has met this burden:

"First, the plaintiff has the burden of proving by the preponderance of the evidence a prima facie case of discrimination. Second, if the plaintiff succeeds in proving the prima facie case, the burden shifts to the defendant 'to articulate some legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for the employee's rejection.' Third, should the defendant carry this burden, the plaintiff must then have an opportunity to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the legitimate reasons offered by the defendant were not its true reasons, but were a pretext for discrimination."

Burdine, 450 U.S. at 252-53, 101 S.Ct. at 1093-94 (citations omitted) (quoting McDonnell Douglas, 411 U.S. at 802-04, 93 S.Ct. at 1824-25). See also United States Postal Service Board of Governors v. Aikens, 103 S.Ct. at 1481; Nellis v. Brown County, 722 F.2d 853, 856 (7th Cir.1983); Lee v. National Can Corp., 699 F.2d 932, 935-37 (7th Cir.1983).

After the plaintiff presented her case-in-chief, ³ the defendant, consistent with its burden to articulate a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for not hiring the plaintiff, explained that it selected Joseph McGeehan for the Tech vice-principal position because of his superior qualifications. The evidence presented by IPS established that Joseph McGeehan's qualifications were far superior to those of the plaintiff as McGeehan had not only seven-years of supervisory experience within IPS including significant budgetary responsibility but he also had completed the course work for a Ph.D. in Education with an emphasis in curriculum. Furthermore, he possessed certification beyond that required for the vice-principal position, an Indiana Superintendent Provisional License. The IPS, in support of its position that McGeehan was hired for non-discriminatory reasons, also provided the court with a detailed explanation of the procedures used to fill the vice-principal vacancies and statistics showing that the percentage of females it employed who met the minimum qualifications for vice-principal and administrative positions almost equaled the percentage of females actually holding those positions.

Pursuant to the McDonnell Douglas analysis, the plaintiff had the obligation and the "opportunity to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the legitimate reasons offered by the defendant [for hiring Joseph McGeehan] were not its true reasons, but were a pretext for discrimination." Burdine, 450 U.S. at 253, 101 S.Ct. at 1093. The district court ruled that the plaintiff failed to discredit the IPS's explanation for hiring Joseph McGeehan. The court further made a detailed finding that the plaintiff produced no evidence that the IPS's hiring of Joseph McGeehan on the basis of his qualifications was in fact a pretext for sex discrimination. We are in accord. Despite the plaintiff's commendable achievements as an educator, the IPS was justified in finding Joseph McGeehan as the more qualified, and hiring him for the vice-principal position at Tech. His educational qualifications were far superior to those of the plaintiff and his expertise was in curriculum development which is especially significant because the IPS considered Arsenal Technical High School deficient in the area of curriculum development and was seeking someone qualified to remedy this deficiency. McGeehan also had significant supervisory and budgetary experience, experience the IPS stated was "preferable" and "desirable," as set forth in their job application notice. It is more than evident that the plaintiff was not as qualified as McGeehan in that she lacked not only budgetary and supervisory experience but also was without comparable educational qualifications. The plaintiff had considerable experience with the "Sight-Saving" Program at Tech, but this position did not provide her with the desired supervisory experience since she did not directly supervise any subordinate employees. While the plaintiff had the minimum education and teaching experience specified by the IPS, "[a] desire to hire the more experienced or better qualified applicant is a non-discriminatory, legitimate, and common reason on which to base a hiring decision." Holder v. Old Ben Coal Co., 618 F.2d 1198, 1202 (7th Cir.1980). This is especially true when, as in the case before us, the opening is for a managerial, rather than an unskilled, position. See Mason v. Continental Ill. Nat. Bank, 704 F.2d 361, 365 (7th Cir.1983) (42 U.S.C. Sec. 1981 employment discrimination case).

The plaintiff repeats the same arguments before us made before the district court, namely that the IPS selected Joseph McGeehan because he was a male, that the IPS created a position to fit his qualifications, and that the IPS improperly based their evaluation of her qualifications on subjective criteria. The district court did not find these arguments convincing nor do we. "In reviewing an action for discrimination under Title VII ... the general rule is that 'we are bound under Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a) to accept [the district court's] findings of fact unless they are clearly erroneous.' " Nellis v. Brown County, 722 F.2d at 859 (quoting Stewart v. General Motors Corp., 542 F.2d 445, 449 (7th Cir.1976), cert. denied, 433 U.S. 919, 97 S.Ct. 2995, 53 L.Ed.2d 1105 (1977)). We hold that the findings of the district court have ample support in the record and further that the findings of the trial court are not clearly erroneous. The plaintiff, however, urges us to make "an independent determination" regarding the "ultimate fact" of whether the IPS discriminated against Ms. Parker. See DeLesstine v. Fort Wayne State Hospital and Training Center, 682 F.2d 130, 133 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 103 S.Ct. 378, 74 L.Ed.2d 511 (1982). Based upon our review of the record, we also hold that the trial court's "ultimate" finding of fact that the IPS did not intentionally discriminate against the plaintiff was proper and has more than ample support in the record.

We hold that the district court properly denied the plaintiff's Title VII cause of action as the plaintiff failed to prove that she was intentionally discriminated against, a prerequisite to a successful Title VII case. The plaintiff's Sec. 1983 claim must also fail because discriminatory intent is a prerequisite to a Sec. 1983 prima facie case. Washington v. Davis, 426...