Potter v. Goodwill Industries of Cleveland, 75-1146
| Decision Date | 18 July 1975 |
| Docket Number | No. 75-1146,75-1146 |
| Parties | 10 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1485, 10 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 10,291 Dorothy POTTER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. GOODWILL INDUSTRIES OF CLEVELAND, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Dorothy Potter pro se and Jane M. Picker, Barbara H. Mitchell, Cleveland, Ohio, for plaintiff-appellant.
Peter J. Krembs, Ford, Howland, Whitney & Haase, Cleveland, Ohio, for defendant-appellee.
Before PHILLIPS, Chief Judge, McCREE, Circuit Judge, and FEIKENS *, District Judge.
This appeal from the dismissal of a complaint alleging violations of 42 U.S.C. § 1981 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., requires us to determine whether the district court correctly applied to the evidence adduced at trial the shifting burdens of proof articulated by the Supreme Court in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973). Specifically we are asked to determine whether a Title VII plaintiff, in order to establish a prima facie case must establish that the wrong allegedly committed was based on an impermissible motivation.
This case arose out of a complaint that appellant was not furnished a stool that she claimed was necessary for her to sit on to perform her job and that she was eventually terminated from her job because of her race which is Negro. At trial plaintiff showed that she was unable to perform her job without a stool because of a physical disability, that she was not able to obtain a stool all of the time, and that a white woman who was also not able to perform a similar job without a stool because of a physical disability was furnished one. She also testified that she was terminated from her job because of her race and because of her political activity, and evidence was adduced that the appellee solicited applicants for the position vacated. She did not, however, adduce direct evidence that because of an impermissible racial motivation the defendant failed to furnish her a stool and terminated her employment.
McDonnell Douglas discloses that a plaintiff who alleges discrimination in conditions of employment must demonstrate, in order to make out a prima facie case, only that he is a member of a class entitled to the protection of Title VII, and that he is accorded treatment different from that accorded persons otherwise similarly situated who are not members of the class. And, in order to make out a...
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