Shapolia v. Los Alamos Nat. Laboratory

• Decision Date: 27 April 1993
• Docket Number: No. 92-2218,92-2218
• Citation: 992 F.2d 1033
• Parties: 61 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1172, 61 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 42,250, 61 USLW 2748 Alexander SHAPOLIA, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY, and John Whetten, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 1033

992 F.2d 1033

61 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1172,

61 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 42,250, 61 USLW 2748

Alexander SHAPOLIA, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY, and John Whetten,

Defendants-Appellees.

No. 92-2218.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

April 27, 1993.

Alexander Shapolia, pro se.

William P. Slattery and David B. Lawrenz, Campbell, Carr, Berge & Sheridan, P.A., Santa Fe, NM, for defendants-appellees.

Before SEYMOUR, ANDERSON, and EBEL, Circuit Judges.

EBEL, Circuit Judge.

After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined unanimously that oral argument would not materially assist the determination of this appeal. See Fed.R.App.P. 34(a); 10th Cir.R. 34.1.9. Therefore, the case is ordered submitted without oral argument.

This case comes before us on a pro se appeal of the district court's order granting the defendant-appellee's motion for summary judgment. We affirm.

The plaintiff-appellant, Alexander Shapolia, began working as an electrician at the Los Alamos National Lab (LANL) in February 1976. In March of 1987, he received a poor performance evaluation from his supervisor, Ray Martin. In September of 1987, pursuant to internal procedures, Shapolia instituted administrative review proceedings in an attempt to have the negative evaluation removed from his file. Shapolia claims that the personnel policies of both LANL and the University of California, which operates the laboratory under contract with the Department of Energy, require that a panel of three impartial people consider his grievance. However, the decision not to remove the negative evaluation was ultimately made by only one individual, the defendant, John Whetten.

Following the evaluation and review proceedings, Shapolia was placed on conditional employment status and was transferred to another department within LANL. He worked for a year in that department, during which time he was supervised by three different employees. On April 5, 1989, Shapolia was terminated by yet another supervisor for failure to meet the requirements of his conditional employment status.

In January 1991, Shapolia brought the instant action alleging violations of 42 U.S.C. § 1981 and 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5. Shapolia claims that his negative evaluation and the subsequent review procedures were tainted by religious discrimination and that he was terminated as a result of this discrimination. ¹ Ray Martin, the supervisor who gave Shapolia a negative evaluation, is a bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ("Mormon Church"). John Whetten, the Associate Director who handled the administrative review proceedings, is a member of the Mormon church. Shapolia complains that his negative job evaluation was motivated by Martin's bias against non-Mormons. ² Shapolia further complains that Whetten could not have been impartial in reviewing Martin's performance evaluation because Whetten is a member of the same church in which Martin is an officer.

On September 26, 1991, the district court dismissed Shapolia's Section 1981 claims. However, the court refused to dismiss the Title VII claims, finding that the complaint stated a claim under the latter theory. On September 4, 1992, the district court granted the defendant's motion for summary judgment on Shapolia's Title VII claims. This appeal followed. ³

Standard of Review

We review summary judgment orders de novo, using the same standards applied by the district court. Osgood v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 848 F.2d 141, 143 (10th Cir.1988). Summary judgment is appropriate "if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); accord Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 247, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2509, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); Russillo v. Scarborough, 935 F.2d 1167, 1170 (10th Cir.1991). The moving party bears the initial burden of showing that there is an absence of any issues of material fact. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2552-53, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986); Hicks v. City of Watonga, 942 F.2d 737, 743 (10th Cir.1991). If the moving party meets this burden, the non-moving party then has the burden to come forward with specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial as to elements essential to the non-moving party's case. Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 586-87, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 1355-56, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986); Bacchus Indus., Inc. v. Arvin Indus., Inc., 939 F.2d 887, 891 (10th Cir.1991). To sustain this burden, the non-moving party cannot rest on the mere allegations in the pleadings. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e); Celotex, 477 U.S. at 324, 106 S.Ct. at 2553; Applied Genetics Int'l v. First Affiliated Sec., Inc., 912 F.2d 1238, 1241 (10th Cir.1990).

Discussion

Title VII provides that "it shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer ... to discharge any individual ... because of such individual's ... religion." 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1). Religion includes "all aspects of religious observance and practice, as well as belief." 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(j). Title VII has been interpreted to protect against requirements of religious conformity and as such protects those who refuse to hold, as well as those who hold, specific religious beliefs. See International Ass'n of Machinists & Aerospace Workers v. Boeing Co., 833 F.2d 165, 169 (9th Cir.1987) (Title VII protects even those individuals who are not members of organized religious groups from contributing to unions in violation of their religious beliefs), cert. denied, 485 U.S. 1014, 108 S.Ct. 1488, 99 L.Ed.2d 715 (1988); Young v. Southwestern Sav. and Loan Assoc., 509 F.2d 140, 143-45 (5th Cir.1975) (constructive discharge in violation of Title VII to require employee to attend religious services).

In McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973), the Supreme Court set forth a model burden-shifting scheme to order the presentation of evidence in Title VII cases. Under that scheme, the plaintiff has the initial burden of establishing a prima facie case of discrimination. If the plaintiff succeeds, the burden shifts to the defendant to articulate some legitimate nondiscriminatory reason for the employment action. Should the defendant succeed in meeting that burden, the plaintiff has the burden of proving, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the employment action was motivated by illegal discrimination, and that can be done either through direct evidence, or indirectly by showing that the reasons proffered by the defendant are a pretext for discrimination. McDonnell, 411 U.S. at 802-04, 93 S.Ct. at 1822-25.

The Supreme Court, in Furnco Constr. Corp. v. Waters, 438 U.S. 567, 577, 98 S.Ct. 2943, 2949-50, 57 L.Ed.2d 957 (1978), stated that the elements of proof in employment discrimination cases were not meant to be "rigid, mechanized or ritualistic." In McDonnell, the Court noted that "[t]he facts necessarily will vary in Title VII cases, and the specification above of the prima facie proof required from respondent is not necessarily applicable in every respect to differing factual situations." 411 U.S. at 802 n. 13, 93 S.Ct. at 1824 n. 13. Accordingly, the proof required to establish a prima facie case under McDonnell has been adapted to specific fact scenarios. See, e.g., E.E.O.C. v. Flasher Co., 986 F.2d 1312 (10th Cir.1992) (racial discrimination in termination for violation of work rule); Notari v. Denver Water Dept., 971 F.2d 585 (10th Cir.1992) (reverse sex discrimination in promotion).

In the instant case, the appellees urge us to apply the two-step procedure for evaluating Title VII religious discrimination claims that this court set forth in Toledo v. Nobel-Sysco, Inc., 892 F.2d 1481, 1486 (10th Cir.1989), cert. denied, 495 U.S. 948, 110 S.Ct. 2208, 109 L.Ed.2d 535 (1990). Under that procedure, the plaintiff first has the burden of establishing a prima facie case of religious discrimination by proving: "(1) he or she has a bona fide religious belief that conflicts with an employment requirement; (2) he or she informed the employer of this belief; (3) he or she was [fired] for failure to comply with the conflicting employment requirement." Toledo, 892 F.2d at 1486 (quoting Turpen v. Missouri-Kansas-Texas R.R., 736 F.2d 1022, 1026 (5th Cir.1984)). Only after the plaintiff is successful in establishing a prima face case does the burden shift to the employer to show that it was unable to reasonably accommodate the plaintiff's religious needs without undue hardship. Id.

We hold that, under the facts of this case, application of the specific requirements set forth in Toledo is inappropriate. In Toledo and the cases on which it relies, the courts were concerned primarily with an employer's intolerance of a employee's religious practice or an employee's inability to comply with a job requirement because of religious beliefs. See Toledo, 892 F.2d 1481 (refusal to hire employee as driver because of religious use of peyote); Turpen, 736 F.2d 1022 (employee fired for refusal to work on Sabbath); Smith v. Pyro Mining Co., 827 F.2d 1081 (6th Cir.1987) (same), cert. denied, 485 U.S. 989, 108 S.Ct. 1293, 99 L.Ed.2d 503 (1988). Under Title VII, an employer is required reasonably to accommodate an employee's religious practices or beliefs where accommodation does not cause undue hardship to the company's business interests. Toledo, 892 F.2d at 1486. Accordingly, in those cases we have inferred religious discrimination where an employer was unwilling to accommodate religious practices and beliefs.

However, in the instant case, Shapolia claims that he was fired, not because LANL was unwilling to accommodate one of his religious practices, and not because LANL would not make an...