Stanziale v. Jargowsky

• Citation: 200 F.3d 101
• Parties: (3rd Cir. 2000) FULVIO STANZIALE Appellant v. LESTER JARGOWSKY, PUBLIC HEALTH COORDINATOR; COUNTY OF MONMOUTH; MONMOUTH COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH NO. 99-5030 Argued:
• Decision Date: 17 November 1999
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (3rd Circuit)

Page 101

200 F.3d 101 (3rd Cir. 2000)

FULVIO STANZIALE Appellant v. LESTER JARGOWSKY, PUBLIC HEALTH COORDINATOR; COUNTY OF MONMOUTH; MONMOUTH COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH

NO. 99-5030

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT

Argued: November 17, 1999

Opinion Filed January 10, 2000

On Appeal From the United States District Court For the District of New Jersey (D.C. Civil Action No. 96-cv-03626) District Judge: Honorable Mary Little Cooper [Copyrighted Material Omitted]

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Malcolm V. Carton Christopher J. Hanlon (Argued) Monmouth County Counsel Fredrick P. Niemann Assistant Monmouth County Counsel Woodhull House 63 West Main Street Freehold, NJ 07728 Attorneys for Appellees

Jeffrey P. Ferrier (Argued) 146 Highway 34 Suite 400 Holmdel, NJ 07733 Attorney for Appellant

BEFORE: ALITO and STAPLETON, Circuit Judges, and FEIKENS,^* District Judge

OPINION FOR THE COURT

FEIKENS, District Judge:

I. INTRODUCTION

Appellant Fulvio Stanziale (Stanziale) sued his employer alleging violations of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), 29 U.S.C. S 623, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), 42 U.S.C. S 2000e, the Equal Pay Act, 29 U.S.C. S 206 et seq., the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD), N.J.S.A. S 10:5-12, and the New Jersey Equal Pay Act (NJEPA), N.J.S.A. S 34:11-56.2. The District Court granted summary judgment as to all counts and Stanziale now appeals.

II. BACKGROUND

In April 1990, appellee Lester Jargowsky (Jargowsky), a coordinator for appellee Monmouth County Board of Health, offered a job to Stanziale as an Environmental Specialist at a starting salary of $25,500. Stanziale declined the offer. Several months later, in August 1990, Jargowsky offered Stanziale a similar job as a Sanitation Inspector at a starting salary of $24,500. He accepted this second offer.

Shortly after Stanziale was hired, appellees hired a younger female, Lisa Muscillo (Muscillo), as a Sanitary Inspector, at a starting salary of $26,500. Both Stanziale and Muscillo were consistently given 5% raises each year so that, in July 1996, their salaries were $32,673 and $35,342, respectively. Based on this wage disparity, plaintiff filed the present lawsuit.¹

Appellees moved to dismiss the complaint pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (FRCP) 12(b)(6), which the District Court converted to a FRCP 56 motion for summary judgment. Relevant to this appeal,² in an opinion dated December 18, 1997, the District Court granted appellees' motion for summary judgment as to Stanziale's claims of discrimination based upon the salary disparity between Muscillo and Stanziale. The District Court held that Stanziale had met his prima facie burden under McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792 (1983), and that appellees had, relevant to Muscillo's salary, offered legitimate non-discriminatory reasons for the disparity. That court noted that "[p]laintiff has offered only vague conclusory statements in response to defendants' proffered reasons," and therefore granted summary judgment as to the Title VII, ADEA and NJLAD claims. Based solely on these findings as to Muscillo's salary, the District Court also granted summary judgment as to the Equal Pay Act and NJEPA claims.

In December 1998, the District Court revisited Stanziale's Equal Pay Act and NJEPA claims in the context of a second summary judgment motion by appellees. In a second opinion, the District Court conceded that claims under the Equal Pay Act were not governed by the same standards as claims under Title VII and the ADEA, but after reconsidering the issue, found that summary judgment had been properly granted as to the Equal Pay Act and NJEPA claims.

Stanziale has appealed, arguing that summary judgment was improperly granted as to the claims based on the wage disparity between him and Muscillo.

III. STANDARD OF REVIEW

Review of the District Court's grant of summary judgment is plenary. See Kelly v. Drexel University, 94 F.3d 102, 104 (3d Cir.1996). We must determine whether the record, when viewed in a light favorable to Stanziale, shows that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that appellees were entitled to summary judgment as a matter of law. See, e.g., Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322-23 (1986); Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 249-50 (1986).

IV. DISCUSSION

A. THE ADEA AND TITLE VII CLAIMS

The parties' burdens in establishing and defending claims under the ADEA and Title VII³ are determined by the procedure set forth in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792 (1973). See Showalter v. University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, 190 F.3d 231, 234 (3rd Cir. 1999). A plaintiff must first produce evidence sufficient to convince a reasonable factfinder as to all of the elements of a prima facie case of discrimination. Id.. If a plaintiff establishes a prima facie case, " `[t]he burden of production (but not the burden of persuasion) shifts to the defendant, who must then offer evidence that is sufficient, if believed, to support a finding that the defendant had a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for the [adverse employment decision].' " Id. at 235 (quoting Keller v. Orix Credit Alliance, Inc., 130 F.3d 1101, 1108 (3rd Cir. 1997) (citing Hicks, 509 U.S. at 506-07, 113 S.Ct. 2742 (1993)); see also Smith v. Borough of Wilkinsburg, 147 F.2d 272, 278 (3rd. Cir. 1998). An employer need not prove, however, that the proffered reasons actually motivated the salary decision. Fuentes v. Perskie, 32 F.3d 759, 763 (Cir. 1994). If a defendant satisfies this burden, a plaintiff may then survive summary judgment by submitting evidence from which a factfinder could reasonably either (1) disbelieve the employer's articulated legitimate reasons; or (2) believe that an invidious discriminatory reason was more likely than not a motivating or determinative cause of the employer's action. Keller, 130 F.3d at 1108; Fuentes, 32 F.3d at 763.

In this case, the District Court found, and the parties do not dispute, that Stanziale established a prima facie case. Likewise, the parties do not dispute that appellees met their burden of production under the second step of the McDonnell Douglas framework. They proffered several legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons for the salary disparity between Stanziale and Muscillo -qualifications that Muscillo possessed and Stanziale lacked, including (1) a bachelor's degree; (2) a post-graduate education; (3) computer skills; (4) job experience using computer skills; (5) recent sanitary inspector experience; and (6) certifications in pesticide application and lead poisoning investigations. Each of these qualifications is documented in Muscillo's resume included in the record. The burden then fell on Stanziale to demonstrate a triable issue of fact through evidence which could cause a reasonable factfinder to disbelieve the proffered legitimate reasons or to believe that age and/or sex discrimination was more likely than not a motivating factor in the hiring decision.

Appellant satisfied his burden as to some of these six reasons. For instance, as to appellees' argument that computer skills explains the disparity in wages, Stanziale noted that the Sanitary Inspector job does not require the use of computers and that in 1990 the Health Board did not even have computers. These facts, if true, could cause a reasonable factfinder to conclude that Muscillo's "computer skills" and/or "job experience using computer skills," offered by appellees as reasons for the wage disparity, are pretextual.

Stanziale also argued that the "recent sanitary inspector experience" reason offered by appellees was pretextual. Stanziale noted that he worked as a Sanitary Inspector for an unrelated community for eight years, albeit in the late 1960's and early 1970's. He testified in his deposition that the job had not changed over time, so that his years of experience, 17 years before his hiring, ought to be weighed more heavily than Muscillo's 1 " years of experience just prior to her hire. In essence, Stanziale argued that in his estimation, he was more experienced than Muscillo, so that there existed a triable issue of fact as to whether appellees' proffered reason was pretextual.

Whatever the case as to these factors, it is undisputed that Muscillo does possess more qualifications than Stanziale, especially as to the bachelor's degree and postgraduate education.⁴ Muscillo has a bachelor's degree in business administration. Perhaps more relevant to her work as a Sanitary Inspector, she also has completed a seven week course on environmental and public health and law from Rutgers University, is a certified pesticide applicator and is a certified operator for a lead poisoning testing device.

In response, Stanziale does not dispute that he lacks these educational qualifications, but instead notes that he was not asked about such qualifications in his interview. He alleges that his application for the position of Sanitary Inspector (which reveals his lack of these educational qualifications) was not provided to appellees until after he was hired. From this, Stanziale contends that these educational qualifications are not necessary to the job of Sanitary Inspector; they were not considered in establishing his salary, and they do not, therefore, explain the wage disparity.

Assuming that the facts are as Stanziale suggests, it does not follow that summary judgment was improperly granted. The fact that Stanziale was not asked about his educational qualifications does suggest that Muscillo's educational qualifications are beyond those minimally required for the position of Sanitary Inspector. It also suggests that Stanziale's salary was not based on his college and post college education (or lack thereof). However, the fact that Muscillo's educational qualifications go beyond those minimally required for the position of Sanitary Inspector, or the fact that those qualifications go...