Staples v. Pepsi-Cola General Bottlers, Inc.

• Decision Date: 03 December 2002
• Docket Number: No. 01-3957.,01-3957.
• Citation: 312 F.3d 294
• Parties: Alvin R. STAPLES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. PEPSI-COLA GENERAL BOTTLERS, INCORPORATED, a Delaware corporation, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 294

312 F.3d 294

Alvin R. STAPLES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. PEPSI-COLA GENERAL BOTTLERS, INCORPORATED, a Delaware corporation, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 01-3957.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued October 15, 2002.

Decided December 3, 2002.

Robert M. Salzman (Argued), Calumet City, IL, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

John P. Morrison (Argued), Bell, Boyd & Lloyd, Chicago, IL, for Defendant-Appellee

Before POSNER, RIPPLE and KANNE, Circuit Judges.

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge.

Alvin R. Staples brought this action against his former employer, Pepsi-Cola General Bottlers, Inc. ("Pepsi"), for discharging him on the basis of his race (African-American), in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as amended ("Title VII"), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2 et seq., and in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1981. He also alleged that his discharge was based on his age, in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA"), 29 U.S.C. § 621 et seq. A jury returned a verdict for Pepsi on Mr. Staples' age claim, but was unable to reach a verdict on the race claims. The district court then granted Pepsi's motion for judgment as a matter of law on the race claims. Mr. Staples appealed to this court. For the reasons set forth in the following opinion, we affirm the judgment of the district court.

I BACKGROUND

A. Facts

Pepsi conducts its sales and distribution of soft drinks through two separate departments: the "bottle/can" department and the "on-premise" department. Tr. at 303. The on-premise department is responsible for the sale of beverages that are consumed on the premises of the account, either in the form of fountain beverages or of packaged beverages.

In 1984, Gordon Powell hired Mr. Staples as a route manager in Pepsi's bottle/can department. As a route manager, Mr. Staples was responsible for training and supervising sixteen people.

In 1986, Powell became director of Pepsi's on-premise department, a position he held until he retired in August 1997. In that position, Powell had two sales managers who reported directly to him; each sales manager, in turn, was responsible for several sales representatives. The sales representatives were responsible for securing new on-premise accounts, maintaining accounts, increasing the volume of Pepsi product sold in existing and new accounts, and meeting other sales goals set for the greater Chicago area.

According to Pepsi, Mr. Staples was not meeting the company's expectations in his route manager position. However, Powell believed Mr. Staples could perform well as a sales representative in the on-premise department. Consequently, in 1990, Powell secured a transfer for Mr. Staples to Pepsi's on-premise department as a sales representative.

Sometime in September 1995, Thomas Erath became Mr. Staples' sales manager. Erath served as Mr. Staples' supervisor only for a short period of time; however, prior to his departure, Erath completed one performance evaluation for Mr. Staples for the first nine months of the fiscal year. One component of that evaluation was Mr. Staples' achievement of individualized sales goals. Erath's evaluation of Mr. Staples' individualized performance was based upon Mr. Staples' self-reported sales information, including volume estimates; it was not based on actual sales of product or revenue received. Another component of the evaluation was group performance towards broader sales objectives; for this component, the combined effort of the sales representatives in the region was considered. Based on the information available to Erath at the time Erath gave Mr. Staples a "commendable" rating. Tr. at 532.

In December 1995, the start of Pepsi's performance year, Beverly Long became one of Powell's two sales managers; Long is an African-American. At that time, Powell instructed both of his sales managers to review final sales numbers for their sales representatives. Long performed this comparison for each of the four sales representatives that reported to her: Mr. Staples, Julia Calderon, Tom Maggio and John Dobbyn. Based on Long's comparison of Pepsi's actual sales numbers with the numbers reported by her sales representatives, Long concluded that Mr. Staples' performance was unacceptable. Specifically, although Mr. Staples had reported forty-two new accounts during 1995, only twenty-eight of those accounts actually had purchased any Pepsi product.¹

In addition to evaluating the actual sales numbers for her sales representatives, Long gave each sales representative his objectives for the upcoming fiscal year. These objectives were consistent among all of the representatives and included: 1) coding all accounts correctly by family, that is, pricing the account appropriately based on its volume of business; 2) securing fifteen new accounts with at least 1,000 gallons of volume per outlet ("vpo"); 3) securing twenty-five new accounts with at least 500 gallons of vpo; 4) increasing Citrus Hill and frozen carbonated beverage business as a group by 50%; and 5) generating at least $10,000 in additional profit through the sale of promotional items. Long communicated these goals to the sales representatives in January 1996.

In order to ensure that each sales representative had a fair opportunity to meet the goals, Long analyzed the sales territories of each of her representatives based on existing volume of sales. Long then "equalized" the territories by giving each sales representative a territory that contained the same volume of existing business. Tr. at 432. As a result of the reallocation of sales territories, Mr. Staples' territory was slightly smaller in 1996 than it had been in 1995. Mr. Staples does not contend that Long's decision to reconfigure the territories was motivated by race. See Tr. at 766.

Pursuant to Pepsi guidelines, Long evaluated each of her sales representatives after six months. Based on the criteria set forth in January, she determined that Mr. Staples' performance was inadequate. Specifically, Mr. Staples had the lowest number of new accounts of any of the sales representatives. As a result of his performance failures, Long informed Mr. Staples that there needed to be improvement in six categories: accounts with volume of 500 gallons or more, rental accounts, other income, account calls, family code adjustments and fountain beverages. If Mr. Staples failed to improve in these areas during the following quarter, he faced suspension or termination.

Over the next three months, Mr. Staples made moderate improvement in a few areas. However, in three areas, there was no improvement whatsoever. Furthermore, in the critical category of new accounts with at least 500 gallons of vpo,² Mr. Staples failed to secure any new accounts in the third quarter of 1996. Because Long did not observe the needed improvement in Mr. Staples' performance Long consulted with Powell and terminated Mr. Staples' employment.

B. District Court Proceedings

After exhausting his administrative remedies, Mr. Staples filed a two-count complaint in the district court. Specifically, Mr. Staples alleged that Pepsi had terminated his employment on the basis of his race in violation of Title VII and § 1981 and on the basis of his age in violation of the ADEA. After a five-day trial, the jury returned a verdict for Pepsi on Mr. Staples' age claim but was unable to reach a verdict on the race claims.

After the jury verdict, Pepsi renewed its motion for judgment as a matter of law on Mr. Staples' race claims. The district court requested briefing on the motion but also set a new trial date for the race claims.

After considering the parties' arguments, the district court granted Pepsi's motion.³ The district court determined that Mr. Staples' claims, "individually and collectively, are not supported by the factual record and are insufficient to carry his burden under Title VII as a matter of law." R.112 at 8. The court did not believe it necessary to "address every contention or issue in great detail"; however, it specifically addressed several arguments forwarded by Mr. Staples. Id. at 9.

The court first rejected Mr. Staples' argument that the manipulation of his territory was the reason that he failed to meet his sales goals.⁴ The court found that Mr. Staples had failed to come forward with any evidence that the territorial change impeded his performance; indeed, the court concluded that all it had was "the bare contention that the territories were unfair and that Mr. Staples would have met his sales objectives had the territory not been modified by Ms. Long." Id. at 10-11.

The district court also was not convinced that comments made by Powell were evidence of racial bias in Mr. Staples' termination. "At trial, it was adduced that Mr. Powell told Mr. Staples that Pepsi-Cola already had Doug Blanchard (black) and that, `there were other people that were equally qualified as [Mr. Staples]' (Trial T. 583-86)." Id. at 11. The court refused to treat this race-neutral statement as evidence of discriminatory animus. The court was especially hesitant to do so because, "[i]n order to constitute evidence of discriminatory intent, statements attributed to a decision-maker must be `both proximate and related to the employment decision in question,'" id. (quoting Bahl v. Royal Indemnity Co., 115 F.3d 1283, 1293 (7th Cir.1997)), and these comments failed both requirements.

Because Mr. Staples had not presented any probative evidence that his termination was based on a factor other than his poor performance, the district court entered judgment on behalf of Pepsi.

II ANALYSIS

A. Standard of Review

This court reviews de novo a district court's grant of a judgment as a matter of law. See Hall v. Gary Comm. Sch. Corp., 298 F.3d 672, 675 (7th Cir. 2002). Our standard of review therefore is the same as when we review a decision on summary judgment, except that we now have the benefit of knowing exactly what evidence was presented at trial. See Massey v. Blue...