Stephen v. PGA Sheraton Resort, Ltd.

• Decision Date: 23 May 1989
• Docket Number: Nos. 87-5968,88-5033,s. 87-5968
• Citation: 873 F.2d 276
• Parties: 49 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1875, 50 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 39,058 Emile STEPHEN, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. PGA SHERATON RESORT, LTD., Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 276

873 F.2d 276

49 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1875,

50 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 39,058

Emile STEPHEN, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. PGA SHERATON RESORT, LTD., Defendant-Appellant.

Nos. 87-5968, 88-5033.

United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit.

May 23, 1989.

Philip M. Burlington, Edna L. Caruso, P.A., West Palm Beach, Fla., for defendant-appellant.

Douglas S. McDowell, Washington, D.C., for amicus--Equal Employment Adv. Council.

Mark A. Cullen, Cullen & Szymoniak, P.A., Lynn E. Szymoniak, West Palm Beach, Fla., for plaintiff-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Before FAY and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges, and ALLGOOD ^*, Senior District Judge.

ANDERSON, Circuit Judge:

Defendant PGA Sheraton Resort, Ltd. ("PGA Sheraton" or "employer") appeals from a judgment of the district court finding its classification and discharge practices to have disparately impacted plaintiff, former employee Emile Stephen ("Stephen" or "employee"), in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e et seq. Because the district court found that Stephen's employment was terminated for a legitimate business reason--that he could not speak or understand English well enough to perform his job--PGA Sheraton successfully rebutted any presumption of discrimination with respect to this plaintiff. Accordingly, the judgment of the district court is reversed and the case is remanded with instructions to enter judgment on the disparate impact claim in favor of the employer.

FACTS

Emile Stephen is a black male of Haitian origin who was employed as a purchasing clerk by PGA Sheraton from November 13, 1985 until February 4, 1986. ¹ Stephen's responsibilities included keeping track of inventory, filling orders, typing, filing forms and making deliveries of supplies to many of the departments at PGA Sheraton. As part of his job Stephen was required to take orders for the supplies that he was required to deliver. The district court found that Stephen could not understand English well enough to perform his assigned duty of bringing supplies to the various departments. His inability to understand English resulted in the misdelivery of supplies. At least one employee had to obtain her own supplies on several occasions.

On February 4, 1986 Stephen's supervisor informed him that he was being terminated from his position with the Purchasing Department. Stephen's job in the Purchasing Department remained vacant for approximately one month. It was eventually filled by a black male of Jamaican origin. ²

Upon being relieved of his responsibilities in the Purchasing Department, Stephen was offered a job in the Housekeeping Department which involved setting up for banquets. Evidence at trial established that the Housekeeping Department is composed mainly of black employees. ³ It was also established that the housekeeping position was lower paying and offered less opportunity for advancement than his former job. Stephen declined to accept the housekeeping job.

At Stephen's request, his supervisor wrote a letter of recommendation on his behalf. The letter characterized Stephen as a "hard working employee, [who] d[id] what was asked of him." The supervisor testified that he wrote the letter because he felt sorry for Stephen, because Stephen impressed him as being a nice person who had endeavored to perform his job. The district court found this a "reasonable and credible explanation." 669 F.Supp. 1573, 1583.

Following his termination, Stephen filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claiming that he had been discharged because of racial discrimination. After conducting an investigation the Commission issued a determination letter finding no reasonable grounds for the allegation. Stephen subsequently filed a complaint in district court claiming that he had been discharged because of his race, and alleging disparate treatment and disparate impact resulting from PGA Sheraton's classification and discharge of black employees. Stephen sought relief pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e et seq. (1981), and 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1981 (1981), in the form of a permanent injunction, reinstatement, back pay and fringe benefits, attorney's fees and compensatory damages.

The cause proceeded to trial before a jury on the Sec. 1981 claim and, in the same proceeding, Stephen presented evidence to the trial judge on the Title VII claims. The jury returned a verdict for defendant on the Sec. 1981 claim and, following the submission by the parties of proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law, the court entered its judgment and opinion.

The court found in favor of PGA Sheraton on the disparate treatment claim, holding that it had successfully rebutted Stephen's prima facie case of intentional discrimination by demonstrating that Stephen was discharged for a legitimate non-discriminatory reason, i.e., "the plaintiff did not adequately perform his job because of the plaintiff's inability to speak and understand English." 669 F.Supp. at 1583.

With respect to the disparate impact claim, the court found that the plaintiff had, through the use of statistics, established a prima facie case of discrimination in PGA Sheraton's job classification scheme and its discharge practices. The court held that the defendant had not rebutted the presumption of discrimination by showing the unreliability of plaintiff's statistical proof or by demonstrating that the challenged business practices were justified by business necessity. Accordingly, the court found that PGA Sheraton's employee classification practices and discharge practices violated Title VII, and ordered that Stephen be reinstated to a comparable position to the one he held prior to termination, and that he be awarded back pay, including fringe benefits. The court denied Stephen's request for injunctive relief.

Thereafter, plaintiff's counsel filed a Motion for Attorney's Fees, which the court granted. Plaintiff does not appeal the judgments in favor of PGA Sheraton on the Sec. 1981 claim and the disparate treatment claim. The only appeal filed was by PGA Sheraton challenging the judgments in favor of plaintiff on the disparate impact claim and on the claim for attorney's fees.

DISCUSSION

Disparate impact claims brought pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act ⁴ seek to show that facially neutral employment practices have significant adverse effects on protected groups, even in the absence of proof that the employer adopted those practices with a discriminatory intent. See Watson v. Fort Worth Bank and Trust, --- U.S. ----, 108 S.Ct. 2777, 2784, 101 L.Ed.2d 827 (1988); Powers v. Alabama Department of Education, 854 F.2d 1285, 1291-92 (11th Cir.1988). In order to sift through the statistical disparities and competing explanations for disparities upon which such cases focus, see Watson, --- U.S. at ----, 108 S.Ct. at 2785, courts have developed a shifting allocation of burdens for the rational presentation of the evidence.

To make out a prima facie case under a disparate impact theory, the complaining party must demonstrate that the defendant employed a facially neutral employment practice that had a significant discriminatory effect. Connecticut v. Teal, 457 U.S. 440, 102 S.Ct. 2525, 2530, 73 L.Ed.2d 130 (1982); Craig v. Alabama State University, 804 F.2d 682, 685 (11th Cir.1986). Once a prima facie case is put forth, the employer must then show that the identified practice bears " 'a manifest relationship to the employment in question.' " Connecticut v. Teal, 457 U.S. at 446, 102 S.Ct. at 2530, quoting Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424, 432, 91 S.Ct. 849, 854, 28 L.Ed.2d 158 (1971), and is thus justifiable as a "business necessity." Griggs, 401 U.S. at 430-31, 91 S.Ct. at 853. If the employer shows that the challenged procedure is sufficiently job-related, the plaintiff may then attempt to demonstrate that other practices or criteria that have a lesser discriminatory effect could also suitably serve the employer's business needs. Watson v. Fort Worth Bank and Trust, --- U.S. ----, 108 S.Ct. 2777, 2795, 101 L.Ed.2d 827 (1988) (Blackmun, J., concurring in part and concurring in the judgment); Craig v. Alabama State University, 804 F.2d 682, 685 (11th Cir.1986).

The district court found that Stephen had established a prima facie case of disparate impact in PGA Sheraton's classification and discharge practices. Specifically, the court found that Stephen had presented statistical evidence showing that, during the time of his employment with PGA Sheraton, "the defendant utilized a job classification scheme which had the effect of discriminating against blacks ... [and] the defendant was engaging in discriminatory discharge practices." 669 F.Supp. at 1581. We need not address the validity of this finding to hold that PGA Sheraton successfully rebutted any prima facie disparate impact case by demonstrating that Stephen's termination rested on proper concerns of business necessity. In other words, even assuming that Stephen's statistical proof showed discrimination in the employer's classification and discharge procedures with respect to a protected class of employees, such evidence was not related to Stephen's termination because the district court found that, in Stephen's own case, the employer took the contested employment action for a legitimate non-discriminatory reason. ⁵

Our conclusion that Stephen's termination was supported by business necessity is buttressed by the district court's finding that "the defendant has adequately shown that the reasons for this decision [to terminate the plaintiff from his job in the Purchasing Department] were based in fact and were legitimate in the face of the plaintiff's job performance." 669 F.Supp. at 1583. The evidence "established that the plaintiff did not adequately perform his job because of the plaintiff...