Webber v. International Paper Co.

• Citation: 417 F.3d 229
• Decision Date: 09 August 2005
• Docket Number: No. 04-1796.,04-1796.
• Parties: Gary S. WEBBER, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. INTERNATIONAL PAPER COMPANY, Defendant, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

417 F.3d 229

Gary S. WEBBER, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. INTERNATIONAL PAPER COMPANY, Defendant, Appellee.

No. 04-1796.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard October 4, 2004.

Decided August 9, 2005.

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Arthur J. Greif, with whom Julie D. Farr and Gilbert & Greif, P.A. were on brief for appellant.

Jonathan P. Harmon, with whom McGuire Woods LLP was on brief for appellee.

Before LIPEZ, Circuit Judge, COFFIN and CYR, Senior Circuit Judges.

CYR, Senior Circuit Judge.

Gary S. Webber appeals from the district court judgment which was granted to his former employer, International Paper Company ("IP"), as a matter of law notwithstanding the jury verdict which Webber obtained on his state-law disability discrimination claim. We affirm the district court judgment.

I BACKGROUND

We relate the record evidence, and all reasonable inferences therefrom, in the light most consistent with the jury verdict. See Crowley v. L.L. Bean, Inc., 303 F.3d 387, 393 (1st Cir.2002). From 1983 and until his termination in 2001, Webber was a mechanical draftsman for IP at its paper-manufacturing mill in Bucksport, Maine. In 1986, he was promoted to the position of "engineer," a job description which required an engineering degree, which Webber did not possess. In 1989, Webber was assigned to oversee a $1.3 million construction project at the mill site consisting of a chemical storage facility.

In 1997, Webber injured his knee while working temporarily as a forklift operator. Surgery was required. Over the years, Webber had heard other unspecified employees say that "salaried people do not get hurt." During his post-surgery convalescence, Webber's then-immediate supervisor, Stephen Finley, told Webber that his knee might heal faster if he lost twenty pounds. Finley and another supervisor, Lawrence Schaub, laughed at Finley's remark. Webber returned to work one month later. In 1999, he resumed his former duties as a project engineer, despite the fact that his mobility was severely restricted, necessitating his use of a cane.

Webber requested that IP provide him with several accommodations, including permission to work from his home, reduced work hours, special parking privileges, reassignment from a third-floor to a first-floor office, and the installation of a "glide chair" which would permit Webber to ride from his first-floor office to the third-floor engineering department. IP granted all of these requests. Another supervisor, Steve Moser, dubbed the glide chair "the Costanza chair," a reference to a character from a popular television sitcom who used a glide chair to feign a work disability.

In January 2001, Webber underwent total knee-replacement surgery. One month later, a reduction-in-force plan, called "Functional Fast," was instituted by IP's national headquarters, which would result in the elimination of 3000 employees nationwide. In May 2001, Thomas Thompson, Webber's immediate supervisor, asked him how long it would be before his knee healed.

In June 2001, Fred Oettinger, the Bucksport mill manager, learned that the overall workforce was to be reduced by 21 positions, which was to include an eight-employee reduction in "technical" (viz., non-manufacturing) staff (viz., from 47 to 39). IP's national office in Memphis informed Oettinger that other IP mills of comparable size employed only six project engineers, whereas Bucksport had ten. Rather than eliminate four project engineers, however, Oettinger decided to cut only two positions.

Following consultations with the national office, Oettinger eventually selected Webber and Wayne Jacobs for termination. Oettinger notified supervisors Schaub and Moser of the decision on Friday, June 22, 2001. Neither Schaub nor Moser voiced objection. On the following Monday, Thompson approached Webber and informed him: "you're the weakest link, you're gone." Thereafter, Oettinger summoned Webber to a meeting, at which Webber was notified of his termination. Adverting to the "quality and quantity" of Webber's work, Oettinger explained that he had based his termination decision on the fact that Webber was the only one of the ten engineers without an engineering degree, thus was less capable than the other engineers of handling more complex engineering projects.

In August 2001, Webber submitted a disability-based employment discrimination claim against IP with the Maine Human Rights Commission (MHRC), received a right-to-sue letter, and commenced the instant diversity action in federal district court, alleging that IP had violated the Maine Human Rights Act, Me.Rev.Stat. Ann. ch. 5, § 4551 et seq. The district court denied the pretrial motion for summary judgment submitted by IP, as well as its pre-verdict motion for judgment as a matter of law. In due course, a jury returned a $3 million verdict against IP.

Thereafter, however, the district court granted IP's renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law and vacated the jury verdict, citing the insufficiency of Webber's evidence as to IP's discriminatory animus. Webber v. Int'l Paper Co., 326 F.Supp.2d 160 (D.Me.2004). Webber appeals from the judgment.

II DISCUSSION

A. Standard of Review

A district court judgment entered as a matter of law is subject to de novo review, which requires that we view all the evidence, reasonable inferences, and credibility determinations in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party (viz., Webber). See Vazquez-Valentin v. Santiago-Diaz, 385 F.3d 23, 29-30 (1st Cir. 2004); Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(b). Moreover, we will affirm the ruling only if we determine that the record, thus viewed, strongly and overwhelmingly points to but one conclusion — that no reasonable jury would have reached a contrary result. See Vazquez-Valentin, 385 F.3d at 29-30. Although the standard for setting aside a jury verdict is plainly "stringent," plaintiff-appellant Webber — who bears the ultimate burden of proof — must have adduced more than a "mere scintilla of evidence" supporting the elements of his state-law claim, id., and cannot prevail where the verdict necessarily rests upon evidence which is overly speculative or conjectural. See Ricci v. Alternative Energy Inc., 211 F.3d 157, 162 (1st Cir.2000).

B. Prima Facie Evidence

As Webber adduced no direct evidence of discriminatory intent, see Chuang v. Univ. of Cal. Davis, Bd. of Trustees, 225 F.3d 1115, 1128 (1st Cir. 2000) (describing the stringent requirements of a "mixed-motive" case), his case was subject to the so-called McDonnell-Douglas paradigm. See Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Prods., Inc., 530 U.S. 133, 142, 120 S.Ct. 2097, 147 L.Ed.2d 105 (2000); Fernandes v. Costa Bros. Masonry, Inc., 199 F.3d 572, 580 (1st Cir.1999). Accordingly, Webber was required to establish a prima facie case of discrimination, by adducing competent evidence that (1) he was a member of a protected class (viz., "disabled"); (2) he satisfied his employer's legitimate job performance expectations; (3) his employer terminated him; and (4) his employer did not accord similar treatment to persons outside the protected class. See Thorndike v. Kmart Corp., 35 F.Supp.2d 30, 33 (D.Me.1999) (MHRA); accord Cruz-Ramos v. P.R. Sun Oil Co., 202 F.3d 381, 384 (1st Cir.2000). Once the plaintiff succeeds in establishing a prima facie case, his employer must shoulder the burden to articulate a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for the plaintiff's termination. See Reeves, 530 U.S. at 142, 120 S.Ct. 2097. Once the employer satisfies that minimal burden of production, the plaintiff must bear the ultimate burden of adducing sufficient evidence from which a factfinder rationally might infer that the employer's articulated reason is a pretext for discrimination, and that the real reason for the termination was discriminatory animus. See. id. In this endeavor, "`many veins of circumstantial evidence . . . may be mined' . . . [and][t]hese include — but are by no means limited to — evidence of differential treatment, evidence of discriminatory comments, statistical evidence, and comparative evidence." Rathbun v. Autozone, Inc., 361 F.3d 62, 72 (1st Cir.2004) (citation omitted).

The district court assumed arguendo that Webber had satisfied his initial burden to establish a prima facie case, shifting to IP the burden of production, see, e.g., Hall v. Giant Food, Inc., 175 F.3d 1074, 1079 (D.C.Cir.1999), and on appeal, Webber does not contend that he established a prima facie case. Instead, he urges three grounds for determining that the issue is not properly before us.

First, Webber argues that IP waived this argument by failing to include it in its motion for judgment as a matter of law. But, of course, IP is not the appellant, and we may affirm a district court judgment on any ground supported by the record on appeal. See Geffon v. Micrion Corp., 249 F.3d 29, 35 (1st Cir.2001).

Second, Webber maintains that he was not required to establish that the eight engineers retained by IP were not disabled, because, unlike such obvious attributes as race or gender, disability (or lack thereof) is too difficult of proof. He cites no authority for such an exception to the fourth element; nor have we found any. Prima facie proof of coemployees' non-disability may be somewhat more fact-intensive than proof of their race or gender, but the burden is neither unreasonable nor onerous. Webber presumably had ample opportunity to discover this sort of information, and had he proffered even minimally competent testimony that the retained engineers suffered from no such disability, IP would have had the burden to counter Webber's assertions with contrary evidence, if any existed. We can discern no sound reason for excusing a claimant from adducing such straightforward evidence as part of his prima facie case.

Finally, Webber argues that the sufficiency vel non of his prima facie case was relevant only during trial, and that after the jury verdict, the question...