Wilkins v. Eaton Corp.
| Decision Date | 13 May 1986 |
| Docket Number | No. 84-3931,84-3931 |
| Parties | 40 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1349, 40 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 36,221 Ned WILKINS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. The EATON CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Alan N. Hirth (argued), Nancy J. Herbst, Cleveland, Ohio, for Eaton corp.
Robert F. Belovich (argued), Parma, Ohio, Robert S. Belovich, for plaintiff-appellee.
Before ENGEL, CONTIE and MILBURN, Circuit Judges.
The defendant-appellant, Eaton Corporation (Eaton), appeals from the district court's denial of its motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict as well as the court's ruling on evidentiary matters. The jury had returned a verdict for plaintiff-appellee, Ned Wilkins, finding that Eaton had discriminated against Wilkins on the basis of age in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 29 U.S.C. Secs. 621 et seq., and in willful violation of the ADEA.
On February 27, 1981, Ned Wilkins was fired by Eaton Corporation. Wilkins had been employed since July 16, 1968 as a pilot in Eaton's Flight Operations. At the time of his termination, Wilkins was 51 years of age.
Wilkins began flying at the age of 16. When he was hired by Eaton in 1968, he was moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan where he flew a Cessna 411. When Eaton began using a Lear Jet aircraft, Wilkins was relocated to Cleveland, Ohio. Wilkins was trained and qualified to fly the new aircraft. He was an Assistant Chief Pilot from 1972 to 1980 and trained other Eaton pilots in the operation of Lear Jets. Throughout his flying career, he had an exemplary safety record and received very high performance ratings from his superiors. In addition to his piloting abilities, Wilkins developed a temperature control system for the Lear Jet, wrote a computer program 1 for scheduling aircraft trips and crew assignments, and helped service and maintain the automatic pilots.
During the 1970s, Eaton's Flight Operations expanded and in 1979 there were some management changes. In September 1979, Eaton retained a consulting firm, Aviation Consultants, Inc., to evaluate and make recommendations concerning the Flight Operations. Aviation Consultants issued a report in January 1980 which recommended several changes, most important of which was the development of a standardized flight checklist. A checklist is a list of operations to be performed in an aircraft and is supposedly designed for safety purposes.
Pursuant to another recommendation of Aviation Consultants, the Flight Operations was reorganized. A new management position was created, Flight Manager, which was filled by Mr. Doug Collier. Mr. Greg Kuta became the new Chief Pilot, a position directly under the Flight Manager, after the previous Chief Pilot retired. The plaintiff was not considered for the position of Flight Manager, being told he was a "very negative person," and he was not offered the position of Chief Pilot despite his interest in that position. Wilkins was also "demoted" during the same time period from Assistant Chief Pilot to Captain Pilot when Eaton decided to send all pilots to safety school. By sending pilots to safety school, the need for an Assistant Chief Pilot to perform various duties was eliminated.
Shortly after Kuta's appointment, Eaton implemented a policy whereby the management would designate a "Trip Captain" for each flight, who would then designate a pilot-in-command for that flight. During one of Wilkins' scheduled flights, a younger, less experienced pilot was designated as Trip Captain. As a result, Wilkins refused to fly and he was temporarily suspended from piloting duties by Kuta. After discussions with management, Wilkins was permitted to present his grievances in writing, 2 and thereafter Eaton announced that the senior pilot would be pilot-in-command on all future flights.
In August 1980, Kuta began developing a flight checklist by soliciting advice from several sources. In October 1980, Kuta asked Wilkins to use the new checklist in a simulator and to report his impression to Kuta. Wilkins informed Kuta that the checklist was too lengthy. Kuta responded that use of the checklist would be mandatory for all pilots. This fact was later announced to all pilots at a pilot meeting which Wilkins attended.
On February 9, 1981, Wilkins flew to Middletown, Delaware. Wilkins noticed that his co-pilot was occupied with the checklist rather than helping him sight other airplanes. Upon his return to Cleveland, Wilkins told Kuta that the checklist compromised safety and that he did not intend to use it. Kuta stated that all pilots were required to use the checklist in order to fly for Eaton, and Wilkins responded that he might have to work elsewhere.
On February 26, 1981, Wilkins went on a round trip flight to New York City and when he returned he was confronted by Kuta regarding the checklist. Wilkins stated he had not used the checklist, and intended to never use the checklist because he believed safety would be compromised. Kuta told him that he would lose his job and proceeded to remove Wilkins from a scheduled flight on the following day. Wilkins testified at trial that he "could not accept the conditions that [Kuta] attached to continued flying," and when Kuta called him on February 27th to discuss his intentions, Wilkins stated he would not fly if required to use the checklist. Wilkins also stated that he would like to draft a memo as he had been allowed to do in regards to his disagreement with the Trip Captain policy. However, he was called on the following Monday, March 2, 1981, and again was informed that his refusal to use the checklist would result in termination. Wilkins again refused to fly under those conditions, and proceeded to finish his memo for consideration by management. His termination was effective February 27, 1981. Subsequent to his termination Mr. Terry Ross was promoted to Captain Pilot. Ross was 27 years old.
Wilkins filed a complaint on February 26, 1982, alleging that Eaton had fired him because of his age in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), 29 U.S.C. Secs. 621 et seq. He requested damages and reinstatement. The case was tried before a jury.
In support of his claim of age discrimination, Wilkins testified that he believed the flight checklist was discriminatory because it was biased to the younger, inexperienced pilot by virtue of its completeness and requirement for rigorous execution.
And it was biased against the older, more experienced pilots by requiring them to divert their attention to a simple housekeeping chore and take their attention from more important items which would be observing for other traffic, other airplanes in the sky, unusual conditions, wherein true flight safety would lie.
On cross-examination, Wilkins agreed that Eaton had probably believed the checklist would increase safety. Wilkins also testified that he was not aware of anyone else who had told Kuta that they would not use the checklist. He also wrote a computer program which generated two graphs, which were then admitted into evidence. One graph showed the number of pilots, while the other depicted the average age of active pilots over a several year period. The data used to generate the graphs consisted of each pilot's date of birth, date of hire and date that the individual became an inactive pilot by virtue of termination, transfer, retirement or otherwise. Wilkins testified that this graph showed that the average age of active pilots had been decreasing around the time he was terminated.
Mr. Terry Saylor also testified on behalf of Wilkins. Saylor was a pilot for Eaton at the time Wilkins was fired. At that time he was 33 years of age. Saylor testified that he, too, did not use the checklist despite knowing it was mandatory, believing it to be unsafe and inefficient. He stated that he believed the checklist was biased against older and more experienced pilots although he did not state his reasons for that conclusion. He also gave the following testimony:
I had been out on a trip [on February 26, 1981], and when I returned I was talking with Greg Kuta who was chief pilot at that time. And we got into a discussion about the checklist that we were using at that point.
At that time there was a discussion about me not using it. I didn't agree with the checklist, and we had a long discussion about it.
When asked if Mr. Kuta knew that Saylor was not using the checklist, Saylor stated, "Somebody had been talking to him about it...." When asked a second time whether Kuta knew on February 26, 1981 that he did not use the checklist, Saylor responded, "If somebody else had told him." Saylor was not disciplined by Kuta, but was told to "kind of bear with him at that point, that there was going to be some revisions made to the checklist." Wilkins argued that Saylor's testimony showed that he had been treated differently than Saylor on the basis of age. Eaton attempted to introduce into evidence a letter written by Saylor to management which stated, inter alia, that Saylor disagreed with the checklist, but nonetheless followed company policy. The district court did not permit this into evidence, reasoning that it was a prior inconsistent statement and Eaton had failed to lay the proper foundation.
Eaton presented the following evidence. Mr. Sadler, who had overall responsibility for Flight Operations, testified that Wilkins was fired because he "elected not to comply with one of our regulations concerning the operations of our Flight Department" and that age was never considered. Mr. Campbell, Manager of Employee Relations for Eaton, testified that Eaton usually did not terminate employees immediately, giving them three months to turn their behavior around. He stated that this procedure was not used with Wilkins, however, for the following reasons:
[H]e refused to follow the checklist, which was a procedure in place, and he said he...
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