Woroski v. Nashua Corp.
| Decision Date | 05 August 1994 |
| Docket Number | 1401,Nos. 1399,D,s. 1399 |
| Citation | 31 F.3d 105 |
| Parties | 65 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 824, 65 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 43,272 Milton WOROSKI, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. NASHUA CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellee. Albert SKAWINSKI, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. NASHUA CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellee. ockets 93-9226, 93-9228. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Jack J. Sissman, Albany, NY, for plaintiffs-appellants.
David J. Wukitsch, Albany, NY, for defendant-appellee.
Before: VAN GRAAFEILAND, McLAUGHLIN, and LEVAL, Circuit Judges.
Plaintiffs, Milton Woroski and Albert Skawinski, 1 brought suit alleging that their employer, the defendant Nashua Corporation, unlawfully terminated their employment by reason of their age in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (the "ADEA"), 29 U.S.C. Sec. 621 et seq. The District Court for the Northern District of New York, Neal P. McCurn, Judge, granted summary judgment to the defendant finding that plaintiffs had failed to raise triable issues of fact that defendant's decisions were motivated by age. We affirm.
Woroski and Skawinski were employed at Nashua's manufacturing facility in Watervliet, New York--Woroski as a manufacturing engineer, and Skawinski as a materials coordinator. They had begun working for Norton Company, Nashua's predecessor corporation, in 1961 and 1969 respectively; both became Nashua employees in 1974 when Nashua acquired Norton's Watervliet facility. After the acquisition, Nashua recognized all rights, benefits and seniority of the former Norton employees who continued their employment with Nashua.
Nashua experienced a severe economic downturn in 1989. Corporate sales for the first quarter of 1989 were $1 million below sales for the parallel period in 1988, and were $21 million below budget. Nashua determined that all of its facilities, including the profitable Watervliet division, would make cutbacks to improve the overall profitability of the company. Pursuant to this downsizing plan, 298 Nashua employees were dismissed. Eight of them, including Woroski and Skawinski, were from the Watervliet division.
Robert Geiger, who became the Watervliet plant manager in 1987, was responsible for staff reductions at Watervliet. He met with Robert Nelson, the Watervliet personnel manager, and with various department managers to confer about reductions. They eliminated one or two employees from each of the research and development, finance, engineering, manufacturing and materials management departments.
At the time of their dismissals, on March 24, 1989, Woroski was 52 years of age and Skawinski was 47. Upon the dismissal of Skawinski, his position was eliminated from the materials management department because Geiger, Nelson and the materials management supervisor believed the department could function with three employees instead of four. Two of the remaining employees held positions similar to Skawinski's. All three were 40 or older and enjoyed greater seniority than Skawinski.
Upon Woroski's dismissal, his position was eliminated from the engineering department because Nashua believed Watervliet could function with four full-time engineers instead of five. According to Nashua, Woroski was expendable because the remaining engineers would be able to perform his duties, while Woroski, on the other hand, could perform the duties only of his co-manufacturing engineer, who had 8 years more seniority. The remaining full-time engineers were aged 63, 53, 49 and 45; the other manufacturing engineer (who had greater seniority) was the same age as Woroski.
The average age of the employees dismissed from the Watervliet facility was 37.71. Overall, the effect of the dismissals was to increase the average age of the Watervliet work force from 41.50 to 41.95.
On October 3, 1989, Woroski and Skawinski filed complaints with the New York State Division of Human Rights alleging that Nashua terminated their employment on the basis of their age in violation of the New York Human Rights Law. These complaints were dismissed on grounds of administrative convenience when Woroski and Skawinski filed their complaints in the underlying actions in February 1990.
When discovery in this action was complete, Nashua moved for summary judgment. It contended that, primarily on the basis of the information summarized above, it had demonstrated that the dismissals were part of a business-related downsizing, and were not motivated by the plaintiffs' age. In opposing Nashua's motions, plaintiffs relied principally on the testimony of Louis Ethier, a former Nashua employee who had worked with Geiger. Ethier testified that Geiger had been critical of older Watervliet employees. According to Ethier, Geiger stated "on many occasions" that the "salary work force[ ] was older, had been around too long, made too much money and enjoyed too many benefits" and that "what this company needed was new younger people, perhaps people out of college ... that were younger, more aggressive, hungrier, that would have come and not had six weeks vacation ... and in fact could be hired for, you know, half or 70% of what these people ... enjoy." Geiger denied making these comments.
The district court granted Nashua's motions for summary judgment. The court concluded that plaintiffs had failed to raise genuine issues of material fact as to whether Nashua's decisions were motivated by age. This appeal followed.
Under the ADEA, an employer may not discharge an employee by reason of his age if that employee is at least 40--but less than 70--years of age. See 29 U.S.C. Secs. 623(a)(1), 631(a). This prohibition does not bar any discharge based on factors other than age. See 29 U.S.C. Sec. 623(f)(1). We analyze ADEA claims under the same framework as claims brought pursuant to Title VII. See Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Thurston, 469 U.S. 111, 121, 105 S.Ct. 613, 621, 83 L.Ed.2d 523 (1985).
In order to establish a prima facie case of age discrimination under the standard enunciated in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973), "a plaintiff must show (1) that he was within the protected age group, (2) that he was qualified for the position, (3) that he was discharged, and (4) that the discharge occurred under circumstances giving rise to an inference of age discrimination." Spence v. Maryland Casualty Co., 995 F.2d 1147, 1155 (2d Cir.1993). See also Maresco v. Evans Chemetics, Div. of W.R. Grace & Co., 964 F.2d 106, 110 (2d Cir.1992) (citations omitted). A plaintiff is not required to show that he was replaced by a younger, newly-hired employee. See Montana v. First Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass'n, 869 F.2d 100, 104-05 (2d Cir.1989).
Once the plaintiff has made out a prima facie case, the employer is required to offer a legitimate, non-discriminatory business rationale for its actions. See Spence, 995 F.2d at 1155; Maresco, 964 F.2d at 110. If the employer articulates such a reason, the plaintiff has the burden of proving that his age was the real reason for the discharge. See Gallo v. Prudential Residential Servs., Ltd. Partnership, 22 F.3d 1219, 1225 (2d Cir.1994).
Summary judgment should not be granted unless the moving party has met its burden of proving through "the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, ... that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact...." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). In an employment discrimination case, to defeat a defendant's properly supported motion for summary judgment, a plaintiff must show that there is a material issue of fact as to whether (1) the employer's asserted reason for discharge is false or unworthy of belief and (2) more likely than not the employee's age was the real reason for the discharge. See St. Mary's Honor Ctr. v....
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