Plaintiff's Evidence That Establishes Nondiscriminatory Reason For Employment Action Justifies Entry Of Judgment As A Matter Of Law During Her Case-in-Chief
GREENE v. POTTER (March 5, 2009)
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Mary Alice Greene worked for the post office. She worked five days a week and was allowed to volunteer for overtime on her days off. Each quarter, the post office generated a list of employees who wanted overtime. The assignments were supposed to rotate according to seniority, but the post office was not required to schedule an employee for more than one overtime shift a week. Greene’s off days were Sunday and one weekday. She always requested overtime on both of her off days, although she preferred Sunday overtime. During a two-year period, Greene was offered 22 overtime shifts, only five of which were Sundays. Greene brought an action against the post office for gender discrimination. She claimed that her supervisor favored his male friends to the detriment of the female employees in scheduling the more desirable Sunday overtime. During Greene's case-in-chief, the court granted the post office's motion for judgment as a matter of law. Greene appeals.
In their opinion, Judges Bauer, Ripple and Evans affirmed. The Court first addressed Greene's argument that the entry of judgment in the middle of her case-in-chief was improper. The Court noted that FRCP 50 allows a court to grant a motion for judgment as a matter of law once "a party has been fully heard." The Court recognized that the common practice may be to wait until a party has concluded its case-in-chief. Nevertheless, it concluded that it is proper to enter judgment prior to the close of the plaintiff's case if it has become apparent that the plaintiff cannot prove her case. Here, on the merits, Greene relied on the indirect method of proving illegal discrimination. The Court assumed, for purposes of the appeal, that Greene could have satisfied the elements of the indirect method. It proceeded to address whether Greene presented a genuine issue regarding the post office’s reason for its actions. In order to prevail, Greene had to show that the post office reasons were a pretext for gender discrimination. Greene presented evidence that her supervisor did not schedule overtime according to the post office's policies. The evidence in fact demonstrated that the supervisor manipulated the system to benefit a few of his friends. Greene’s evidence showed conclusively that there was a nondiscriminatory reason for her supervisor's decisions. Since her own evidence that was submitted and that she planned to submit actually defeated her claim, the court acted properly in entering judgment as a matter of law during her case-in-chief.
Michael Rigney practices in the law offices of GVC Ltd. in Chicago. In this blog, he reports on select