Lead Opinion
Opinion
This case presents questions about the law governing claims of wrongful discharge from employment as it applies to an employer’s motion for summary judgment. Plaintiff John Guz, a longtime employee of Bechtel National, Inc. (BNI), was released at age 49 when his work unit was eliminated and its tasks were transferred to another Bechtel office. Guz sued BNI and its parent, Bechtel Corporation (hereinafter collectively Bechtel),
Having closely reviewed the Court of Appeal’s decision,
First, the Court of Appeal used erroneous grounds to reverse summary judgment on Guz’s implied contract cause of action. The Court of Appeal found triable evidence (1) that Guz had an actual agreement, implied in fact, to be discharged only for good cause, and (2) that the elimination of Guz’s work unit lacked good cause because Bechtel’s stated reason—a “downturn in.'. . workload”—was not justified by the facts, and was, in truth, a pretext to discharge the unit’s workers for poor performance without following the company’s “progressive discipline” policy. We acknowledge a triable issue that Guz, like other Bechtel workers, had implied contractual rights under specific provisions of Bechtel’s written personnel policies. But neither the policies, nor other evidence, suggests any contractual restriction on Bechtel’s right to eliminate a work unit as it saw fit, even where dissatisfaction with unit performance was a factor in the decision. The Court of Appeal’s ruling on Guz’s implied contract claim must therefore be reversed. The Court of Appeal did not reach the additional ground on which Guz claims a contractual breach—i.e., that Bechtel failed to follow its fair layoff policies when, during and after the reorganization, it made individual personnel decisions leading to Guz’s release. Accordingly, we leave that issue to the Court of Appeal on remand.
Second, the Court of Appeal erred in restoring Guz’s separate cause of action for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. Here Guz claims that even if his employment included no express or implied-in-fact agreement limiting Bechtel’s right to discharge him, and was thus “at will” (Lab. Code, § 2922), the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, implied by law in every contract, precluded Bechtel from terminating him
Finally, we disagree with the Court of Appeal that Guz’s claim of prohibited age discrimination has triable merit. Bechtel presented evidence, largely undisputed, that the reasons for its personnel decisions leading to Guz’s release had nothing to do with his age. In the face of this showing, evidence cited by Guz that certain workers preferred over him were substantially younger is insufficient to permit a rational inference that age played any significant role in his termination.
For the reasons set forth above, we will reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeal and will remand to that court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Facts
In October 1994, Guz sued Bechtel, challenging the June 1993 termination of his Bechtel employment. The complaint alleged causes of action for breach of an implied employment contract (see Foley v. Interactive Data Corp. (1988)
After extensive discovery, Bechtel filed a motion for summary judgment in August 1995. The motion, and Guz’s opposition thereto, attached numerous supporting documents, including declarations and deposition excerpts. On the basis of these submissions, the following facts appear to be essentially undisputed:
In 1971, Bechtel hired Guz as an administrative assistant at a salary of $750 per month. Throughout his Bechtel career, Guz worked in “management information,” performing, at various times, duties on both the
BNI, a division of Bechtel Corporation, is an engineering, construction, and environmental remediation company that focuses on federal government programs, principally for the Departments of Energy and Defense. Prior to 1993, BNI had its own in-house management information unit, the BNI Management Information Group (BNI-MI). BNI-MI itself represented a 1986 consolidation of two Bechtel management information units, which resulted in the work of these groups being done by fewer people. Between 1986 and 1991, BNI-MI’s size was further reduced from 13 to six persons, and its costs were reduced from $748,000 in 1986 to $400,000 in 1991.
Guz had worked for BNI-MI since 1986. In 1992, at age 49, he was employed as a financial reports supervisor, responsible for supervising BNI-MI’s overhead section, which included himself and 44-year-old Dee Minoia. At salary grade 27, Guz earned $5,940 per month. BNI-MI’s six-member staff also included its manager, Ronald Goldstein (age 50), Goldstein’s secretary Pam Fung (age 45), Robert Wraith (age 41), and Christine Siu (age 34). Guz’s immediate superior was his longtime friend and colleague Goldstein. Goldstein, in turn, reported to Edward Dewey, BNI’s manager of government services.
During this time, Bechtel maintained Personnel Policy 1101, dated June 1991, on the subject of termination of employment (Policy 1101). Policy 1101 stated that “Bechtel employees have no employment agreements guaranteeing continuous service and may resign at their option or be terminated at the option of Bechtel.”
Policy 1101 also described several “Categories of Termination,” including “Layoff’ and “Unsatisfactory Performance.” With respect to Unsatisfactory Performance, the policy stated that “[ejmployees who fail to perform their jobs in a satisfactory manner may be terminated, provided the employees have been advised of the specific shortcomings and given an opportunity to improve their performance.”
In January 1992, Robert Johnstone became president of BNI. While previously running another Bechtel entity, Johnstone had received management information services from the San Francisco Regional Office Management Information Group (SFRO-MI) headed by James Tevis. BNI-MI and SFRO-MI performed similar functions, and John Shaeffer,
Johnstone soon became unhappy with the size, cost, and performance of BNI-MI. In April 1992, he advised Dewey, Goldstein, and Guz that BNI-MI’s work could be done by three people. A May 1992 memo from Dewey to Goldstein warned that Dewey and Johnstone had agreed BNI-MI’s 1992 overhead budget of $365,000 was a “maximum not to be exceeded” and was “subject to further analysis and review, since the real guideline was far below this level.”
Between April and October 1992, Guz and Goldstein discussed how to reduce BNI-MI’s work force. In September 1992, Dee Minoia was told to look for another job. In October 1992, on Dewey’s recommendation, Gold-stein advised Guz to seek another Bechtel position, citing BNI-MI’s reduced budget as the “biggest factor.” By that time, as Guz knew, BNI-MI’s overhead costs for 1992 had already run well over its strict budget.
In preparation for his departure, Guz compiled a list of his job tasks, together with his suggestions about who should perform his work once the BNI-MI staff was reduced. Guz recommended that most of his duties go to Shaeffer in SFRO-MI, and that the small remaining portion of his work, involving the government’s Defense Contract Audit Agency, be transferred to a unit headed by Ann Dersheimer, BNI’s 46-year-old controller, which regularly performed government audit and contract work. In mid-November, Goldstein managed to persuade Dewey, at least temporarily, that Guz was necessary to BNI-MI’s work. With Dewey’s consent, Goldstein asked Guz to stay, and Guz accepted.
Meanwhile, however, Dewey and Johnstone were discussing the possibility of involving SFRO-MI more actively in BNI’s management information needs. In late November 1992, Goldstein received from Dewey, and discussed with Guz, a memo setting BNI-MI’s target overhead budget for 1993
About the same time, Johnstone asked Tevis to submit a proposal to provide BNI’s management information services through SFRO-MI. In early December, Tevis submitted a proposed budget of $200,000, which Johnstone accepted.
On December 9, 1992, Goldstein informed Guz that BNI-MI was being disbanded, that its work would be done by SFRO-MI, and that Guz was being laid off. Goldstein told Guz the reason he had been selected for layoff was to reduce costs. On December 11, 1992, Guz received a confirmatory letter from Dewey, which referred to “the downturn in our workload” and placed Guz on holding status. In a December 17, 1992, memo to BNI managers, Johnstone announced the transfer of BNI-MI to SFRO-MI effective February 1, 1993. During the transition period, as he had earlier recommended, Guz transferred his overhead reporting work to Shaeffer and his government audit work to Dersheimer.
As part of the transition plan, Tevis consulted with Goldstein “about the positions [Tevis] would need that [he] could cover in [his] group and that [he] couldn’t cover.” According to Tevis’s uncontradicted deposition testimony, Goldstein recommended Wraith and Siu as the best additions to SFRO-MI’s staff. The reasons, according to Tevis, were that Siu had necessary skills in Bechtel’s ORS computer operating system and occupied a salary grade commensurate with the duties Tevis wished her to assume, and that Wraith “knew the project side” of management information. Guz’s name came up in the discussion, but Tevis and Goldstein “both decided” Shaeffer and another current SFRO-MI employee, Chris Gee, were sufficient to assume Guz’s overhead work.
Wraith and Siu, the two youngest members of BNI-MI, were transferred to SFRO-MI, while all the remaining BNI-MI employees, including Guz, were laid off. Guz was placed on holding status pending possible reassignment to another Bechtel position.
During early 1993, while Guz was on holding status, three other positions became available in SFRO-MI, partly because of that unit’s expanded responsibilities for BNI. An existing SFRO-MI employee, 42-year-old John Wallace, was selected for a new SFRO-MI position as supervisor of SFROMI’s work for BNI. Wallace’s former SFRO-MI subordinate, 52-year-old Jan Vreim, was placed in Wallace’s old job. The third position, vacated by the transfer of another SFRO-MI member, was filled by 38-year-old Barbara
Tevis explained that Wallace was selected for his position because it required his computer skills, and because his supervisory and project experience suited him for the responsibility of working directly with BNI president Johnstone, who was project oriented. Vreim was also chosen for her ORS computer ability, her history of working with high-level managers, and her project experience. The SFRO-MI position taken by Stenho required a close working relationship with another Bechtel entity, Bechtel Civil, where Stenho had previously been employed. Stenho was placed in her new job at the specific request of Bechtel Civil’s manager.
Though Guz insists he let it be known he wanted to stay at Bechtel, even at a reduced salary, he appears to concede he did not specifically apply for any of the SFRO-MI positions. Tevis never saw Guz’s resume before filling them, and he admitted he never considered Guz for these jobs. Tevis variously indicated he did not realize Guz was available, thought Guz “only did overhead,” understood from Goldstein that Guz lacked computer skills, and did not know Guz had supervisory experience. Tevis also noted Guz did not have the Bechtel Civil relationship necessary for the Stenho position. After Tevis was asked, at his deposition, to examine Guz’s resume, Tevis acknowledged it indicated Guz might have qualified for the positions taken by Wraith and Wallace.
Guz’s original three-month holding status was renewed for an additional three months, but he obtained no other position within Bechtel. He was terminated on June 11, 1993.
Guz sought to furnish evidence that the cost reduction and workload downturn reasons given him for the elimination of BNI-MI, and his own consequent layoff, were arbitrary, false, and pretextual. To rebut the implication that a general business slowdown required BNI to lay off workers, Guz submitted an excerpt from Bechtel Corporation’s 1992 Annual Report. There, Bechtel Corporation’s president stated that the “Bechtel team had an exceptional year,” and that the company as a whole had achieved healthy gains in both revenue from current projects and new work booked. In his own declaration, Goldstein stated that BNI-MI’s 1992 and projected 1993 workload was high, that BNI-MI’s work volume was not directly related to the overall job hours of BNI, and that because much of BNI-MI’s overhead cost was recoverable under BNI’s government contracts, the net savings from elimination of BNI-MI were only a small fraction of its budget.
Policy 302 described a system of employee ranking (sometimes hereafter called force ranking), which was to be “used alone or in conjunction with other management tools in making personnel decisions in such areas as . . . [sjtaffing.” Rankings were to be based on the fair, objective, and consistent evaluation of employees’ comparative job-relevant skills and performance. However, Policy 302 also provided that “[ujnique situations may occur in which employee ranking may be inapplicable based on the nature of the personnel decision or the limited size of the ranking group.” (Italics omitted.)
The RIF Guidelines specified that when choosing among employees to be retained and released during a reduction in force, the formal ranking system set forth in Policy 302 was to be employed. For this purpose, the RIF Guidelines said, employees should “[ijdeally” be ranked, by similarity of function or level of work activity, in groups of from 20 to 100. The parties disputed whether Bechtel actually used this force ranking system when eliminating entire units of fewer than 20 employees. Bechtel’s manager of human resources declared that force ranking was inappropriate for small units, such as BNI-MI, whose employees had dissimilar duties, grades, and skills. However, both Guz and Goldstein declared their recollection that force ranking was an established Bechtel policy and was used in 1986 when two management information units, containing 13 employees, were consolidated into a six-member unit, BNI-MI.
The RIF Guidelines also explained the term “holding status” and its benefits. According to the RIF Guidelines, this status could be granted upon layoff, for a renewable three-month period, while the employee awaited possible reassignment. The employee would not receive salary, but Bechtel would maintain his medical, dental, voluntary personal accident, and term life insurance. Bechtel should also provide the employee with “[tjransfer and [pjlacement [ajssistance.” The “releasing organization” should determine if the employee was qualified for other vacant positions within the same unit, • and “open requisitions” (i.e., solicitation of outside applicants for available positions) should generally be cancelled during a reduction in force. “Efforts should [also] be made to contact discipline counterparts in other Bechtel entities/services” in hopes of placing the employee, and the employee should be considered for future positions. (Italics added.) In his deposition, BNI
In their declarations, Goldstein and Guz insisted Guz was qualified for each of the several vacant positions in SFRO-MI, as well as for several other positions that became available within Bechtel. Addressing Tevis’s specific qualms about Guz, Guz and Goldstein declared that Guz had supervisorial experience, and had worked on both the awarded and overhead sides of management information. Guz further stated that he had taken training for the ORS computer system, “had more than adequate computer skills for [his] position,” and was never told his computer skills were deficient.
The trial court granted summary judgment. The court reasoned that “[Guz] was an at-will employee and has not introduced any evidence that he was ever told at any time that he had permanent employment or that he would be retained as long as he was doing a good job. . . . [f] Plaintiff is unable to establish a prima facie case of age discrimination. . . . Plaintiff is also unable to rebut [Bechtel’s] legitimate business reason for his termination and/or his failure to obtain another position within Bechtel. . . .”
Over a vigorous dissent by Presiding Justice Anderson, the Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, Division Four, reversed. The majority, Justices Poché and Reardon, reasoned as follows: Under Foley, supra,
The dissent argued that the trial court properly dismissed all Guz’s causes of action. It reasoned as follows: As to the contract claim, Policy 1101 expressly provided that Bechtel employment was at will. The progressive discipline policy did not apply to general reductions in force, and nothing in Bechtel’s personnel policies otherwise limited its right to eliminate positions. Guz’s mere successful longevity could not prove a contractual right to be terminated only for good cause. Moreover, there was no evidence the elimination of BNI-MI was pretextual, or that Bechtel violated the implied covenant of fair dealing by engaging in intentional, bad faith conduct to deprive Guz of the benefits of his employment. As to age discrimination, Bechtel gave legitimate nondiscriminatory reasons for eliminating BNI-MI, and Guz presented no evidence these reasons were false, let alone excuses for intentional discrimination against Guz on the basis of his
We granted review.
Discussion
I. Summary judgment rules.
On appeal after a motion for summary judgment has been granted, we review the record de novo, considering all the evidence set forth in the moving and opposition papers except that to which objections have been made and sustained. (Artiglio v. Coming Inc. (1998)
II. Implied contract claim.
Labor Code section 2922 provides that “[a]n employment, having no specified term, may be terminated at the will of either party on notice to the other.” An at-will employment may be ended by either party “at any time without cause,” for any or no reason, and subject to no procedure except the statutory requirement of notice. (E.g., Foley, supra, 47 Cal.3d 654, 680; Gantt v. Sentry Insurance Co. (1992)
While the statutory presumption of at-will employment is strong, it is subject to several limitations. For instance, as we have observed, “the employment relationship is fundamentally contractual.” (Foley, supra, 47
One example of a contractual departure from at-will status is an agreement that the employee will be terminated only for “good cause” (Foley, supra,
Thus, the employer and employee may enter “ ‘an agreement . . . that ... the employment relationship will continue indefinitely, pending the occurrence of some event such as the employer’s dissatisfaction with the employee’s services or the existence of some “cause” for termination.’ ” (Foley, supra,
The contractual understanding need not be express, but may be implied in fact, arising from the parties’ conduct evidencing their actual mutual intent to create such enforceable limitations. (Foley, supra,
Foley asserted that “the totality of the circumstances” must be examined to determine whether the parties’ conduct, considered in the context of surrounding circumstances, gave rise to an implied-in-fact contract limiting the employer’s termination rights. (Foley, supra,
On the contrary, “courts seek to enforce the actual understanding” of the parties to an employment agreement. (Foley, supra,
Every case thus turns on its own facts. Where there is no express agreement, the issue is whether other evidence of the parties’ conduct has a “tendency in reason” (Evid. Code, § 210) to demonstrate the existence of an actual mutual understanding on particular terms and conditions of employment. If such evidence logically permits conflicting inferences, a question of fact is presented. (Foley, supra,
Guz alleges he had an agreement with Bechtel that he would be employed so long as he was performing satisfactorily and would be discharged only for good cause. Guz claims no express understanding to this effect. However, he asserts that such an agreement can be inferred by combining evidence of several Foley factors, including (1) his long service; (2) assurances of continued employment in the form of raises, promotions, and good performance reviews; (3) Bechtel’s written personnel policies, which suggested that termination for poor performance would be preceded by progressive discipline, that layoffs during a work force reduction would be based on objective criteria, including formal ranking, and that persons laid off would receive placement and reassignment assistance; and (4) testimony by a Bechtel executive that company practice was to terminate employees for a good reason and to reassign, if possible, a laid-off employee who was performing satisfactorily.
The Court of Appeal agreed with Guz that there was triable evidence of an implied-in-fact contract to terminate him only for good cause. The court further agreed the evidence warranted a trial on Guz’s first theory of breach, i.e., that Bechtel’s stated economic reason for eliminating his work unit lacked support and was a pretext for firing unsatisfactory workers without resort to progressive discipline procedures. On this basis alone, the Court of Appeal reversed the summary judgment against Guz’s contract cause of action. The Court of Appeal did not decide whether the evidence justified a trial on Guz’s second theory of breach, i.e., the denial of rights specified by the company’s fair layoff rules.
As we shall explain, we find triable evidence that Bechtel’s written personnel documents set forth implied contractual limits on the circumstances under which Guz, and other Bechtel workers, would be terminated. On the other hand, we see no triable evidence of an implied agreement between Guz and Bechtel on additional, different, or broader terms of employment security. As Bechtel suggests, the personnel documents themselves did not restrict Bechtel’s freedom to reorganize, reduce, and consolidate its work force for whatever reasons it wished. Thus, contrary to the Court of Appeal’s holding, Bechtel had the absolute right to eliminate Guz’s work unit and to transfer the unit’s responsibilities to another company entity, even if the decision was influenced by dissatisfaction with the eliminated unit’s performance, and even if the personnel documents entitled an individual employee to progressive discipline procedures before being fired for poor performance.
The basis on which the Court of Appeal overturned this portion of the trial court’s summary judgment was therefore erroneous, and the Court of Appeal’s decision in this regard must be reversed. Having so concluded, we need not address the issue the Court of Appeal never reached, i.e., whether
At the outset, Bechtel insists that the existence of implied contractual limitations on its termination rights is negated because Bechtel expressly disclaimed all such agreements. Bechtel suggests the at-will presumption of Labor Code 2922 was conclusively reinforced by language Bechtel inserted in Policy 1101, which specified that the company’s employees “have no . . . agreements guaranteeing continuous service and may be terminated at [Bechtel’s] option.” As Bechtel points out, Guz concedes he understood Policy 1101 applied to him.
This express disclaimer, reinforced by the statutory presumption of at-will employment, satisfied Bechtel’s initial burden, if any, to show that Guz’s claim of a contract limiting Bechtel’s termination rights had no merit. But neither the disclaimer nor the statutory presumption necessarily foreclosed Guz from proving the existence and breach of such an agreement.
Cases in California and elsewhere have held that at-will provisions in personnel handbooks, manuals, or memoranda do not bar, or necessarily overcome, other evidence of the employer’s contrary intent (see, e.g., Thomka v. Financial Corp. (1993)
We agree that disclaimer language in an employee handbook or policy manual does not necessarily mean an employee is employed at will. But even if a handbook disclaimer is not controlling (Wilkerson, supra,
However, Guz insists his own undisputed long and successful service at Bechtel constitutes strong evidence of an implied contract for permanent employment except upon good cause. Guz argues that by retaining him for over 20 years, and by providing him with steady raises, promotions, commendations, and good performance reviews during his tenure, Bechtel engaged in “actions . . . reflecting assurances of continued employment.” {Foley, supra,
A number of post-Foley California decisions have suggested that long duration of service, regular promotions, favorable performance reviews, praise from supervisors, and salary increases do not, without more, imply an employer’s contractual intent to relinquish its at-will rights. {Horn v. Cushman & Wakefield Western, Inc. (1999)
We agree that an employee’s mere passage of time in the employer’s service, even where marked with tangible indicia that the employer approves
On the other hand, long and successful service is not necessarily irrelevant to the existence of such a contract. Over the period of an employee’s tenure, the employer can certainly communicate, by its written and unwritten policies and practices, or by informal assurances, that seniority and longevity do create rights against termination at will. The issue is whether the employer’s words or conduct, on which an employee reasonably relied, gave rise to that specific understanding.
Read in context, Foley, supra, 47 Cal.3d 654, did not hold otherwise. In the first place, Foley’s reference to lengthy, successful service as evidence of an implied contract not to terminate at will was simply quoted, with little independent analysis, from Pugh, supra,
But Foley itself discredited this line of reasoning. There we “reiterated that the employment relationship is fundamentally contractual” (Foley, supra,
Insofar as Foley applied the long service factor to its own facts, it did so consistently with the principles of implied-in-fact contracts. In Foley, the employer claimed the employee’s six years and nine months of service was too short a period to evidence an implied agreement not to discharge at will. We answered that “[l]ength of employment [was] a relevant consideration”
We therefore decline to interpret Foley as holding that long, successful service, standing alone, can demonstrate an implied-in-fact contract right not to be terminated at will. In the case before us, there is no indication that employee longevity is a significant factor in determining the existence or content of an implied contract limiting the employer’s termination rights. Guz claims no particular “ ‘actions or communications by [Bechtel]’ ” (Foley, supra,
If anything, Bechtel had communicated otherwise. The company’s Policy 1101 stated that Bechtel employees had no contracts guaranteeing their continuous employment and could be terminated at Bechtel’s option. Nothing in this language suggested any exception for senior workers, or for those who had received regular raises and promotions. While occasional references to seniority appear in other sections of Bechtel’s personnel documents, the narrow context of these references undermines an inference that Bechtel additionally intended, or employees had reason to expect, special immunities from termination based on their extended or successful service.
Accordingly, the undoubted length and merit of Guz’s Bechtel career does not bolster his claim that his at-will status had been altered by an implied
Guz asserts that Bechtel’s personnel documents, read as a whole, strongly support his claim of an implied agreement for employment security. As Guz suggests, an employer’s written personnel policies may be an important source of implied-contract evidence. We have made clear that “the trier of fact can infer an agreement to limit the grounds for termination based on the employee’s reasonable reliance on the company’s personnel manual or policies.” (Foley, supra,
“The principle that implied employment contract terms may arise from the employer’s official . . . policies and practices is one that long predates Foley . . . . ‘Of late years the attitude of the courts (as well as of employers in general) is to consider regulations of this type which offer additional advantages to employees as being in effect offers of a unilateral contract which offer is accepted if the employee continues in the employment, and not as being mere offers of gifts.’ ([Chinn v. China Nat. Aviation Corp. (1955) 98,] 99-100 [
When an employer promulgates formal personnel policies and procedures in handbooks, manuals, and memoranda disseminated to employees, a strong inference may arise that the employer intended workers to rely on these policies as terms and conditions of their employment, and that employees did reasonably so rely. (See, e.g., Scott, supra,
For these reasons, logic suggests that the employer may intend, and employees may understand, such generally promulgated policies as a systematic approach to personnel relations, providing a clear and uniform alternative to haphazard practices, understandings, and arrangements within the company. Therefore, where the employer has chosen to maintain such written policies, the terms they describe must be a central focus of the contractual analysis.
Finally, Guz asserts there is evidence that, industry custom and written company personnel policies aside, Bechtel had an unwritten “polic[y] or practice[]” (Foley, supra,
In sum, if there is any significant evidence that Guz had an implied contract against termination at will, that evidence flows exclusively from Bechtel’s written personnel documents. It follows that there is no triable issue of an implied contract on terms broader than the specific provisions of those documents. In reviewing the Court of Appeal’s determination that Bechtel may have breached contractual obligations to Guz by eliminating his work unit, we must therefore focus on the pertinent written provisions.
As noted above, Bechtel’s written personnel provisions covering termination from employment fell into two categories. The parties do not dispute that certain of these provisions, expressly denominated “Policies” (including Policies 1101 and 302), were disseminated to employees and were intended by Bechtel to inform workers of rules applicable to their employment. There seems little doubt, and we conclude, a triable issue exists that thfc specific provisions of these Policies did become an implicit part of the employment contracts of the Bechtel employees they covered, including Guz.
Guz also points to another Bechtel document, the RIF Guidelines, that addressed procedures for implementing reductions in the work force. Evidence suggesting the contractual status of this document is somewhat closer.
On the other hand, the formality, tone, length, and detail of the RIF Guidelines suggest they were not intended as merely precatory. The RIF Guidelines comprised a minimum of six single-spaced pages, and were distributed under a cover letter suggesting that they represented “corporate policy.” In some instances, the RIF Guidelines defined or supplemented terms and provisions directly set forth in Policies 302 and 1101, such as the holding status described in Policy 1101 and the formal personnel ranking system described in Policy 302. There was also some evidence that Bechtel employees, including Guz, were aware of RIF Guideline procedures such as force ranking, had observed that the company followed these procedures in the past, and believed them to be Bechtel’s policy. Goldstein, Guz’s supervisor at BNI-MI, declared that as a supervisor, he received and was “instructed to follow” the RIF Guidelines. On balance, we are persuaded a triable issue exists that the RIF Guidelines, like the formally denominated Policies, formed part of an implied contract between Bechtel and its employees.
As Bechtel stresses, Policy 1101 itself purported to disclaim any employment security rights. However, Bechtel had inserted other language, not only in Policy 1101 itself, but in other written personnel documents, which described detailed rules and procedures for the termination of employees under particular circumstances. Moreover, the specific language of Bechtel’s disclaimer, stating that employees had no contracts “guaranteeing . . . continuous service” (italics added) and were terminable at Bechtel’s “option,” did not foreclose an understanding between Bechtel and all its workers that Bechtel would make its termination decisions within the limits of its written personnel rules. Given these ambiguities, a fact finder could rationally determine that despite its general disclaimer, Bechtel had bound itself to the specific provisions of these documents.
In holding that Bechtel may have breached the terms of an implied contract with Guz by eliminating his work unit, the Court of Appeal relied on two premises. Focusing on one reason Guz was given for this decision—a “downturn in . . . workload”—the Court of Appeal concluded that even if this reason were taken at face value, the evidence permitted a determination
On the facts before us, we conclude that both these premises were in error. Bechtel’s written personnel documents—which, as we have seen, are the sole source of any contractual limits on Bechtel’s rights to terminate Guz— imposed no restrictions upon the company’s prerogatives to eliminate jobs or work units, for any or no reason, even if this would lead to the release of existing employees such as Guz.
Policy 1101 itself did address a category of termination labeled “Layoff.” However, this section simply defined that term as a “Bechtel-initiated termination[] of employees caused by a reduction in workload, reorganizations, changes in job requirements, or other circumstances such as failure to meet [a] client’s site access requirements.” (Italics added.) Policy 1101 further provided that persons scheduled for layoff were entitled to advance notice to facilitate reassignment efforts and job search assistance, and that “[a] surplus employee[] [might] be placed on ‘holding status’ if there [was] a possible Bechtel reassignment within the following 3-month period.” By proceeding in this fashion, Policy 1101 confirmed that Bechtel was free to “reorganize]” itself, or to “change[] . . . job requirements,” and to “initiate[]” employee “terminations . . . caused by” this process, so long as Bechtel provided the requisite advance notice.
The RIF Guidelines set forth more detailed procedures for selecting individual layoff candidates, and for helping such persons obtain jobs elsewhere within the company. But the RIF Guidelines, like the Policies, neither stated nor implied any limits on Bechtel’s freedom to implement the reorganization itself.
Guz, like the Court of Appeal, focuses on a separate section of Policy 1101, titled “Unsatisfactory Performance.” This section, the so-called progressive discipline provision, stated that “[e]mployees who fail to perform their jobs in a satisfactory manner may be terminated, provided the employees have been advised of the specific shortcomings and given an opportunity to improve their performance.” (Italics added.) Like the Court of Appeal, Guz cites BNI president Johnstone’s disclosure that he was unhappy with BNI-MI’s work product as evidence that the elimination of BNI-MI was a pretext for firing its individual members without resort to the progressive discipline policy.
Accordingly, we conclude the Court of Appeal erred in finding, on the grounds it stated, that Guz’s implied contract claim was triable. Insofar as the Court of Appeal used these incorrect grounds to overturn the trial court’s contrary determination, and thus to reinstate Guz’s contractual cause of action, the Court of Appeal’s decision must be reversed.
The Court of Appeal did not address Guz’s second theory, i.e., that Bechtel also breached its implied contract by failing, during and after the reorganization, to provide him personally with the fair layoff protections, including force ranking and reassignment help, which are set forth in its Policies and RIF Guidelines. This theory raises difficult questions, including what the proper remedy, if any, should be if Guz ultimately shows that Bechtel breached a contractual obligation to follow certain procedural policies in the termination process. However, we commonly decline to decide issues not addressed by the Court of Appeal. (See, e.g., Hughes v. Board of Architectural Examiners (1998)
III. Implied covenant claim.
Bechtel next urges that the trial court properly dismissed Guz’s separate claim for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing because, on the facts and arguments presented, this theory of recovery is either inapplicable or superfluous. We agree.
The sole asserted basis for Guz’s implied covenant claim is that Bechtel violated its established personnel policies when it terminated him without a
Thus, Guz argues, in effect, that the implied covenant can impose substantive terms and conditions beyond those to which the contract parties actually agreed. However, as indicated above, such a theory directly contradicts our conclusions in Foley, supra,
Labor Code section 2922 establishes the presumption that an employer may terminate its employees at will, for any or no reason. A fortiori, the employer may act peremptorily, arbitrarily, or inconsistently, without providing specific protections such as prior warning, fair procedures, objective evaluation, or preferential reassignment. Because the employment relationship is “fundamentally contractual” {Foley, supra,
This logic led us to emphasize in Foley that “breach of the implied covenant cannot logically be based on a claim that [the] discharge [of an at-will employee] was made without good cause.” {Foley, supra,
The same reasoning applies to any case where an employee argues that even if his employment was at will, his arbitrary dismissal frustrated his contract benefits and thus violated the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. Precisely because employment at will allows the employer freedom to terminate the relationship as it chooses, the employer does not frustrate the employee’s contractual rights merely by doing so. In such a case, “the employee cannot complain about a deprivation of the benefits of continued employment, for the agreement never provided for á continuation of its benefits in the first instance.” {Hejmadi v. AMFAC, Inc. (1988)
Guz cites several decisions suggesting that the implied covenant precludes an employer from terminating even an at-will employee unfairly, such as by refusing to follow its own established policies and practices. {Rulon-Miller v. International Business Machines Corp. (1984)
Similarly at odds with Foley are suggestions that independent recovery for breach of the implied covenant may be available if the employer terminated the employee in “bad faith” or “without probable cause,” i.e., without determining “honestly and in good faith that good cause for discharge existed.” (Walker, supra,
A number of Court of Appeal decisions since Foley have recognized that the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing imposes no independent limits on an employer’s prerogative to dismiss employees. (E.g., Camp, supra,
Of course, as we have indicated above, the employer’s personnel policies and practices may become implied-in-fact terms of the contract between employer and employee. If that has occurred, the employer’s failure to follow such policies when terminating an employee is a breach of the contract itself.
A breach of the contract may also constitute a breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. But insofar as the employer’s acts are directly actionable as a breach of an implied-in-fact contract term, a claim that merely realleges that breach as a violation of the covenant is superfluous. This is because, as we explained at length in Foley, the remedy for breach of an employment agreement, including the covenant of good faith and fair dealing implied by law therein, is solely contractual. In the employment context, an implied covenant theory affords no separate measure of recovery, such as tort damages. {Foley, supra,
We adhere to these principles here. To the extent Guz’s implied covenant cause of action seeks to impose limits on Bechtel’s termination rights beyond those to which the parties actually agreed, the claim is invalid. To the extent the implied covenant claim seeks simply to invoke terms to which the parties did agree, it is superfluous. Guz’s remedy, if any, for Bechtel’s alleged violation of its personnel policies depends on proof that they were contract
IV. Age discrimination claim.
Bechtel urges that the trial court correctly granted summary adjudication against Guz’s claim that he was terminated because of his age, in violation of the FEHA.
We agree with Bechtel that it was entitled to judgment as a matter of law against Guz’s age discrimination claim. In support of its motion for summary judgment, Bechtel offered extensive evidence of its reasons, unrelated to age, for eliminating BNI-MI, and for the ensuing individual personnel decisions that led to Guz’s final release. In substantial measure, Guz’s written response to Bechtel’s motion conceded the truth, if not the wisdom, of Bechtel’s explanation. To survive summary judgment, Guz was thus obliged to point to evidence raising a triable issue—i.e., permitting an inference—that, notwithstanding Bechtel’s showing, its ostensible reasons were a mask for prohibited age bias.
To sustain that burden, Guz first argues there are several triable bases for concluding that Bechtel’s stated reasons are false. None of Guz’s theories are persuasive. As sole independent support for an inference that Bechtel discriminated, Guz cites comparative-age evidence which suggests, in his view, that Bechtel’s decisions favored younger over older workers. But Guz’s claim of statistical age bias is weak in numerous respects. In the face of Bechtel’s strong and unrebutted showing that it took its actions for nondiscriminatory reasons, the evidence of age favoritism on which Guz
A. General principles (McDonnell Douglas test).
Because of the similarity between state and federal employment discrimination laws, California courts look to pertinent federal precedent when applying our own statutes. (See, e.g., Mixon v. Fair Employment & Housing Com. (1987)
This so-called McDonnell Douglas test reflects the principle that direct evidence of intentional discrimination is rare, and that such claims must usually be proved circumstantially. Thus, by successive steps of increasingly narrow focus, the test allows discrimination to be inferred from facts that create a reasonable likelihood of bias and are not satisfactorily explained.
At trial, the McDonnell Douglas test places on the plaintiff the initial burden to establish a prima facie case of discrimination. This step is designed to eliminate at the outset the most patently meritless claims, as where the plaintiff is not a member of the protected class or was clearly unqualified, or where the job he sought was withdrawn and never filled. (Burdine, supra,
The specific elements of a prima facie case may vary depending on the particular facts. (Burdine, supra,
If, at trial, the plaintiff establishes a prima facie case, a presumption of discrimination arises. (St. Mary’s Honor Center v. Hicks (1993)
Accordingly, at this trial stage, the burden shifts to the employer to rebut the presumption by producing admissible evidence, sufficient to “raise[] a genuine issue of fact” and to “justify a judgment for the [employer],” that its
If the employer sustains this burden, the presumption of discrimination disappears. (Hicks, supra,
B. Application.
The Courts of Appeal have pondered how the McDonnell Douglas formula should apply, under California law, to an employer’s motion for summary judgment against a claim of prohibited discrimination. Code of Civil Procedure section 437c provides that on summary judgment, the moving party must establish entitlement to “judgment as a matter of law.” (Id., subd. (c).) A moving defendant may do so by “show[ing]” that the plaintiff’s action “has no merit” (id., subds. (a), (c)(2)), i.e., that “one or more elements . , . cannot be established” or “there is a complete defense” (ibid.). Only after the defendant has met that burden must the plaintiff respond with admissible evidence raising a triable issue. (Ibid.)
Several California decisions have suggested that because a plaintiff opposing summary judgment need not demonstrate triable issues until the moving defendant has made an initial no-merit “showing],” the McDonnell Douglas burdens are “reversed” on a defense motion for summary judgment against a claim of discrimination in employment. (Sada v. Robert F. Kennedy
Bechtel urges we adopt the latter view and impose an initial prima facie burden on a plaintiff opposing an employer’s motion for summary judgment. Here, Bechtel insists, Guz could not demonstrate a prima facie case, because the transfer of Guz’s specific BNI-MI duties to an older worker, Shaeffer, negated an inference of anti-age animus as a matter of law.
In response, Guz argues he should have no prima facie burden to avoid summary judgment. However, Guz asserts, if he did have such a burden, he satisfied it by pointing to evidence that, when implementing its work force reduction, Bechtel treated younger employees more favorably than older.
We need not resolve the “prima facie burden” issue, for an alternative analysis disposes of Guz’s cause of action. In its summary judgment motion, Bechtel did not stand mute, relying solely on the premise that Guz failed to demonstrate a prima facie case of age discrimination. As an additional basis for its motion, Bechtel proceeded directly to the second step of the McDonnell Douglas formula. Bechtel set forth competent, admissible evidence (Reeves, supra,
Bechtel’s explanation of nondiscriminatory reasons was creditable on its face. Indeed, as we explain below, Guz has largely conceded the truth, if not the wisdom, of Bechtel’s proffered reasons. Guz thus had the burden to rebut this facially dispositive showing by pointing to evidence which nonetheless raises a rational inference that intentional discrimination occurred. (See discussion, post.) For reasons we hereafter set forth, Guz has failed to do so.
As an initial matter, Bechtel argues that the exercise of its prerogative to eliminate Guz’s work unit and position constitutes, as a matter of law, a
On the other hand, if nondiscriminatory, Bechtel’s true reasons need not necessarily have been wise or correct. (See, e.g., Horn, supra,
With these principles in mind, we examine Bechtel’s showing of its reasons for the decisions leading to Guz’s dismissal. A substantial portion of
As noted above, BNI president Johnstone explained at length why he decided to eliminate BNI-MI. Johnstone testified as follows: After assuming BNI’s presidency, he grew frustrated with BNI-MI’s size, work product, and budget overruns. On the other hand, he had high regard for a similar Bechtel entity, SFRO-MI, with which he had worked in the past. Because SFRO-MI, unlike BNI-MI, provided management information services to many different Bechtel entities, he believed BNI could achieve economies of scale by relying on SFRO-MI, rather than BNI’s own in-house unit, for such services. After receiving a budget proposal from SFRO-MI that fell well below BNI-MI’s current budget, he decided SFRO-MI could perform BNI-MI’s work better and more cheaply.
James Tevis, SFRO-MI’s manager, testified at length why, when reorganizing SFRO-MI to assume BNI-MI’s work, he gave most of the duties Guz had performed to a current SFRO-MI staff member, John Shaeffer. Tevis also explained why he hired Robert Wraith and Christine Siu to perform work they had been doing at BNI-MI, why he promoted SFRO-MI members John Wallace and Jan Vreim to vacant positions within that unit, and why Barbara Stenho was chosen for another vacant SFRO-MI position.
Thus, Tevis recounted that during the transition, he consulted with his BNI-MI counterpart, Goldstein, about which, if any, BNI-MI employees might assist SFRO-MI in assuming BNI-MI’s functions. Guz was discussed in this context. However, Tevis, who was keenly aware of the need for cost savings, felt that his own current employees, Shaeffer and Chris Gee, could assume Guz’s overhead duties, and Goldstein agreed. Tevis did contemplate two new positions at SFRO-MI (in place of the six eliminated at BNI-MI). One of these positions would involve “knowledge of the project side” of Bechtel’s business. The other, which Tevis wished to fill at a relatively junior salary grade, would be computer-intensive, and would require facility in Bechtel’s new ORS computer operating system. On these bases, the 50-year-old Goldstein, Guz’s longtime supervisor and close friend, recommended Wraith and Siu, and not Guz, as the best choices for reassignment to SFRO-MI.
Tevis further indicated why Wallace, Vreim, and Stenho were chosen for positions that later became open at SFRO-MI while Guz was on holding status. First, it became clear, Wallace and Vreim were SFRO-MI veterans, so
Stenho had not previously worked for SFRO-MI, but, according to Tevis, hers was a special case in another way. Her principal SFRO-MI duty would be to provide management information services to a particular Bechtel entity, Bechtel Civil. Stenho was selected because she had previously worked for Bechtel Civil. That department, unhappy with the services it had been receiving from SFRO-MI, specifically requested that the incumbent SFRO-MI employee, Robert Luchini, be transferred, and that Stenho be assigned to replace him.
Finally, Tevis explained why he had not considered Guz for these positions. Tevis thought Guz “only did overhead,” did not realize Guz had supervisory experience, and, in one case “did not even know . . . Guz was available.” In particular, Tevis mentioned Guz’s poor computer skills, as reported to him by Goldstein.
Bechtel’s showing of reasons was made by competent and admissible evidence (Code Civ. Proc., § 437c, subd. (d)). Moreover, the reasons advanced were legally sufficient to establish that Guz’s FEHA cause of action had no merit (Code Civ. Proc., § 437c, subd (g)(2)), because they were manifestly unrelated to intentional age bias against Guz. If Bechtel’s showing of proffered reasons is true, Guz’s allegations of intentional age discrimination thus fail, and Bechtel is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. (Id., subd. (c); Martin, supra,
Moreover, an inference of intentional discrimination cannot be drawn solely from evidence, if any, that the company lied about its reasons.
The United States Supreme Court’s recent decision in Reeves, supra,
But Reeves made clear that even where the plaintiff has presented a legally sufficient prima facie case of discrimination, and has also adduced some evidence that the employer’s proffered innocent reasons are false, the fact
Though Reeves discusses the federal age discrimination scheme, we find its reasoning sound for purposes of our similar law. We therefore conclude that Guz’s age discrimination claim under the FEHA cannot survive Bechtel’s motion for summary judgment unless the evidence in the summary judgment record places Bechtel’s creditable and sufficient showing of innocent motive in material dispute by raising a triable issue, i.e., a permissible inference, that, in fact, Bechtel acted for discriminatory purposes. (See, e.g., Martin, supra,
Here, however, the record contains no direct evidence, and little if any circumstantial support, for such a finding. Indeed, Guz has made substantial concessions to the truth of Bechtel’s proffered nondiscriminatory reasons for its decision to eliminate BNI-MI and for choosing others to fill positions at SFRO-MI. In its separate statement of undisputed facts (Undisputed Fact Statement) accompanying the motion for summary judgment (see Code Civ. Proc., § 437c, subd. (b)), Bechtel asserted, on the basis of BNI president Johnstone’s deposition testimony, that BNI-MI was eliminated because Johnstone was concerned about BNI-MI’s performance, had prior satisfactory experience with SFRO-MI, and believed BNI would save money by eliminating its own management information unit and obtaining such services from SFRO-MI, which already served many Bechtel entities. In his required written response to the Undisputed Fact Statement, Guz admitted Johnstone considered BNI-MI’s group performance. Guz otherwise “[disputed” Bechtel’s explanation only to stress that Johnstone considered such specific cost issues as BNI-MI’s overhead budget and the salaries of its employees.
Similarly, the Undisputed Fact Statement, relying on Tevis’s deposition testimony, explained Bechtel’s decisions to fill SFRO-MI positions with Wraith, Siu, Wallace, Vreim, and Stenho. The Undisputed Fact Statement asserted that Wraith was selected to do “project and proposals work based on his familiarity with project work and PFSR experience.” Guz’s response claimed this was “[disputed,” but his required citation of supporting evidence (Code Civ. Proc., § 437c, subd. (b))—a passage from Tevis’s deposition—did not materially contradict Bechtel’s claim. The Undisputed Fact
Guz nonetheless stresses several bases for finding that Bechtel’s reasons were pretextual. With respect to the decision to eliminate BNI-MI, Guz emphasizes that over time Bechtel has phrased in different ways its reasons for taking this action. Thus, Guz notes, Goldstein told him the decision to transfer BNI-MI’s functions to SFRO-MI was to reduce costs, but in Guz’s official layoff notice, Goldstein’s superior, Dewey, blamed BNI-MI’s demise on a “downturn in our workload.” Such “shifting,” and “inconsistent” statements, Guz urges, are evidence of dissembling. Guz further points to evidence that Bechtel’s purported reasons for eliminating BNI-MI were unsound, and therefore likely untrue, in that Bechtel’s business was strong, and that the elimination of BNI-MI would not save costs.
However, as noted above, Guz has essentially conceded that the reasons cited by Bechtel in support of its motion for summary judgment—cost efficiency and concerns about BNI-MI’s performance as a unit—were the true reasons why Bechtel decided to eliminate BNI-MI. Hence, even if a Bechtel official once used the phrase “downturn in . . . workload,” and even if the cost efficiencies of eliminating BNI-MI are debatable on their merits, such facts are of little or no relevance in determining that Bechtel’s cited reasons were a mask for prohibited age discrimination.
Guz also suggests a triable issue that Bechtel has given pretextual reasons why he was selected for layoff. Here Guz cites Bechtel’s “unexplained”
However, neither any failure by Bechtel to conduct the reorganization with full formality, nor Tevis’s lack of complete information about Guz’s background and availability, strongly suggests that the reasons Bechtel gave for releasing Guz are false. As we have already seen, in his response to Bechtel’s summary judgment motion, Guz made major concessions to both the plausibility and the truthfulness of Bechtel’s proffered reasons. Essentially uncontradicted are Bechtel’s showings (1) that Guz himself proposed Shaeffer as the logical choice to assume Guz’s overhead duties, (2) that Tevis had non-age-related business reasons for hiring Wraith, Siu, Wallace, Vreim, and Stenho, and (3) that those persons were well qualified for their positions.
Moreover, Guz has raised no serious dispute to Tevis’s testimony that Goldstein recommended Wraith and Siu over Guz and advised Tevis that in the area of computer stills, an important qualification for most of the SFRO-MI jobs, Guz was relatively deficient. Guz has submitted a declaration by Goldstein, who states therein that Guz was qualified for the vacant SFRO-MI positions. However, Goldstein does not contradict Tevis’s claims about their discussions concerning Guz. Indeed, in his most recent written evaluation of Guz, issued in March 1992, Goldstein had stated that for long-term success in the company, Guz needed to become more “computer literate.”
Nor is there any evidence or inference of Bechtel’s bad faith effort to prevent or impede Guz’s fair consideration for suitable Bechtel positions. For all that appears, any such lapse arose, as much as anything, from Guz’s own inaction. As noted above (ante, at p. 331), Guz asserts no personal efforts to find a Bechtel reassignment. In particular,- it. appears Guz did not proffer his resume to Tevis, though he knew Tevis’s unit was assuming BNI-MI’s functions, and he could easily have taken that step.
Thus, despite Bechtel’s policy to provide placement assistance to laid-off employees, Tevis’s testimony that he lacked full information about Guz’s
In sum, we see no grounds in this record for an inference that Bechtel has materially dissembled in explaining the reasons, unrelated to chronological age, for the personnel decisions leading to Guz’s dismissal. Under such circumstances, any independent circumstantial evidence of discrimination is insufficient to raise a rational inference that Bechtel acted on grounds of prohibited bias.
At the outset, Bechtel insists that an inference of intentional age discrimination is negated solely by the fact that Shaeffer, an older employee, assumed most of the duties Guz was performing before he was laid off. Guz responds by citing facts he claims amount to a prima facie showing that age bias infected the various personnel decisions leading to his release. Stripped to its essentials, Guz’s case relies on the facts that despite his own qualifications and satisfactory performance, (1) he, then age 49, and three of the other five BNI-MI employees (respectively ages 50, 45, and 44) were terminated by Bechtel after that unit’s elimination, while the only two persons retained, Wraith, age 41, and Siu, age 34, were the youngest of the group, and (2) two of the three persons later hired by SFRO-MI while Guz was on holding status—Wallace, age 43, and Stenho, age 38—were significantly younger than he.
Where an age-protected worker is directly replaced by a person not significantly younger, there may be no basis to suspect a motive of prohibited bias. (E.g., Maxfleld v. Sinclair Intern. (3d Cir. 1985)
However, in other cases where alleged numerical favoritism of younger workers arose within an extremely small employee pool, courts have rejected any consequent inference of intentional bias on grounds, among others, that the sample was too minuscule to demonstrate a statistically reliable discriminatory pattern. (See, e.g., Fallis v. Kerr-McGee Corp. (10th Cir. 1991)
Here, for several reasons, we conclude the comparative-age evidence cited by Guz, even if barely adequate to demonstrate a prima facie case, is insufficient for trial in the face of Bechtel’s strong contrary showing that its reasons were unrelated to age-related bias. In the first place, the statistical inferences to be drawn from Guz’s raw age comparisons are not nearly as
Any arguable discriminatory inference is further diluted by other age-based evidence from which a contrary conclusion might be drawn. Thus, while it is not dispositive that, consistent with Guz’s earlier recommendation, his own duties went to an older worker, Shaeffer, that fact significantly undermines any suspicion that chronological age influenced Guz’s dismissal. Similar doubt arises from the fact that at age 52, Vreim, one of the three workers later selected for an open position in SFRO-MI, was also older than Guz.
Moreover, an issue arises whether the younger persons with whom Guz seeks comparison were younger enough to raise a logical suspicion of intentional age bias. Courts have differed about the exact gap in age that is significant for purposes of a discriminatory inference. (See, e.g., Koster v. Trans World Airlines, Inc. (1st Cir. 1999)
Any inference that Guz’s raw age comparisons indicate age-based discrimination is further blurred by the weak evidence that the workers retained or hired over him were similar or comparable except for their dates of birth. Guz does not appear to dispute that the six individual members of the eliminated unit, BNI-MI, performed distinct duties at disparate ranks and levels of responsibility. The available SFRO-MI positions were also distinct, and it appears essentially undisputed that those jobs were filled by persons who fit their individual requirements as well as, or better than, Guz. As previously noted, most of these positions required considerable computer facility, while Guz’s skills in this area were mediocre at best. The qualifications for Stenho’s position essentially excluded any other candidate for that job. These variances undermine any rational conclusion from the raw age data that age was a significant factor in Bechtel’s decisions to choose others instead of Guz.
In sum, even without considering Bechtel’s explanation, Guz’s evidence raised, at best, only a weak suspicion that discrimination was a likely basis
Under these circumstances we conclude, as a matter of law, that Guz has failed to point to evidence raising a triable issue that Bechtel’s proffered reasons for its actions were a pretext for prohibited age discrimination. Bechtel is therefore entitled to summary judgment on this claim.
Conclusion
For the reasons set forth herein, the judgment of the Court of Appeal is reversed. The cause is remanded to the Court of Appeal for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
George, C. J., Mosk, J., Werdegar, J., Chin, J., and Brown, J., concurred.
Notes
We heard argument in this case on February 8, 2000, and the matter was thereupon submitted. (Cal. Supreme Ct., Internal Operating Practices and Proc. VII A, Submission.) However, on April 14, 2000, we vacated submission in light of the United States Supreme Court’s pending decision in Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc., No. 99-536 (argued Mar. 21, 2000) {Reeves), a case presenting issues pertinent to Guz’s age discrimination claim. The high court’s decision in Reeves was filed on June 12, 2000. (
Such provisions are sometimes referred to as “progressive discipline” policies. We sometimes hereafter use that phrase to describe Bechtel’s version.
Throughout the record and briefs, the last name of this individual sometimes is spelled “Sheaffer" and at other times is spelled “Shaeffer.” We use the latter spelling.
In his deposition, Johnstone also indicated his understanding of Bechtel’s fundamental policies regarding employment security. Johnstone did not believe Bechtel’s policy was to terminate employees “arbitrarily and without any reason.” On the other hand, Johnstone stated, “I have always known that Bechtel employed people—you call it ‘at will,’ I call it we don’t guarantee employment to people,” meaning that Bechtel works on a “project-by-project basis” and “if the work is not there, the employee does not have the job.” Thus, Johnstone understood, Bechtel’s policy was to terminate employees when “there was a good reason to do so” or “there was lack of work.”
Subsequent references to the Court of Appeal’s decision refer to the majority opinion unless the contrary clearly appears.
We note that the California Chamber of Commerce, The Employers Group, and the California Employment Law Council have each filed amicus curiae briefs in support of Bechtel. The American Association of Retired Persons has filed an amicus curiae brief in support of Guz.
Bechtel and one of its amici curiae have questioned whether such traditional standards apply to this case. Bechtel suggests that, to survive summary judgment, Guz had the burden to present evidence of an implied employment security agreement sufficient to overcome the statutory presumption of at-will employment (see discussion, post), and also to establish, under the generally accepted three-step procedure for testing such claims (see discussion, post), a prima facie case of intentional age discrimination. The California Chamber of Commerce argues more broadly that 1992 and 1993 amendments to the California summary judgment statute (Code Civ. Proc., § 437c) adopted then extant federal standards, under which a moving defendant could obtain summary judgment solely by showing, after opportunity for discovery, that the opposing plaintiff had failed to present triable evidence crucial to his case (see Celotex Corp. v. Catrett (1986) 477 U.S. 317, 322-326 [
As this court has explained, the statutory and common law rule presuming that employment contracts without a stated duration are at will is required by “[sjpecial policy considerations.” (Consolidated Theatres, Inc. v. Theatrical Stage Employees Union (1968)
As noted, Bechtel’s disclaimer appears in Policy 1101, part of the general body of Bechtel personnel documents submitted by the parties in connection with the motion for summary judgment. The date on which Policy 1101 was promulgated is uncertain. However, we do not understand Guz to claim that he had an employment security agreement that predated and arose independently of Policy 1101 and therefore could not be rescinded or cancelled by virtue of Policy 1101 ’s belated disclaimer. On the contrary, Guz admits Policy 1101 (necessarily including its disclaimer) applied to him, and he premises his contractual claim on an amalgam of factors, significantly including certain language in Policy 1101 itself. (See discussion herein.) Hence, we may, and do, assume that the disclaimer included in Policy 1101 is a material factor in ascertaining the terms and conditions on which Guz individually was employed by Bechtel.
On the other hand, most cases applying California law, both pre- and post-Foley, have held that an at-will provision in an express written agreement, signed by the employee, cannot be overcome by proof of an implied contrary understanding. (See, e.g., Halvorsen v. Aramark Uniform Services, Inc. (1998)
Of course, the more clear, prominent, complete, consistent, and all-encompassing the disclaimer language set forth in handbooks, policy manuals, and memoranda disseminated to employees, the greater the likelihood that workers could not form any reasonable contrary understanding. Though we do not find such clarity in the disclaimer language of Policy 1101 (see discussion, post), we do not foreclose the possibility an employer could promulgate a
Bechtel presented evidence that between 1982 and 1995, its overall work force was reduced from 44,000 to 16,000 employees.
As support for this statement, Foley cited, with a “cf.” signal, Gray v. Superior Court (1986)
Policy 1101 itself distinguished between the rights of senior and junior employees in one regard only. Thus, in the event of a reduction in force, employees with 10 or more years of continuous service, such as Guz, were entitled to at least four weeks’ advance notice of layoff, while those with less than 10 years of service were entitled to as little as two weeks’ layoff notice. Salary in lieu of the requisite advance notice was available in certain circumstances. The RIF Guidelines, which described the specific procedures to be employed during a work force reduction, echoed this disparity in notice rights. They further encouraged managers to give “as much informal notice as possible, particularly for long-term employees.” Finally, the RIF Guidelines provided that while seniority and experience “often represent a major company strength,” “[seniority, per se, is not a criterion] used in selecting candidates for
Because the record negates any inference of an implied contract restricting Bechtel’s right to implement work force reductions for any reason, we need not, and do not, decide what would satisfy a company’s implied-in-fact contractual obligation to demonstrate good cause for such a decision.
As noted above, the trial court granted summary judgment against all causes of action, including Guz’s cause of action alleging breach of the implied covenant of good faith. The
In the trial court, Bechtel urged that (1) the implied covenant imposes no independent limits on an employer’s termination rights, and (2) in any event, there is no evidence Bechtel acted in bad faith. In the Court of Appeal, appellant Guz asserted that Bechtel breached the implied covenant by violating its personnel policies even if Guz was an at-will employee. Bechtel responded only that it did not act in bad faith. The Court of Appeal, mistakenly asserting that Bechtel had not raised the bad faith argument below, concluded that Bechtel’s “change of theory” on appeal waived its challenge to the implied covenant claim. The Court of Appeal reinstated all causes of action, including that alleging a breach of the implied covenant. In its rehearing petition, Bechtel did not call the Court of Appeal’s waiver error to its attention. (See Cal. Rules of Court, rule 29(b)(2).)
We did not limit the issues on review. Bechtel’s brief on the merits in this court contends that the trial court properly dismissed the implied covenant cause of action. Before us, Bechtel makes both of the arguments it made in the trial court, including the “no independent limits” argument it did not raise in the Court of Appeal.
We might properly avoid the implied covenant issue on this muddled record. However, there appear several reasons not to do so. First, the “independent limits” issue was before the Court of Appeal by virtue of appellant Guz’s brief, and the Court of Appeal’s waiver analysis is highly suspect. Second, even though Bechtel did not fully litigate the implied.covenant issue in the Court of Appeal, the matter is now fully briefed, squarely presented, and of substantial significance. Finally, and significantly, there seems little merit in allowing the reinstatement of a spurious cause of action—the result imposed by the Court of Appeal—on grounds that the defendant has waived, in the appellate courts, an issue on which it properly succeeded in the trial court. We therefore address the implied covenant issue on its merits.
We are not persuaded otherwise by a brief dictum in Scott, supra,
We do not suggest the covenant of good faith and fair dealing has no function whatever in the interpretation and enforcement of employment contracts. As indicated above, the covenant prevents a party from acting in bad faith to frustrate the contract’s actual benefits. Thus, for example, the covenant might be violated if termination of an at-will employee was a mere pretext to cheat the worker out of another contract benefit to which the employee was clearly entitled, such as compensation already earned. We confront no such claim here.
As pertinent here, the FEHA makes it “an unlawful employment practice for an employer to refuse to hire or employ, or to discharge, dismiss, reduce, suspend, or demote, any individual over the age of 40 on the ground of age . . . .” (Gov. Code, § 12941, subd. (a).)
“Disparate treatment” is intentional discrimination against one or more persons on prohibited grounds. (E.g., Teamsters v. United States (1977)
For example, in the seminal case of McDonnell Douglas, the court found that one rejected for a job opening could establish a prima facie case of race discrimination by showing that (1) he or she was a member of a racial minority, (2) he or she applied and was qualified for an available job, (3) he or she was rejected, and (4) the position thereafter remained open and the employer continued to seek applications from persons with similar qualifications. (McDonnell Douglas, supra,
At least one federal case has criticized and rejected a test dependent upon the employer’s mere “honest belief,” holding instead that the employer’s reasons must stem from its actual consideration of “particularized facts.” (Smith v. Chrysler Corp. (6th Cir. 1998)
Thus, Tevis explained, Goldstein “was always saying that Guz needed to get his computer training because he couldn’t operate the computer.” Tevis understood from Goldstein that Guz’s lack of computer skills at BNI-MI had forced Goldstein to “have an extra person in.”
See, e.g., Horn, supra,
The concurring and dissenting opinion, in its treatment of this passage (see cone. & dis. opn. of Kennard, J., post, at pp. 384-385), minimizes the express qualifying phrase “[fjor instance” and overlooks the immediately following discussion, which specifies that the propriety of judgment as a matter of law depends on “a number of factors,” including, among other things, “the strength of the plaintiff’s prima facie case.” {Reeves, supra,
Aside from his responses to the Undisputed Fact Statement, Guz has separately acknowledged the truth of Bechtel’s claim that unit performance was a major factor in Johnstone’s decision to eliminate BNI-MI. Guz has cited Johnstone’s testimony to that effect in aid of his claim that Bechtel breached its implied contractual obligations by failing to apply its written progressive discipline rules before terminating the BNI-MI group for performance reasons. (See discussion, ante.)
The concurring and dissenting opinion suggests Bechtel’s “cost savings” excuse is suspect because Bechtel created five new SFRO-MI positions to replace only six eliminated BNI-MI positions. (Cone. & dis. opn. of Kennard, J., post, at p. 379.) However, as indicated above, SFRO-MI gained only three new positions attributable to work formerly done by the six members of BNI-MI. Former BNI-MI members Wraith and Siu were added to SFRO-MI’s staff to do BNI-related work, and SFRO-MI member Wallace was appointed to a new position supervising SFRO-MI’s new relationship with BNI. But Jan Vreim, Wallace’s former SFRO-MI subordinate, was simply promoted to Wallace’s old position, and Barbara Stenho was appointed to an existing SFRO-MI job, formerly held by Robert Luchini, that had nothing to do with BNI. (See discussion, ante.)
Thus, if Bechtel, when eliminating BNI-MI, had made only one different personnel decision, i.e., had retained BNI-MI’s manager, Goldstein, age 50, and had laid off the 34-year-old Sin, the effect on Guz would be unchanged, but the statistics would indicate that Bechtel had favored workers over 40. Similarly, if SFRO-MI’s manager, Tevis, had made only one different personnel decision when filling the three later open positions, so that two of the three, rather than only one of the three, were filled by persons older than Guz, Guz would have no statistical claim that Bechtel’s failure to consider him for those jobs was the result of age discrimination.
In his deposition, James Tevis indicated that the SFRO-MI position for which Christine Sin was hired was a junior one, commensurate with her salary grade, three steps lower than Guz’s. Tevis conceded he considered Siu’s salary level in selecting her for the job. Before 1999, both state and federal decisions had rejected the premise that prohibited age discrimination may be shown solely by evidence that the employer’s actions were taken for economic reasons often related to worker age, such as comparative salaries. (Hazen Paper Co. v. Biggins (1993)
Concurrence Opinion
I concur in the majority opinion. I write separately to clarify what may appear to be an inconsistency between parts II and IV of that opinion.
In part II, the majority hold that there was insufficient evidence from which a reasonable jury could conclude that Bechtel National, Inc.’s (BNI) business reorganization was merely a pretext to terminate John Guz. There is therefore no triable issue that BNI breached its implied contractual obligation by failing to follow the “progressive discipline” policy promised in its policy manual to its employees before they are discharged for poor performance. The majority do not decide, however, whether there is a triable issue regarding BNI’s breach of its own layoff policies, and leave this question to the Court of Appeal on remand. If the Court of Appeal concludes there is
In part IV, the majority conclude that there is insufficient evidence from which a reasonable jury could conclude that BNI’s termination of Guz was based on age discrimination. In so doing, the majority view this case as fitting into the class of cases discussed in Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc. (2000)
Nonetheless, although BNI apparently had a nondiscriminatory reason for terminating Guz, that is not to conclude that it necessarily complied with its own contractual layoff policies. Nor does it negate the possibility that had it so complied, Guz would have retained his employment. These possibilities remain to be determined on remand and, if appropriate, at trial.
Concurrence Opinion
I agree with the majority. I write separately to state another reason the trial court correctly granted summary judgment against plaintiff John Guz on the age discrimination claim: Even after “extensive discovery” (maj. opn., ante, at p. 327), Guz has produced no credible evidence that defendants Bechtel National, Inc., and Bechtel Corporation (collectively Bechtel) discharged him because of his age. Bechtel, the moving party on summary judgment, has met its burden of showing that Guz cannot state a prima facie age discrimination case. Accordingly, Bechtel had no duty even to rebut Guz’s age discrimination claim, although I agree that it also did so.
To prevail at trial, indeed, to avoid a nonsuit, the plaintiff bears the burden of establishing a prima facie case of discrimination. (See generally McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green (1973)
Some uncertainty currently exists regarding the way this rule applies to an employer’s motion for summary judgment in a discrimination action. (Maj. opn., ante, at pp. 356-357.) California’s traditional rule was that to prevail on summary judgment, a “defendant must conclusively negate a necessary element of the plaintiff’s case, and demonstrate that under no hypothesis is there a material issue of fact that requires the process of a trial.” (Molko v. Holy Spirit Assn. (1988)
I believe the Court of Appeal cases can generally be reconciled. The recent decisions recognize that Code of Civil Procedure section 437c, subdivision (o)(2), significantly changed California summary judgment law. To prevail on summary judgment, the defendant no longer must conclusively negate the plaintiff’s case. Given the difficulty of proving a negative, such a test is often impossibly high. However, the statute also places an initial burden on the defendant in order to prevail on summary judgment. As explained in Scheiding, the differences in the cases can largely be described as differing degrees of caution rather than outright disagreement. (Scheiding, supra, 69 Cal.App.4th at pp. 82-83.) That case quoted with approval (ibid.) most of the following discussion in Hagen v. Hickenbottom (1995)
I think this discussion aptly summarizes the law. To prevail on summary judgment in a discrimination case, the defendant must show that the plaintiff both has not established and cannot reasonably expect to establish a prima facie case. A defendant can meet the former burden merely by showing the absence of evidence of discrimination. But that is not enough. The defendant must also show, by direct or circumstantial evidence, that the plaintiff cannot reasonably expect to obtain a prima facie case. This latter showing, however, is not impossibly difficult. If a plaintiff has had the full opportunity to obtain discovery and to present all available evidence in support of a discrimination claim, and still has failed to establish a prima facie case, the trial court may reasonably infer that the plaintiff cannot do so. If the plaintiff cannot present a prima facie case, a nonsuit at trial would be inevitable. (Code Civ. Proc., § 581c; Caldwell v. Paramount Unified School Dist, supra, 41 Cal.App.4th at pp. 203-204.) In that case, the trial court should grant summary judgment and avoid a useless trial.
II. The Legal Standard Applied to This Case
Bechtel has shown that Guz had a full opportunity to discover and present all available evidence, and that he nonetheless has not stated a prima facie case of age discrimination. This showing meets Bechtel’s burden of establishing that Guz cannot state a prima facie case, thus entitling it to summary judgment on this cause of action. Despite extensive discovery, Guz can point to no comments by anyone during his entire lengthy history with Bechtel suggesting age played a role in employment decisions in general, or in his case in particular, no meaningful statistical evidence, no evidence even of a possible financial or other motive for Bechtel to get rid of its older workers. He cites no evidence suggesting that age was a significant factor in Bechtel’s layoff decision.
It is true that Guz was a member of the protected class, but that fact alone proves nothing. In a reduction in force, many qualified, productive workers,
Like the concurring and dissenting opinion, Guz relies largely on two circumstances to support the age discrimination claim. The first is that, of three positions that employees other than Guz filled while Guz was on holding status, younger employees filled two, and an older employee filled only one. This fact is meaningless. Even aside from the minuscule size of the sampling (see post), Guz does not tell us the average age of persons eligible or considered for these positions. If a majority of those persons were younger than Guz, a majority of those given the positions would likely also be younger. Guz “did not even attempt to place his figures in a relevant context so as to make them meaningful. . . . HO . . . [H]e neglects vital information regarding the pool of applicants and whether, for example, qualified older employees were available or applied for those jobs. . . . [Ejmployee statistics unaccompanied by evidence regarding qualified potential applicants from the relevant labor market . . . lack[] probative value.” (Simpson v. Midland-Ross Corp. (6th Cir. 1987)
The second circumstance Guz cites comes closest to presenting evidence that might suggest age discrimination: Of the six persons in his unit, Bechtel retained the youngest two. This fact also fails to arouse suspicion for several reasons.
First, a group of six is simply too small to be statistically significant. “For [the plaintiff] to show a prima facie case of disparate treatment based solely
Second, Bechtel did not systematically replace older persons with substantially younger ones. Of the six in Guz’s group, all but one were in their 40’s (or 50); one was 34. The replacement of a worker with another “substantially younger than the plaintiff’ {O’Connor v. Consolidated Coin Caterers Corp., supra,
Third, the members of the group of six had different qualifications and performed different duties. “[A] plaintiff’s statistical evidence must focus on eliminating nondiscriminatory explanations for the disparate treatment by showing disparate treatment between comparable individuals.” (Fallis v. Kerr-McGee Corp., supra,
Fourth, any slight weight we may give to plaintiffs statistics is negated by the fact that Guz’s own duties were largely assumed by someone older than he. (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 366.) This fact, even if not itself dispositive, eliminates any suspicious inference that may be drawn from Bechtel’s retaining the two youngest of Guz’s group. “[T]he fact that [the employer] replaced [plaintiff] with [an] even older [employee] contradicts [plaintiff’s] claims of discriminatory animus.” (Brocklehurst v. PPG Industries, Inc., supra,
Guz also argues that Bechtel did not follow its own fair layoff procedures, and that this circumstance supports his discrimination claim. The argument is factually dubious but even if correct would fail to suggest age discrimination. A mere failure to follow formal internal policies does not support a discrimination claim. In Vaughan, the employer had an “elaborate Downsizing Policy . . . memorialized in a 144-page Downsizing Manual.” (Vaughan v. MetraHealth Companies, Inc., supra,
Guz’s inability to present any credible evidence to establish his age discrimination claim supports the superior court’s grant of summary judgment in Bechtel’s favor.
Brown, J., concurred.
Much of the concurring and dissenting opinion is irrelevant to the majority’s holding. The majority does not suggest that age discrimination is lawful; it clearly is not. (Gov. Code, § 12941, subd. (a); see maj. opn., ante, at p. 353, fn. 19.) The majority merely holds that the evidence in this case does not suggest Bechtel engaged in age discrimination. For example, the discussion of Marks v. Loral Corp. (1997)
Contrary to the implication of the concurring and dissenting opinion (conc. & dis. opn. of Kennard, post, at p. 385, fn. 4), I do not suggest evidence of age discrimination must be direct, rather than circumstantial. My point is that Guz has presented no meaningful evidence whatsoever, direct or circumstantial, suggesting age discrimination.
Concurrence Opinion
California statutory law prohibits employers from discriminating against workers over the age of 40. In this case, an employee sued his employer after it eliminated his job in the wake of a corporate reorganization and then passed him over in favor of younger workers when other positions became available. At the time of his discharge, the employee had worked for his employer 22 years, and he was 49 years old.
The employee’s various causes of action included one for age discrimination, on which the trial court granted summary judgment for the employer. The Court of Appeal disagreed. Unlike the majority here, I would affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeal. I agree, however, with the majority’s resolution of the employee’s other causes of action.
I
This matter comes to us after the trial court granted defendant employer’s motion for summary judgment. Under California law, a moving party is entitled to summary judgment only when no “triable issue of material fact” remains for trial. (Code Civ. Proc., § 437c, subd. (o)(l) & (2).) In reviewing an order granting or denying summary judgment, “we examine the facts presented to the trial court and determine their effect as a matter of law.” (Parsons v. Crown Disposal Co. (1997)
Guz’s lawsuit against Bechtel alleged various causes of action, including one for age discrimination in violation of California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). (Gov. Code, § 12941, subd. (a).)
Guz disputed these reasons as “pretextual.” He presented evidence that (1) he was qualified for each of the positions filled at SFRO-MI; (2) in eliminating BNI-MI and terminating him, Bechtel failed to comply with its internal Reduction-in-Force Guidelines (which required that all affected employees be ranked by job skills and functions), thereby depriving him of a fair, objective, and consistent evaluation in comparison with others; and (3) Bechtel’s asserted reasons for eliminating BNI-MI—cost savings and a reduction in workload—were demonstrably false because SFRO-MI had to add a total of five positions to cover the work transferred from the sixmehiber BNI-MI unit.
Ruling that Guz had failed to show that Bechtel’s proffered reasons were a pretext for age discrimination, the trial court granted summary judgment. The Court of Appeal reversed, concluding that material issues of fact on Guz’s FEHA claim were in dispute and needed to be resolved by a full trial.
II
As relevant here, the FEHA prohibits an employer from discharging “any individual over age 40 on the ground of age.” (§ 12941, subd. (a), italics
Here, plaintiff’s case is based on a theory of “disparate treatment,” meaning that because of his age (49 years at the time of discharge), Bechtel treated him less favorably than it did younger workers. (See Martin v. Lockheed Missiles & Space Co. (1994)
In disparate treatment cases, California courts apply the test that the United States Supreme Court articulated in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green (1973)
Under the McDonnell Douglas test, a plaintiff employee claiming discrimination has the initial burden to establish “by a preponderance of the evidence, a ‘prima facie’ case of . . . discrimination.” (Hicks, supra,
Once the discharged employee has established a prima facie case of discrimination, there is a presumption of unlawful discrimination by the employer. (Hicks, supra,
If the trier of fact finds the discharged employee’s prima facie case persuasive, and the employer remains silent in the face of the just-described presumption of unlawful discrimination, the trial court “must enter judgment for the plaintiff because no issue of fact remains in the case.” (Burdine, supra,
An employer’s desire to reduce expenses by eliminating some employee positions is not itself a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for the discharge of older workers. Chief Judge Richard Posner of the federal Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit explained this in a case alleging disability discrimination during corporate downsizing. “Even if the employer has a compelling reason wholly unrelated to the disabilities of any of its employees to reduce the size of its work force, this does not entitle it to use the
Nor is it sufficient for the employer to show that the discharged older workers earned higher salaries than the younger workers who were retained. Although a Court of Appeal reached a contrary conclusion in Marks v. Loral Corp. (1997)
When, under the McDonnell Douglas burden-allocation rules, the employer responding to a discharged employee’s prima facie case of age discrimination offers legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons for the discharge, what countervailing evidence must the employee present to sustain a judgment after trial? This was the question before the United States Supreme Court in Reeves, supra,
Ill
Consideration of the evidence here in light of the legal framework discussed, ante, leads to these conclusions:
Guz’s evidence presented in opposition to Bechtel’s summary judgment motion was sufficient to establish a prima facie case of age discrimination under the McDonnell Douglas test: (1) He was over 40 years of age when terminated; (2) his job performance exceeded Bechtel’s legitimate expectations (he was promoted six times, and was given 17 merit raises, and he received a Silver Performance Plus Award for saving the company $1.7 million; his 1991-1992 performance review described him as a “strong performer in his group”; and in his 22 years at Bechtel, he was never told his skills were deficient); and (3) Bechtel treated younger workers more favorably than older workers by transferring, from the disbanded BNI-MI unit (where Guz was employed) to SFRO-MI and selecting for two of the three new SFRO-MI positions, workers between seven and 15 years younger than Guz; and by retaining the two youngest of the six workers at BNI-MI, while terminating the two oldest. This evidence, if presented at trial and accepted by the fact finder would have given rise to a presumption of age discrimination that, if unrebutted by Bechtel, would require entry of judgment for plaintiff. {Hicks, supra,
Bechtel did, however, present rebutting evidence in support of its motion for summary judgment. According to Bechtel, a “downturn in workload” and
Notwithstanding Bechtel’s rebuttal evidence, Guz could still prevail at trial under the high court’s decision in Reeves by presenting evidence of a prima facie case of age discrimination plus sufficient additional evidence from which a reasonable fact finder could reject “the employer’s asserted justification [as] false.” (Reeves, supra,
Here, however, we are concerned not with the sufficiency of evidence to sustain a jury verdict of age discrimination, but only with whether Guz’s evidence raises “a triable issue of material fact” to be resolved at trial. (Code Civ. Proc., § 437c, subd. (o)(2).) Because, as I have explained, Guz’s evidence was sufficient under Reeves not only for a jury to reject Bechtel’s proffered reasons for the discharge but also for an appellate court to uphold an age discrimination verdict, that evidence squarely presented “[t]he ultimate question” in any disparate treatment case, namely, “whether the plaintiff was the victim of intentional discrimination.” (Reeves, supra, 530 U.S. at
The majority does not at all acknowledge that Guz’s evidence was sufficient to establish a prima facie case of age discrimination.
In Reeves, the high court explained that notwithstanding evidence comprising a prima facie case of discrimination and sufficient additional evidence for a jury to reject an employer’s proffered explanation, the employer would be entitled to a judgment as a matter of law if, for instance, “the record conclusively revealed some other, nondiscriminatory reason for the employer’s decision, or if the plaintiff created only a weak issue of fact as to whether the employer’s reason was untrue and there was abundant and uncontroverted independent evidence that no discrimination had occurred.” (Reeves, supra,
Conclusion
In a recent decision, I explained the reason for FEHA’s prohibition against age discrimination in employment: “Aging is a highly complex and variable process. Chronological age alone is not a reliable measure of any individual’s vitality or ability, and many individuals remain robust and productive well past the normal retirement age. Nevertheless, some employers have discriminated against highly qualified older workers solely because of their age, either by not hiring them or by replacing them with younger persons.” (Stevenson v. Superior Court, supra,
Guz’s lawsuit against Bechtel is now at the summary judgment stage, where the question to be decided is whether the evidence submitted by Guz and Bechtel shows there is an issue of material fact in dispute that needs to be resolved by a full trial in open court. Unlike the majority, I conclude that the evidence does show a triable issue of fact, and that plaintiff deserves a trial on the merits to determine whether he lost his job for legitimate business reasons or because of illegal age discrimination. Because the majority denies plaintiff the opportunity to prove his case at trial, I dissent.
Further undesignated statutory references are to the Government Code.
I do not agree with Justice Chin’s concurring opinion that Marks v. Loral Corp., supra,
Justice Chin’s concurring opinion also complains that this opinion’s discussion of the illegality of age discrimination “is irrelevant to the majority’s holding” because “[t]he majority does not suggest that age discrimination is lawful.” (Cone. opn. of Chin, J., ante, at p. 372, fn. 1.) Surely the illegality of age discrimination cannot be entirely irrelevant in an age discrimination case. The nature and purpose of the prohibition against age discrimination in employment should be kept in mind when assessing the sufficiency of the evidence and the allocation of the proof burdens on a summary judgment motion in an age discrimination case.
Because I conclude that plaintiff’s evidence here was sufficient for a prima facie case of age discrimination, I express no view on whether a plaintiff suing under the FEHA can successfully avoid summary judgment without such evidence. (See maj. opn., ante, at p. 357 [also declining to decide this issue].)
Justice Chin’s concurring opinion asserts that “Guz cannot state a prima facie case.” (Cone. opn. of Chin, J., ante, at p. 374.) It finds some significance in Guz’s failure to point to “comments by anyone” at Bechtel suggesting that his age played a role in Bechtel’s employment decisions. (Ibid.) But such evidence of discriminatory intent is unnecessary either to allege or to prove age discrimination based on disparate treatment, plaintiff’s theory in this case. Rather, as the high court in Reeves has said, an employee claiming disparate treatment can rely entirely on circumstantial evidence, which may be probative of intentional discrimination and “quite persuasive.” (Reeves, supra, 530 U.S. at pp. 146-147 [