Barbara TIMBIE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. ELI LILLY & CO., Defendant-Appellee.
No. 10-3130-cv.
United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.
July 1, 2011.
John R. Williams, New Haven, CT, for Appellant.
Joseph C. Pettygrove, Edward E. Hollis, Baker & Daniels LLP, Indianapolis, IN; Scott E. Schaffer, Schaffer Law, LLC, West Hartford, CT, for Appellee.
SUMMARY ORDER
Plaintiff-Appellant Barbara Timbie (“Timbie“) initiated an action against her employer, defendant-appellee Eli Lilly & Company (“Eli Lilly“), alleging age discrimination pursuant to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA“),
On appeal, Timbie‘s central objection is that the district court misapplied the appropriate standard in deciding a motion for summary judgment. In particular, Timbie argues that the district court engaged in improper evidence-weighing and credibility determinations, and failed to make the requisite inferences in favor of Timbie, the nonmoving party. See Kaytor v. Elec. Boat Corp., 609 F.3d 537, 545 (2d Cir.2010) (noting that “[t]he function of the district court in considering the motion for summary judgment is not to resolve disputed questions of fact but only to determine whether, as to any material issue, a genuine factual dispute exists“). Timbie‘s arguments are unavailing.
We review a motion for summary judgment de novo, utilizing the same standard on appeal as the district court does below. D‘Amico v. City of New York, 132 F.3d 145, 149 (2d Cir.1998). That is, if the record supports a finding “that there are no genuine issues of material fact and that the judgment is warranted as a matter of law,” then the district court‘s decision granting summary judgment will be upheld. Global Network Commc‘ns, Inc. v. City of New York, 562 F.3d 145, 150 (2d Cir.2009);
In the context of a claim of discrimination, “[o]ur Court has repeatedly emphasized ‘the need for caution about granting summary judgment to an employer where, as here, the merits turn on a dispute as to the employer‘s intent.‘” Gorzynski v. Jetblue Airways Corp., 596 F.3d 93, 101 (2d Cir.2010) (quoting Holcomb v. Iona Coll., 521 F.3d 130, 137 (2d Cir.2008)). Direct evidence of discriminatory intent will “only rarely be available, so . . . affidavits and depositions must be carefully scrutinized for circumstantial proof which, if believed, would show discrimination.” Id. (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Even in the discrimination context, however, a plaintiff must provide more than conclusory allegations and “set forth specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial,” Zelnik v. Fashion Inst. of Tech., 464 F.3d 217, 224 (2d Cir.2006) (internal quotation marks omitted), thereby creating more than merely “some metaphysical doubt,” Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 586, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986).
Claims brought pursuant to the ADEA are analyzed under the McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973), tripartite bur-
Accordingly, under McDonnell Douglas, the plaintiff bears the initial burden of establishing a prima facie case of discrimination. 411 U.S. at 802, 93 S.Ct. 1817. If the plaintiff satisfies his or her de minimis burden, the burden shifts to the defendant to articulate “some legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason” for the action. Id. Once such a reason is provided, the plaintiff can no longer rely on his or her prima facie case, but may prevail if he or she can show that the employer‘s determination was in fact the result of discrimination. Holcomb, 521 F.3d at 138. Gross dictates that at this step, the plaintiff must show that “a reasonable jury could conclude by a preponderance of the evidence that [the plaintiff‘s] age was a ‘but for’ cause of [the adverse employment action].” Gorzynski, 596 F.3d at 107. Below, the district court found that while Timbie satisfied her prima facie case of age discrimination, Timbie could not carry her ultimate burden, given that she “has not offered evidence that could persuade a rational finder of fact that Defendant‘s reasons for denying her raises and bonuses in 2005 and 2006 were pretextual.”
In order to support her contention that the district court misapplied the summary judgment standard, Timbie alleges, inter alia, that the district court assumed the correctness of Eli Lilly‘s statement that sales representatives such as Timbie were deemed “successful” upon achieving 100% of their quota, in direct contradiction to Timbie‘s statement that sales representatives were deemed “successful” upon achieving 85% of their quota. Timbie further notes that the district court itself “admitted elsewhere in its opinion, [that] the defendant paid sales bonuses to representatives who reach 85% of their quotas. Thus, it was the defendant, and not the plaintiff, that deemed 85% of quota a successful year.”
Timbie misunderstands the facts recited by the district court. The court did not find that Eli Lilly considered meeting 85% quota to be a successful year; rather, the court noted that 85% is “the level at which Defendant begins offering sales bonuses to its representatives,” but nevertheless that “Defendant considers representatives to have met their quotas only upon reaching 100%.” This conclusion was supported by Timbie‘s supervisor at Eli Lilly, Shenille Boston (“Boston“), who explained in her affidavit that while “bonus payouts may occur at lower levels, Lilly does not consider a sales representative to have ‘met’ their quota for performance management
More fundamentally, Timbie does not address Eli Lilly‘s argument that she failed to perform satisfactorily against its full set of performance criteria, of which her sales of Humatrope was only one component. The district court found that Timbie did not challenge that she had failed to reach 100% of her portfolio quota, which included her sales of both Humatrope and Humalog, nor that she failed to meet defendant‘s “Sales Competency Model” standards as evaluated by Boston in terms the court characterized as both clear and specific. Nor does Timbie dispute such findings on appeal, arguing only that Eli Lilly considered reaching 85% to be satisfactory. In evaluating an employer‘s proffered reason for an employment decision, “[o]ur role is to prevent unlawful hiring practices, not to act as a ‘super personnel department’ that second guesses employers’ business judgments.” Byrnie v. Town of Cromwell, Bd. of Educ., 243 F.3d 93, 103 (2d Cir.2001) (quoting Simms v. Oklahoma ex rel. Dep‘t of Mental Health & Substance Abuse Servs., 165 F.3d 1321, 1330 (10th Cir.1999)). Accordingly, we cannot agree with Timbie that the district court misapplied the standard for summary judgment in deciding this point.
Another objection Timbie raises is that the district court erroneously disregarded an affidavit, the Elliott Affidavit, that she submitted by one of her co-workers. Timbie argues that “[i]n disregarding the affidavit for its alleged lack of specificity, the district court engaged in precisely the sort of evidence-weighing prohibited” on a motion for summary judgment. However,
In this case, the district court found that the Elliott Affidavit was wholly conclusory, amounted only “to a naked speculation concerning the motivation for a defendant‘s adverse employment decision” and, as such, was prohibited by
Timbie further argues that the district court erroneously disregarded “smoking gun” evidence of direct age discrimination in the form of Boston‘s remark that “[i]t‘s only fitting that you not get a raise because, after all, you make so much more than some of the younger people on the team.” In determining whether a remark is probative, courts have considered four factors: “(1) who made the remark (i.e., a decision-maker, a supervisor, or a low-level
After having conducted an exhaustive review of the record, and carefully considered Timbie‘s remaining arguments, we affirm the district court‘s judgment for substantially the same reasons stated by the district court in its thorough and well-reasoned decision. We find no merit to Timbie‘s allegations that the district court misapplied the summary judgment standard, and agree with the court‘s conclusions that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and that Eli Lilly is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.
Accordingly, the judgment of the district court hereby is AFFIRMED.
PIERRE N. LEVAL
UNITED STATES CIRCUIT JUDGE