Clemons v. Delta Air Lines Inc.

625 F. App'x 941
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedSeptember 3, 2015
DocketNo. 14-13528
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 625 F. App'x 941 (Clemons v. Delta Air Lines Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clemons v. Delta Air Lines Inc., 625 F. App'x 941 (11th Cir. 2015).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Carlos Clemons appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of his former employer, Delta Air Lines, Inc. (“Delta”), in his suit alleging gender discrimination and retaliation in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Clemons’s suit arose from events surrounding his termination after the mishandling of a passenger’s lost purse in the airport where he worked, after he filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) concerning the purse incident, and after he allegedly made complaints about gender discrimination to supervisors four months prior to his termination. Prior to the granting of summary judgment, Clemons moved to amend his complaint to add a claim for age discrimination under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA”) after the deadline for such motions had passed. A magistrate judge denied his request to amend his complaint.1 Clemons did not object to the magistrate judge’s order denying his motion to amend.

On appeal, Clemons asserts that the magistrate judge erred in denying his request to add a claim under the ADEA because good cause existed to allow him to amend his complaint, amendment was not pursued in bad faith, and amendment would not have caused undue delay or prejudice to Delta. He asserts that the district court erred in granting summary judgment in favor of Delta as to his gender discrimination claim because he provided evidence of similarly-situated female employees who were treated more favorably, he provided considerable circumstantial evidence of Delta’s discriminatory intent, and he provided sufficient evidence that Delta’s proffered reason for his termination was a pretext for gender discrimination. Finally, he asserts that the district court erred in granting summary [943]*943judgment in favor of Delta as to his retaliation claim because it was undisputed that he met the first two elements of a Title VII retaliation claim and he provided sufficient evident to create a triable issue that there was. a causal link between his protected expression and adverse action. We affirm, discussing each issue in turn.

I.

The magistrate judge, denied Clemons’s motion to amend his complaint. According to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Rule 72(a), “[a] party may serve and file objections to [a magistrate judge’s] order within 14 days after being served with a copy;” but “[a] party may not assign as error .a defect in the order not timely objected to.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 72(a). .We have read Rule 72 to mean that, “where a party fails to timely challenge a magistrate’s nondispositive order before the district court, the party waived his right to appeal those orders [on appeal].” Smith v. Sch. Bd. of Orange Cnty., 487 F.3d 1361, 1365 (11th Cir.2007); see also 11th Cir. R. 3-1. Clemons failed to object to the magistrate judge’s order, so quite simply, he has waived his right to appeal the denial of leave to amend. Moreover, the magistrate judge properly concluded that Clemons was not diligent in pursuing an age claim because he had knowledge of the relevant facts prior to the deadline for amending pleadings.

II.

We review the district court’s grant or denial of summary judgment de novo. Moton v. Cowart, 631 F.3d 1337, 1341 (11th Cir.2011). In doing so, we draw all inferences and review all of the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. Id. “[I]f the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law,” then summary judgment is appropriate. Id. To survive a motion for summary judgment, the nonmoving party must offer more than a mere scintilla of evidence for his position; rather, the nonmoving party must make a showing that is sufficient to allow a jury to reasonably find on his behalf. Brooks v. Cnty. Comm’n of Jefferson Cnty., Ala., 446 F.3d 1160, 1162 (11th Cir.2006).

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits an employer from discharging any individual, or otherwise discriminating against any individual with respect to the individual’s compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because of the individual’s sex. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1). A plaintiff alleging a violation under Title VII bears the burden of proving that an employer illegally discriminated against him. Hinson v. Clinch Cnty. Bd. of Educ., 231 F.3d 821, 827 (11th Cir.2000).

Where, as here, an employee attempts to prove discriminatory intent by circumstantial, evidence, the claims may be subject to the methods of proof set forth in McDonnell. Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S, 792, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973). Crawford v. Carroll, 529 F.3d 961, 975-76. (11th Cir.2008). Under McDonnell Douglas, a plaintiff must make a requisite showing of a prima facie case, the employer must then articulate a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for its actions, and then the plaintiff must offer evidence that the alleged reasons of the employer are pretext for illegal discrimination. McDonnell Douglas, 411 U.S. at 802-04, 93 S.Ct. at 1824-25.' “[A] reason cannot ... be a pretext for discrimination unless it is shown both that the reason was false; and that discrimination was the real reason.” St. Mary’s Honor Ctr. v. Hicks, 509 U.S. 502, 515, 113 S.Ct. 2742, 2752, 125 L.Ed.2d 407 (1993) (quotations omitted) (emphasis in original).

[944]*944Where an employer’s proffered reason for termination is the violation of a workplace rule, a plaintiff may seek to prove pretext by submitting evidence that he “did not violate, the cited work rule, or ... if [ ]he did. violate the .rule, other employees outside the¡ protected, class,, who engaged in similar acts, were not. similarly treated.” Damon v. Fleming Supermarkets of Fla., Inc., 196 F.3d 1354, 1363: (11th Cir.1999). Employers may. fire an employee for a. good or bad reason, a. reason based .on erroneous facts, or for no reason at all, as long it is not for a discriminatory reason. Alvarez v. Royal Atl. Developers, Inc., 610 F.3d 1253, 1266 (11th Cir.2010).

Under the McDonnell Douglas framework, a plaintiff may establish' a prima facie case of discrimination by demonstrating that: (1) he is a member of a protected class; (2) he was subjected to an adverse employment action; (3) his employer treated similarly-situated employees outside of his class more favorably; and (4) he was qualified for the job. See Burke-Fowler v. Orange Cnty., Fla.,

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625 F. App'x 941, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clemons-v-delta-air-lines-inc-ca11-2015.