Daneshvar v. Graphic Technology

Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit·Decided May 15, 2007·No. 06-3242·Unpublished

Opinion

F I L E D

United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit

UNITED STATES CO URT O F APPEALS May 15, 2007

FO R TH E TENTH CIRCUIT Elisabeth A. Shumaker Clerk of Court

BIJAN D ANESHVA R, Plaintiff-Appellant,

v. No. 06-3242 (D.C. No. 04-CV -2212-JW L)

GRAPHIC TECHNOLOGY, IN C., (D . Kan.)

Defendant-Appellee.

OR D ER AND JUDGM ENT *

Before H E N RY, B AL DOC K , and M U RPH Y, Circuit Judges.

Plaintiff Bijan Daneshvar, appearing pro se, appeals from the district court’s entry of judgment in favor of defendant Graphic Technology, Inc. (GTI), on his claims of discrimination and retaliation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e to 2000e-17. W e have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we affirm.

*

After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined unanimously that oral argument would not materially assist the determination of this appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2); 10th Cir. R. 34.1(G). The case is therefore ordered submitted without oral argument. This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may be cited, however, for its persuasive value consistent w ith Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th Cir. R. 32.1.

I. Background

M r. Daneshvar, who is Iranian, worked for GTI since 1988. 1 GTI is in the printing business. M r. Daneshvar’s precise job title is a matter of some contention between the parties, but the district court found that he was a “press assistant.” See R., Vol. II, Doc. 116 at 8-9. On June 20, 2003, he filed a charge of discrimination with the Kansas Human Rights Commission (KHRC) alleging that GTI had paid him a lower wage than similarly situated non-Iranian employees. On December 22, 2003, GTI suspended M r. Daneshvar with pay based on allegations that he had sexually harassed a female coworker over the course of several weeks. GTI investigated the allegations and terminated his employment by letter dated January 6, 2004.

M r. Daneshvar filed a second charge with the KHRC alleging that GTI had retaliated against him for filing the first charge by subjecting him to a heavier workload and suspending him. The notarization on the second charge is dated January 6, 2004, and the charge indicates it was received by the KHRC on January 7. It also appears that M r. Daneshvar filed an amended charge that the KHRC received on January 21, 2004, which added the termination of his

1 In the district court, GTI asserted that M r. Daneshvar worked for GTI since 1998. Although immaterial to our disposition, this apparent discrepancy is perhaps due to the fact that GTI had discharged him in 1997. M r. Daneshvar successfully challenged that discharge as retaliatory, which in turn lead to his reinstatement in GTI’s employ by court order filed in 1998. See Daneshvar v. Graphic Tech., Inc., 40 F. Supp. 2d 1225 (D. Kan. 1998).

employment as another instance of retaliation. However, as discussed in detail below, he never submitted a copy of the amended charge to the district court, but has provided this court with a copy of it.

On February 19, 2004, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sent M r. Daneshvar a right-to-sue letter in w hich it adopted the K HRC’s findings; although the parties have not directed us to any documentation of those findings in the record, they apparently were adverse to M r. D aneshvar. M r. D aneshvar then filed his pro se complaint in this action on M ay 14. On June 25, the KHRC sent M r. Daneshvar a letter stating that it was dismissing the second charge because the pending lawsuit w as based on the same allegations. On A ugust 4, 2004, the EEOC issued a second right-to-sue letter adopting those findings.

In this action, M r. Daneshvar alleged that GTI committed numerous acts of discrimination or retaliation in violation of Title VII. Chief among those w ere disparate workload, disparate wage, and w rongful discharge claims. He also listed a number of other claims, ostensibly under Title VII: failure to promote; discriminatory promotional training and promotion; conspiracy; forgery; obstruction of justice; perjury; witness tampering; failure to explain reasons for suspension; failure to pay wages at time of termination; failure to enroll him in GTI’s COBRA plan in a timely manner; and failure to enroll him in a guest membership health plan.

GTI filed a motion for summary judgment, which the district court granted in part, denied in part, and retained under advisement in part. The court deemed M r. Daneshvar’s disparate workload claim abandoned and granted summary judgment to GTI on that claim. The court dismissed the remainder of the claims for failure to exhaust administrative remedies with two exceptions— the disparate wage and wrongful discharge claims. The court retained the disparate w age claim because GTI had not moved for summary judgment on it. As to the wrongful discharge claim, the court observed that although M r. Daneshvar had filed an administrative charge concerning his suspension, a claim he had not asserted in his complaint, it did not appear that he had filed an administrative charge relating to his discharge. Because it could not determine whether M r. Daneshvar had exhausted his administrative remedies as to his wrongful discharge claim, the court concluded that it could not address GTI’s motion for summary judgment on the merits of that claim. The court therefore ordered the parties to submit supplemental briefing on whether it had subject matter jurisdiction over the wrongful discharge claim.

In his supplemental brief, M r. Daneshvar did not assert that he had filed a charge with the KHRC that identified his discharge as retaliatory. Instead, he argued that his discharge was reasonably related to his suspension such that the January 7 charge, which alleged that his suspension was retaliatory, was sufficient to satisfy the exhaustion requirement as to his discharge. The court rejected that

argument, relying primarily on M artinez v. Potter, 347 F.3d 1208 (10th Cir. 2003), which it had discussed in its briefing order. The court concluded that M r. Daneshvar’s discharge was a discrete employment action requiring administrative exhaustion and finding that he had failed to exhaust. The court therefore dismissed his wrongful discharge claim for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1).

GTI then filed a second motion for summary judgment concerning the remaining disparate wage claim. GTI presented evidence that one non-Iranian press assistant who worked on the night shift received a higher rate of pay than M r. Daneshvar because of a shift differential. GTI also presented evidence that four other non-Iranian press assistants received higher pay because they had accepted a demotion from higher-paying positions in order to survive a reduction in force, and company policy was to pay such employees at the highest hourly wage within the press assistant grade level. Concluding that M r. Daneshvar had not presented sufficient evidence to raise a triable fact issue that GTI’s proffered nondiscriminatory reasons were pretextual under the analytical framew ork established by M cDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792 (1973), the district court granted summary judgment in favor of GTI on the disparate wage claim. The court also rejected M r. Daneshvar’s argument that the affidavit of GTI’s Vice President of Operations at the relevant time, Charlie Besch, which GTI submitted in support of its second summary judgment motion, was

inadmissible because it lacked foundation, and denied M r. Daneshvar’s motion to strike the supporting affidavit of Jennifer Clary, GTI’s human resources manager, and the exhibits attached to it. This appeal followed.

II. Discussion

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