David Williams v. Union Underwear Company, Inc.

614 F. App'x 249
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJune 5, 2015
Docket14-6359
StatusUnpublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 614 F. App'x 249 (David Williams v. Union Underwear Company, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
David Williams v. Union Underwear Company, Inc., 614 F. App'x 249 (6th Cir. 2015).

Opinion

OPINION

KAREN NELSON MOORE, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff-Appellant David Williams worked for Defendant-Appellee Union Underwear Company, Inc., d/b/a Fruit of the Loom (“FOL”), for over ten years before FOL terminated his employment. Williams contends that FOL fired him because of his association with his ill wife and his age in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), 42 U.S.C. § 12112(b)(4) (2012), and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA”), 29 U.S.C. § 628(a) (2012). FOL asserts that Williams had been performing below expectations long before his termination, and that Williams’s poor performance — not his wife’s disability or his age — was the reason for his termination. Williams has not made a prima facie showing that his wife’s disability was a determining factor in FOL’s decision to terminate him. Nor has he made a prima facie showing of age discrimination because he has not produced evidence that FOL replaced him with a substantially younger person. And, even if Williams had made a prima facie showing for either claim, we agree with the district court that Williams has not produced evidence from which a reasonable jury could conclude that FOL’s proffered reason for the termination was a pretext for discrimination. Thus, we AFFIRM the district court’s grant of summary judgment.

I. FACTS

Williams worked in FOL’s Internal Audit Department from April 1988 through June 1998, and then again from March 2007 until FOL terminated Williams’s employment on December 31, 2011. R. 13-1 at 5, 10 (Williams Dep. at 17-19, 38) (Page ID # 430, 435). As the senior manager of internal audit, Williams’s primary responsibilities were assisting with the Office of Foreign Asset Control (“OFAC”) compliance program to ensure that FOL did not trade with any prohibited foreign entities and developing and conducting licensee audits. See id. ,at 11-13 (Williams Dep. at 41-49) (Page ID #436-38). Throughout the majority of Williams’s tenure at FOL, the Internal Audit Department performed two or three OFAC audits each year, which required Williams to work anywhere from five to 600 hours to complete the task and involved travel to an offsite location. Id. at 14 (Williams Dep. at 53-56) (Page ID #439). Licensee audits also involved out-of-state travel to the licensee’s location. Id. at 14-15 (Williams Dep. at 55-57) (Page ID # 439-40). Until 2009, Williams did not receive any negative feedback about his performance. R. 20-1 at 18-19 (Williams Dep. at 72, 76) (Page ID # 715-16).

In January 2008, Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., FOL’s parent company, hired the ac *251 counting firm Ernst & Young to assess FOL’s Internal Audit Department. R. 13-11 at 3 (Crossland Dep. at 11). (Page ID # 353). In January 2009, Ernst & Young submitted a report to FOL, identifying four areas where the Internal Audit-Department only partially conformed to the assessment standards. See R. 16-3 at 8-9 (E. & Y Report) (Page ID #494-95). Based on Ernst & Young’s assessment, Berkshire Hathaway directed FOL to change its internal auditing process. R. 13-11 at 3 (Crossland Dep. at 11) (Page ID # 353). Anthony Crossland, who oversaw FOL’s Internal Audit Department, decided to transition to process-oriented audits instead of manufacturing audits. Id.

After receiving these directions from Berkshire Hathaway, Crossland noticed problems with Williams’s performance as senior manager of internal compliance. Id. at 4 (Crossland Dep. at 14) (Page ID # 354). In Williams’s 2009 performance appraisal, Crossland mentioned that with respect to the OFAC audits Williams “need[ed] to accept more responsibility going forward and improve his management skills to plan, staff and evaluate engagements, independent of management, in order for the department to achieve its objectives.” R. 13-7 at 3 (2009 Williams Performance Evaluation) (Page ID # 169). ■ Nevertheless, Crossland gave Williams an overall performance evaluation of “Meets Objectives.” Id.

In November 2009, FOL hired Jimmy Woodall, a former Ernst & Young audit manager, to “upgrad[e] the professionalism,” of FOL’s Internal Audit Department and implement new strategic goals for the department. R. 13-12 at 2-3 (Woodall-Dep. at 7, 9-10) (Page ID # 366-67), When Woodall started working at FOL, Crossland discussed the auditors’ performances with Woodall and specifically noted that Williams “did not demonstrate an understanding of what he was being asked to do”; Crossland mentioned that he spent a lot of time reviewing or redoing Williams’s work. Id. at 5-7 (Woodall Dep. at 18-22) (Page ID # 369-70). Williams contends that the changes Woodall made to the department’s work practices caused him to have difficulty keeping up with his work. See Appellant Br. at 12. Williams started working seven days every week to keep up with his deadlines. R. 20-2 at 8 (Williams Dep. at 175-76) (Page ID # 741).

In February 2011, Williams informed Woodall that his wife had been diagnosed with Wegener’s Vascular Disease, which weakened her immune system and made her very susceptible to contracting diseases. R. 20-2 at 12 (Williams Dep. at 190) (Page ID # 745). Williams had mentioned his wife’s rare disease at work before, but had not ever requested an accommodation. R. 20-2 at 12-13 (Williams Dep. at 190-93) (Page ID # 745-46). Williams explained to Woodall that he could not travel to Central America for a scheduled audit trip because he might infect his wife with foreign viruses or bacteria. Id. at 12 (Williams Dep. at 190) (Page ID # 745). Woodall told Williams that the department would work around the absence from the trip. Id. at 13 (Williams Dep. at 195) (Page ID #746). Woodall spoke with Human Resources about the Williamses’ predicament and followed up with Williams to request documentation from a doctor, which Williams provided. Id. (Williams Dep. at 195-96). After Williams delivered the letter from his wife’s doctor, Vickie Gibson from Human Resources met with Williams to explain that FOL expected Williams to travel when he was scheduled. Id. at 14 (Williams Dep. at 197-98) (Page ID # 747). The Internal Audit Department went forward with the planned audit without Williams. Id. (Williams Dep. at 197). This 2011 trip was the only out-of-country *252 audit that Williams was unable to attend because of his wife’s condition. R. 13-4 at 90 (Williams Dep. at 199) (Page ID # 90).

In January 2011, Crossland evaluated Williams’s work again, giving Williams an overall rating of “Needs Improvement.” R. 13-7 at 5 (2010 Williams Performance Review) (Page ID # 171).' In the evaluation, Crossland noted a number of reasons for Williams’s needs-improvement evaluation. See id. at 6 (Page ID # 172). “A few months into 2011,” Gibson approached Woodall to discuss Williams’s most recent performance appraisal and instructed Woodall to initiate a performance feedback plan with Williams because Williams had received a needs-improvement performance rating. R. 13-12 at 7 (Woodall Dep. at 26) (Page ID # 371).

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Bluebook (online)
614 F. App'x 249, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/david-williams-v-union-underwear-company-inc-ca6-2015.