Glanzman v. Metropolitan Management Corp.

290 F. Supp. 2d 571, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20264, 2003 WL 22664580
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedNovember 5, 2003
Docket2:02-cv-07195
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 290 F. Supp. 2d 571 (Glanzman v. Metropolitan Management Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Glanzman v. Metropolitan Management Corp., 290 F. Supp. 2d 571, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20264, 2003 WL 22664580 (E.D. Pa. 2003).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

JOYNER, District Judge.

This employment discrimination case is now before the Court for resolution of the Defendant’s motion for summary judgment. For the reasons which follow, the motion is granted.

Factual Background

By this lawsuit, Plaintiff Julia Glanzman alleges that she was terminated from her position as the property manager at the Doylestown Meadows apartment complex in Doylestown, Pennsylvania on October 2, 2001 because of her age. At the time she was separated from her employment, Ms. Glanzman was 64 years old and had worked for Metropolitan Management Corp. at Doylestown Meadows since October 7, 1997, when the defendant corporation purchased the complex, previously known as Century House, from its prior owner. Up until that time, Plaintiff had been working as the property manager for Century House for the past eleven years.

For its part, the defendant disputes that Ms. Glanzman was terminated 1 because of her age, arguing instead that she was terminated because of poor job performance and because she had violated company policies on numerous past occasions, and because Defendant reasonably believed that she was trying to steal a dishwasher.

Standards Governing Summary Judgment Motions

In deciding a motion for summary judgment under Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c), a court must determine “whether there is a genuine issue of material fact and, if not, whether the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Medical Protective Co. v. Watkins, 198 F.3d 100, 103 (3d Cir.1999) (internal citation omitted). Indeed, the rule itself provides that summary judgment is properly rendered:

“... if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. A summary judgment, interlocutory in character, may be rendered on the issue of liability alone although there is a genuine issue as to the amount of damages.”

Stated more succinctly, summary judgment is appropriate only when it is demonstrated that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322-32, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986).

In deciding a motion for summary judgment, all facts must be viewed and all reasonable inferences must be drawn in favor of the non-moving party. Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 *576 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986); Oritani Savings & Loan Association v. Fidelity & Deposit Company of Maryland, 989 F.2d 635, 638 (3rd Cir.1993); Troy Chemical Corp. v. Teamsters Union Local No. 408, 37 F.3d 123, 125-126 (3rd Cir.1994); Arnold Pontiac-GMC, Inc. v. General Motors Corp., 700 F.Supp. 838, 840 (W.D.Pa.1988). An issue of material fact is said to be genuine “if the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party.” Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).

In Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, supra, the Supreme Court articulated the allocation of burdens between a moving and nonmoving party in a motion for summary judgment. Specifically the Court in that case held that the movant had the initial burden of showing the court the absence of a genuine issue of material fact, but that this did not require the movant to support the motion with affidavits or other materials that negated the opponent’s claim. Celotex, 477 U.S. at 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548. The Court also held that Rule 56(e) requires the nonmoving party to “go beyond the pleadings and by her own affidavits, or by the ‘depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file,’ designate ‘specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial.’ ” Id. at 324, 106 S.Ct. 2548 (quoting Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e)). This does not mean that the nonmoving party must produce evidence in a form that would be admissible at trial in order to avoid summary judgment. Obviously, Rule 56 does not require the nonmoving party to depose its own witnesses. Rather, Rule 56(e) permits a proper summary judgment motion to be opposed by any of the kinds of evidentiary materials listed in Rule 56(c),except the mere pleadings themselves, and it is from this list that one would normally expect the nonmoving party to make the required showing that a genuine issue of material fact exists. Id. See Also, Morgan v. Havir Manufacturing Co., 887 F.Supp. 759 (E.D.Pa.1994); McGrath v. City of Philadelphia, 864 F.Supp. 466, 472-473 (E.D.Pa.1994).

Discussion

Plaintiffs complaint is predicated on the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 29 U.S.C. § 621, et. seq. (“ADEA”), and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, 43 P.S. § 951, et. seq. (“PHRA”), in that she contends that the defendant unlawfully terminated, harassed and retaliated against her in violation of those laws. Specifically, the ADEA provides, in relevant part:

(a) Employer practices
It shall be unlawful for an employer-
(1) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual or otherwise discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms and conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s age;
(2) to limit, segregate, or classify his employees in any way which would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect his status as an employee because of such individual’s age; or
(3) to reduce the wage rate of any employee in order to comply with this chapter.
(d) Opposition to unlawful practices; participation in investigations, proceedings or litigation

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Bluebook (online)
290 F. Supp. 2d 571, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20264, 2003 WL 22664580, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/glanzman-v-metropolitan-management-corp-paed-2003.