Kunej v. Labor Commission

2013 UT App 172, 306 P.3d 855, 738 Utah Adv. Rep. 57, 2013 WL 3475382, 2013 Utah App. LEXIS 171
CourtCourt of Appeals of Utah
DecidedJuly 11, 2013
Docket20120416-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 2013 UT App 172 (Kunej v. Labor Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kunej v. Labor Commission, 2013 UT App 172, 306 P.3d 855, 738 Utah Adv. Rep. 57, 2013 WL 3475382, 2013 Utah App. LEXIS 171 (Utah Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

Memorandum Decision

CHRISTIANSEN, Judge:

{1 Chris K. Kunej challenges the Labor Commission's (the Commission) order dismissing Kunej's employment discrimination claim against the University of Utah (the University). We decline to disturb the Commission's decision.

T2 During 2007, Kune) applied for twenty-eight different positions with the University but was ultimately not hired for any of these positions-many of which were filled *859 by female applicants. On May 830, 2008, Ku-nej filed a discrimination claim with the Antidiscerimination and Labor Division of the Commission, alleging gender discrimination in the University's hiring practices. On January 26, 2010, the Antidiscrimination and Labor Division issued a determination and order finding there was no reasonable cause to conclude Kunej had been subjected to the alleged discriminatory practices. Kune] timely appealed, requesting a formal eviden-tiary hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (the ALJ). Following the hearing, the ALJ determined that Kunej had failed to demonstrate that the University's stated reasons for not hiring him were a pretext for gender-based discrimination and dismissed Kunej's discrimination claim. Kune then timely filed with the Commission a motion to review, and separately filed a "motion to vacate" alleging that the ALJ was biased. On April 24, 2012, the Commission, through its Appeals Board (the Board), issued an order affirming the ALJ's dismissal of Kunej's discrimination claim, finding that allegations of bias were unsubstantiated. Kune] now petitions this court for judicial review of the Commission's final agency action.

913 Kune first argues that the Commission erred in concluding that the reasons given by the University for declining to hire Kune) were not a pretext for gender-based discrimination. Under the Utah Anti-discrimination Act (UADA), it is a discriminatory employment practice to refuse to hire any person otherwise qualified because of that person's gender. See Utah Code Ann. § 34A-5-106(1)(a)@)(C) (LexisNexis Supp. 2012) ("An employer may not refuse to hire . any person otherwise qualified, because of ... sex...."). "To establish a claim of employment discrimination, the employee has the initial burden to establish a prima facie showing of the employer's discrimination." Sheikh v. Department of Pub. Safety, 904 P.2d 1103, 1106 (Utah Ct.App.1995) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). "Onee a prima facie case has been established, the burden to produce evidence shifts to the employer who must articulate a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for its sus-H pect conduct." Id. "If the employer succeeds in rebutting the inference of discrimination, the burden of production shifts back to the employee who must then show by a preponderance of the evidence that the employer's articulated reasons were merely a pretext for discrimination." Id. "The ultimate burden of persuasion that the employer discriminated against the employee remains at all times with the plaintiff." Id. (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).

T4 The parties do not dispute that Kunej initially made a prima facie showing of discrimination and that the University articulated a nondiseriminatory explanation of its hiring decisions. Thus, Kune) had the burden to persuade the Commission "that a discriminatory reason more likely motivated [the employer] than the reasons it proffered or, in the alternative, to discredit its explanation." See University of Utah v. Industrial Comm'n, 736 P.2d 630, 636 (Utah 1987).

T5 Under the Utah Administrative Procedures Act, we may grant relief if "the ageney has erroneously interpreted or applied the law." Utah Code Ann. § 63G-4-403(4)(d). Because review under subsection (4)(d) does not "imply a specific standard of review," we are "free to apply our traditional approach in selecting the appropriate standard of review" based on "whether the [agen-cyT's decision qualifies as a finding of fact, a conclusion of law, or a determination of a mixed question of law and fact." See Murray v. Labor Comm'n, 2013 UT 38, ¶¶ 23-24, 308 P.3d 461, 2013 WL 3246403. Whether the Commission misapplied the law to the particular facts of a case is a traditional mixed question of law and fact, and our degree of deference to the Commission's decision therefore turns on. whether its decision is "fact-like" or "law-like." Id. 124, 37. The determination whether an employer's conduct was motivated by discrimination-i.e., that its proffered explanation was pretextual-is "both sensitive and difficult." Pitre v. Western Elec. Co., 843 F.2d 1262, 1266 (10th Cir.1988) (evaluating employment discrimination claim under Title VII of the federal Civil *860 Rights Act) 1 "In assessing pretext, everything depends on the individual facts." McDonough v. City of Quincey, 452 F.3d 8, 19 (1st Cir.2006) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). Thus, the Commission's pretext determination is not "law-like" because the "particular facts and cireum-stances" of the conduct at issue "are likely to be so complex and varying that no rule adequately addressing the relevance of all these facts can be spelled out." See In re Adoption of Baby B., 2012 UT 35, ¶¶ 42-43, 308 P.3d 382, 2012 WL 4486225. Moreover, because the Commission must necessarily "decide which party's explanation of the employer's motivation it believes," Pitre, 848 F.2d at 1266, the Commission's pretext determination "would often be affected by [its] observation of a competing witness's appearance and demeanor on matters that cannot be adequately reflected in the record available to appellate courts," and the determination is therefore "fact-ike," see In re Adoption of Baby B., 2012 UT 35, ¶¶ 42-43, 308 P.3d 382. Such a "fact-like" determination is entitled to deference by this court, "and would be properly [approved] on [review] if not clearly erroneous." Id. ¶ 46.

16 To show that an employer's explanation for a hiring decision is pretextual, a plaintiff must "demonstratle] that the employer's explanation for its decision was so implausible, incoherent, or internally contradictory that the decision must have been made on some other basis." Conroy v. Vilsack, 707 F.3d 1163, 1174 (10th Cir.2013) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). In evaluating the employer's justification for its hiring decision, the court must "examine the facts as they appear to the person making the decision." Id. (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). Thus, a court does not evaluate whether an employer's hiring decision was "wise, fair or correct," but only whether its decision was made in good faith, Exum v. United States Olympic Comm., 389 F.3d 1130, 1138 (10th Cir.2004) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted), and based on lawful criteria, University of Utah, 736 P.2d at 636.

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2013 UT App 172, 306 P.3d 855, 738 Utah Adv. Rep. 57, 2013 WL 3475382, 2013 Utah App. LEXIS 171, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kunej-v-labor-commission-utahctapp-2013.