Ledbetter v. Koss Construction

981 F. Supp. 1394, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19237, 1997 WL 749513
CourtDistrict Court, D. Kansas
DecidedOctober 28, 1997
DocketNo. 96-4036-RDR
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 981 F. Supp. 1394 (Ledbetter v. Koss Construction) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ledbetter v. Koss Construction, 981 F. Supp. 1394, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19237, 1997 WL 749513 (D. Kan. 1997).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

ROGERS, Senior District Judge.

This is an employment discrimination ease. This case is now before the court upon defendant’s motion for summary judgment and defendant’s motion to dismiss.

Plaintiff alleges in this ease that he was discriminated against because of his age when defendant failed to hire him to a position as a laborer for a highway construction project on Highway 75 north of Topeka, Kansas. Plaintiff further alleges that defendant violated federal law which requires hiring preferences for Vietnam War veterans by federal contractors. Plaintiff, who is proceeding pro se, has also pleaded sex discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, his response to the summary judgment motion suggests that he is not pursuing this claim.

MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

In considering defendant’s motion for summary judgment, the court must examine all the evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. Barber v. General Electric Co., 648 F.2d 1272, 1276 n. 1 (10th Cir.1981). Summary judgment is proper only when “there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and ... the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). Under this rule, the initial burden is on the moving party to show the court “that there is an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party’s case.” Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 325, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2554, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). The moving party’s burden may be met when that party identifies those portions of the record which demonstrate the absence of a genuine issue of material fact. Id. at 323, 106 S.Ct. at 2552.

Once the moving party has met these requirements, the burden shifts to the party resisting the motion. The non-moving party must “make a showing sufficient to establish the existence of an element essential to that party’s ease, and on which that party will bear the burden of proof at trial.” Id. at 322, 106 S.Ct. at 2552. The party resisting the motion “may not rest upon the mere allegations or denials of his pleadings ...” to avoid summary judgment. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). The mere existence of a scintilla of evidence will not avoid summary judgment; there must be sufficient evidence on which a jury could reasonably find for the nonmoving party. Id. at 251, 106 S.Ct. at 2511 (quoting Improvement Co. v. Munson, 81 U.S. (14 Wall.) 442, 448, 20 L.Ed. 867 (1872)).

In the case at bar, most of the facts relied upon by both sides are supported by the affidavits of plaintiff and Koss Construction manager Ronnie Troglin, as well as employment records of defendant. Looking at these factual allegations and supporting materials in a light most favorable to plaintiff, the following facts are taken as true solely for the purposes of this summary judgment motion.

Plaintiff is a Vietnam War veteran who received an honorable discharge from the United States Marine Corps. Plaintiff was born in 1954. In late March 1995, when plaintiff was over the age of 40, he inquired about employment with defendant Koss Construction. This was in response to an advertisement Koss Construction placed in the Topeka Capital Journal on March 21-23, 1995. The ad stated there were job openings for laborers. Plaintiff spoke over the telephone with Ronnie Troglin, the field office manager for the paving division of Koss Construction. According to plaintiff’s affidavit, although plaintiff was calling in response to an advertisement for laborers, Troglin advised plaintiff that he could probably be hired to do line setting as well because the job did not require much training. The telephone conversation led plaintiff to believe he would be hired.

Plaintiff completed a written application for a job with Koss Construction on March 28,1995 at the Pauline, Kansas field office of the company. Plaintiff’s application asks for a job as a line setter or driver. The application does not ask for a laborer position. Plaintiff has a college education. He has construction experience. However, he does not have highway construction experience. Nor does he have experience as a line setter or a truck driver on a highway project.

[1396]*1396Plaintiffs job application does not state his age or date of birth. However, it does list his year of graduation from high school (1972). Plaintiff also included a resumé with his application. Plaintiffs resumé shows that he was in the Marine Corps prior to 1976. From this a person could have surmised that plaintiff was over forty years old in 1995.

At the time of plaintiffs application, Troglin was the field manager of a paving project at the Salina, Kansas airport. Troglin has stated in an affidavit that he received plaintiffs employment application in Salina and thought plaintiff was applying for a job on the Salina airport project. No jobs at the Salina project were available for truck drivers or line setters at the time because the project was almost finished.

Koss Construction follows a practice of hiring experienced truck drivers. This is substantiated by employee records and Troglin’s affidavit. Line setting is considered by Koss to be a most important job because paving equipment is guided by string lines. Koss Construction hires experienced line setters or upgrades laborers to set lines while performing laborer duties. There are no records before the court of employees hired with the title “line setter.” Plaintiff disputes the difficulty of line setting but has presented no evidence that Koss Construction hires inexperienced line setters.

Defendant has submitted an employee history record of Merle Lee Krug who was 59 when he worked for Koss Construction in January 1995. The record indicates that Mr. Krug was classified as a general laborer. However, it also shows that Mr. Krug had a Class A driver’s license, and another record indicates that Mr. Krug operated a low boy semi-trailer for Koss Construction after being hired on August 24, 1994. Mr. Krug’s employee history record also lists a different project number (20) than the Highway 75 project (48). Accordingly, the court is unclear as to Mr. Krug’s duties with Koss Construction.

There is no other evidence of persons over forty, besides plaintiff, who applied for a job as a general laborer or line setter with Koss Construction. Other persons hired as general laborers by Koss Construction appear to be men in their twenties or early thirties.

Age discrimination

To succeed with his age discrimination claim, plaintiff must show that age actually motivated the decision not to hire him. Hazen Paper Co. v. Biggins, 507 U.S. 604, 609-11, 113 S.Ct. 1701, 1705-07, 123 L.Ed.2d 338 (1993). In the instant case, plaintiff has presented no direct evidence of defendant’s discriminatory intent. Instead, he relies on circumstantial evidence. In such a situation, the Tenth Circuit applies the “McDonnell Douglas” burden shifting scheme. Ellis v. United Airlines, Inc.,

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Related

Ledbetter v. City of Topeka, Kan.
112 F. Supp. 2d 1239 (D. Kansas, 2000)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
981 F. Supp. 1394, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19237, 1997 WL 749513, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ledbetter-v-koss-construction-ksd-1997.