Mardell v. Harleysville Life Insurance

854 F. Supp. 378, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20284, 63 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 42,899, 1993 WL 664638
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedApril 27, 1993
DocketCiv. A. No. 91-1493
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 854 F. Supp. 378 (Mardell v. Harleysville Life Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mardell v. Harleysville Life Insurance, 854 F. Supp. 378, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20284, 63 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 42,899, 1993 WL 664638 (W.D. Pa. 1993).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

McCUNE, Senior District Judge.

We consider a motion for summary judgment filed by Defendant Harleysville Life Insurance Company (“Harleysville”). Plaintiff Nancy Mardell alleges that she was terminated from her position as Regional Director of Life Insurance for Harleysville in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA”), 29 U.S.C.S. § 621, et seq., and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C.S. § 2000e, et seq. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C.S. § 1331. For the reasons discussed below, the motion for summary judgment will be granted.

[379]*379FACTS

Nancy Mardell applied for the position of Life Manager at Harleysville in December 1987.1 Ms. Mardell submitted a résumé and completed a job application. Contained on the job application Ms. Mardell signed is the following language:

“The information provided on this employment application is correct and complete to the best of my knowledge. I realize that falsification and/or incomplete information may jeopardize my employment now or in the future.”

Both Glyn D. Mangum, then vice-president of sales, and William J. Forloine, then vice-president of marketing, interviewed Ms. Mardell. Mr. Forloine communicated to Mr. Mangum his impressions of Ms. Mardell. After considering Ms. Mardell’s résumé, job application and personal interview and Mr. Forloine’s remarks, Mr. Mangum made the decision to hire Ms. Mardell. Ms. Mardell started work for Harleysville in February 1988.

Mr. Forloine, who became Ms. Mardell’s direct supervisor when he became senior vice-president of marketing and sales, made the decision to terminate Ms. Mardell in February 1990 for stated reasons of poor performance. The within wrongful discharge action was filed September 6, 1991.

During the course of discovery, Harleys-ville learned for the first time that Ms. Mar-dell had misrepresented herself on her ré-sumé and job application. Harleysville has submitted the affidavits of Messrs. Mangum and Forloine which state that had they known of the alleged misrepresentations pri- or to hiring Ms. Mardell, they would not have hired her and had the alleged misrepresentations become disclosed during Ms. Mardell’s employment with Harleysville, she would have been discharged immediately. According to Harleysville, Ms. Mardell misrepresented on her résumé and job application that she had a college degree when she applied for the position at Harleysville and had had professional experience in various positions for which she had been paid.

DISCUSSION

When there is no issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, summary judgment is proper. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2552, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). The burden is on the moving party to demonstrate that there is no genuine issue of material fact. Id. All inferences from the underlying facts are to be viewed in favor of the non-moving party. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). Once the moving party has sustained his burden of proof, “the opposing party must introduce specific evidence showing that there is a genuine issue for trial.” Williams v. West Chester, 891 F.2d 458, 464 (3d Cir.1989) (citation omitted).

1. The Law

The issue we address is whether after-acquired evidence of Plaintiffs résumé and application fraud precludes Plaintiff from seeking relief under Title VII and the ADEA. The appellate courts are split on the issue and it has not been addressed by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

The “after-acquired evidence” doctrine was originated by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Summers v. State Farm Mutual Auto. Ins. Co., 864 F.2d 700 (10th Cir.1988). In Summers, Summers alleged he was wrongfully terminated from his position as a field claims representative due to his age and religious beliefs in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the ADEA. Almost four years after Summers’ discharge, the employer discovered that Summers had falsified over 150 company records made during the course of his employment. The court relied on the rationale of Mt. Healthy City School Dist. Bd. of Educ. v. Doyle, 429 U.S. 274, 97 S.Ct. 568, 50 L.Ed.2d 471 (1977). In Mt. Healthy, the Court held that an adverse employment decision, although substantially motivated by the employee’s constitutionally protected conduct, does not justify relief if the employer can show that it would have [380]*380made the same decision for permissible reasons had the protected conduct not occurred. Mt. Healthy, 429 U.S. at 285-286, 97 S.Ct. at 575. In Summers, the court assumed that the employer’s motive in discharging Summers was illegal in concluding that “while such after-acquired evidence cannot be said to have been a ‘cause’ for Summers’ discharge in 1982, it is relevant to Summers’ claim of ‘injury,’ and does itself preclude the grant of any present relief or remedy to Summers.” Id. at 708. In short, Summers suffered no legal damage. The court made it clear that the “litany of McDonnell Douglas ” did not apply because it “presupposes a ‘legitimate nondiscriminatory reason’, known to the employer at the time of the employee’s discharge.” Id. at 704-705 quoting McDonnell Douglas v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 1824, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973).

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has adopted the approach of Summers. However, to prevent situations where unscrupulous employers might rummage through an employee’s file for evidence of résumé fraud in order to escape legal responsibility for an otherwise unlawful discharge, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has devised a three-part test. The misrepresentation or omission must (1) be material, (2) be directly related to measuring a person for employment, and (3) have been relied upon by the employer in making the decision. Johnson v. Honeywell Information Systems, Inc., 955 F.2d 409, 414 (6th Cir.1992); Milligan-Jensen v. Michigan Technological Univ., 975 F.2d 302, 304 (6th Cir.1992). The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals views the problem of résumé fraud as one of causation. “[I]f the plaintiff would not have been’ hired, or would have been fired, if the employer had known of the falsification, the plaintiff suffered no legal damage by being fired.” Milligan-Jensen, 975 F.2d at 304.

The Seventh Court of Appeals has adopted a modified Summers approach. In Washington v. Lake County, 969 F.2d 250

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854 F. Supp. 378, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20284, 63 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 42,899, 1993 WL 664638, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mardell-v-harleysville-life-insurance-pawd-1993.