Filed: Apr. 23, 2004
Latest Update: Feb. 21, 2020
Summary: F I L E D United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS APR 23 2004 FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT PATRICK FISHER Clerk KIMBERLY S. RENNER-WALLACE; MICHELE C. MCCABE, Plaintiffs-Appellants, No. 03-3125 v. (D.C. No. 01-CV-1135-JAR) (D. Kan.) CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee. ORDER AND JUDGMENT * Before LUCERO , McKAY , and TYMKOVICH , Circuit Judges. In this action brought pursuant to Title VII and the Kansas Act Against Discrimination, Kan. Stat. Ann. § 44-1001, 1
Summary: F I L E D United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS APR 23 2004 FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT PATRICK FISHER Clerk KIMBERLY S. RENNER-WALLACE; MICHELE C. MCCABE, Plaintiffs-Appellants, No. 03-3125 v. (D.C. No. 01-CV-1135-JAR) (D. Kan.) CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee. ORDER AND JUDGMENT * Before LUCERO , McKAY , and TYMKOVICH , Circuit Judges. In this action brought pursuant to Title VII and the Kansas Act Against Discrimination, Kan. Stat. Ann. § 44-1001, 1 ..
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F I L E D
United States Court of Appeals
Tenth Circuit
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
APR 23 2004
FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT
PATRICK FISHER
Clerk
KIMBERLY S. RENNER-WALLACE;
MICHELE C. MCCABE,
Plaintiffs-Appellants,
No. 03-3125
v. (D.C. No. 01-CV-1135-JAR)
(D. Kan.)
CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY,
Defendant-Appellee.
ORDER AND JUDGMENT *
Before LUCERO , McKAY , and TYMKOVICH , Circuit Judges.
In this action brought pursuant to Title VII and the Kansas Act Against
Discrimination, Kan. Stat. Ann. § 44-1001, 1 plaintiffs Kimberly S. Renner-
*
After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined
unanimously that oral argument would not materially assist the determination of
this appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2); 10th Cir. R. 34.1(G). The case is
therefore ordered submitted without oral argument. This order and judgment is
not binding precedent, except under the doctrines of law of the case, res judicata,
and collateral estoppel. The court generally disfavors the citation of orders and
judgments; nevertheless, an order and judgment may be cited under the terms and
conditions of 10th Cir. R. 36.3.
1
Renner-Wallace and McCabe withdrew their claim under the Kansas Act
Against Discrimination in their reply to defendant’s motion for summary
judgment.
Wallace and Michele C. McCabe appeal the district court’s grant of defendant
Cessna’s motion for summary judgment. Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C.
§ 1291, we AFFIRM.
Renner-Wallace’s employment by Cessna required that she work around
keotone. Because of keotone’s highly flammable nature, Cessna discouraged
employees working with it from wearing certain types of nylon sweat pants at
work; nonetheless, Renner-Wallace chose to wear nylon pants on several
occasions. This led her crew chief to tell her not to wear nylon pants due to
safety concerns. Renner-Wallace contends that he also told her either that he
liked her better with her pants off or that he liked her better in shorts. 2
She
reported those alleged comments to McCabe, her union steward, and a meeting
was held with the two women, the crew chief, and the department foreman. At
the meeting, the department foreman warned Renner-Wallace not to wear nylon
pants in the workplace and admonished the crew chief to not make inappropriate
comments, a charge the crew chief denied.
Subsequently Cessna conducted an internal investigation into Renner-
Wallace’s version of events. The company investigation failed to reveal evidence
2
Renner-Wallace alleged that she had experienced other incidents of sexual
harassment by her crew chief. However, she admitted she never reported these
incidents to either her union steward or any supervisor. Cessna first learned of
the other alleged incidents when it received her EEOC complaint.
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supporting her sexual harassment claim. Instead, the very employees Renner-
Wallace identified as witnesses to the incident failed to support her account of the
conversation with the crew chief. Ultimately, Cessna’s investigator concluded
that insufficient evidence was presented to support Renner-Wallace’s sexual
harassment claim.
Thereafter, Cessna received information indicating that Renner-Wallace
and McCabe may have fabricated the sexual harassment allegation. Cessna
initiated an internal investigation, which revealed several employees who offered
evidence supporting a conclusion that Renner-Wallace and McCabe had fabricated
the sexual harassment charge. After the completion of this investigation, Cessna
officials met to discuss the situation. At that meeting, company officials received
reports regarding both the sexual harassment and fabrication investigations, and
Renner-Wallace and McCabe were allowed to respond to the charge of
fabrication. Following the meeting, Cessna officials decided to terminate the two
women for breach of trust in falsifying reports of sexual harassment.
Renner-Wallace and McCabe then sued Cessna in state court for sexual
harassment, discrimination, and constructive discharge. In their complaint, they
alleged both that Cessna had retaliated against them due to their sexual
harassment claim, and that they had been constructively discharged. Cessna
removed the case to federal court and moved for summary judgment on the
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grounds that: (1) plaintiffs had failed to establish a prima facie case of sexual
harassment ; and (2) even if they had established a prima facie case, Cessna had
presented a nonpretexual reason for its actions.
Finding that Renner-Wallace and McCabe had failed to establish a prima
facie case of a sexually hostile work environment, the district court granted
Cessna’s summary judgment motion. Although the court assumed for the
purposes of the summary judgment motion that plaintiffs had established a prima
facie case of retaliation, it concluded that Cessna had articulated a
nondiscriminatory reason for the women’s termination; because Renner-Wallace
and McCabe failed to demonstrate that the company’s proferred reason was
pretextual, their retaliation claim also failed.
“We review a grant of summary judgment de novo and apply the same
legal standard used by the district court under Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c).” Timmons
v. White, 314 F.3d 1229, 1232 (10th Cir. 2003). Rule 56(c) provides that
summary judgment is appropriate “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.”
In considering Title VII discrimination claims, including retaliation claims
such as this, we employ the burden-shifting analytical framework first introduced
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in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green , 411 U.S. 792, 802–04 (1973). Discharged
employees must first establish a prima facie case of retaliation. Doebele v.
Sprint/United Mgmt Co. ,
342 F.3d 1117, 1135 (10th Cir. 2003) (applying the
McDonnell Douglas framework). Once a prima facie case has been established,
the defendant must proffer a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for terminating
the plaintiff.
Id. If the defendant proffers a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason
for its action, then the burden shifts back to the plaintiff to demonstrate that the
defendant’s reason was pretextual.
Id.
We, like the district court below, will assume for the purposes of this
appeal that Renner-Wallace and McCabe established a prima facie case of
retaliation for having reported alleged sexual harassment. In response to the
plaintiffs’ retaliation case, Cessna stated that it did not terminate Renner-Wallace
and McCabe in retaliation for lodging their complaint of sexual harassment, but
rather because its investigation revealed that they had fabricated their complaint.
Accordingly, the burden shifted back to Renner-Wallace and McCabe: “w hen a
defendant articulates a reason for terminating the plaintiff’s employment,
establishing a prima facie case is not sufficient to avoid summary judgment.
Instead, the plaintiff must offer evidence that the defendant’s reason is a pretext
for discrimination.” Selenke v. Med. Imaging of Colo.,
248 F.3d 1249, 1260
(10th Cir. 2001).
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On appeal, Renner-Wallace and McCabe argue that they rebutted Cessna’s
proffered reason for its actions. First, they contend that they established that the
crew chief sexually harassed Renner-Wallace and that the company conducted a
sham investigation into their sexual harassment charge. They also insist that only
a weak inference supported Cessna’s conclusion that Renner-Wallace and
McCabe had fabricated the sexual-harassment allegation. As a result, they
contend, the district court erred in granting summary judgment to Cessna.
Contrary to plaintiffs’ position, the record demonstrates that Cessna’s first
investigation revealed no evidence supporting Renner-Wallace’s sexual
harassment allegation, despite interviews with several witnesses Renner-Wallace
claimed would support her version of events. However, the company’s
investigation into the possibility that Renner-Wallace and McCabe had fabricated
the accusation against the crew chief revealed four witnesses whose testimony
corroborated that allegation.
When assessing a contention of pretext, we examine the facts as they
appear to the person making the decision to terminate [the] plaintiff.
We may not second guess the business judgment of the employer.
Instead, the relevant question is whether the reason articulated by the
employer was the real reason for the challenged action.
Selenke, 248 F.3d at 1261 (quotation and citations omitted).
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We hold that Cessna presented a supported business reason for terminating
plaintiffs and that Renner-Wallace and McCabe failed to show that the reason was
pretextual.
The judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED .
Entered for the Court
Carlos F. Lucero
Circuit Judge
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