Blackwell v. Baker, No. 15-2316 (8th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff filed suit against ATK and several of its employees for race, gender, and age discrimination after the company terminated her employment for elbowing another employee in the back. The district court granted summary judgment to defendants. The court concluded that plaintiff failed to establish a prima facie case of discrimination on the basis of any protected class status because she did not show that ATK treated any similarly situated employees in a disparate manner; plaintiff also did not establish a prima facie case by showing that ATK failed to follow its own policies when investigating the elbowing incident; and even assuming that plaintiff had established a prima facie case, ATK articulated a legitimate nondiscriminatory reason for firing her. Furthermore, the district court also correctly concluded that plaintiff's retaliation claim was not substantiated where she did not prove a causal connection between her follow up email and her termination. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
Court Description: Murphy, Author, with Wollman and Beam, Circuit Judges] Civil case - Employment discrimination. The district court did not err in finding plaintiff had failed to establish a case of discrimination on the basis of any protected class status as she did not show that her employer treated any similarly situated employees in a disparate manner; assuming she had established a prima facie case, the employer articulated a legitimate, non-discrminatory reason - violation of work place violence rules - for the termination, and plaintiff failed to show the stated ground was a pretext for discrimination; the record did not substantiate plaintiff's claim that she was terminated in retaliation for making a complaint.
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