Rona Fields, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. Clark University, Defendant, Appellee, 966 F.2d 49 (1st Cir. 1992)

Frederick T. Golder with whom Bernstein, Golder & Miller, P.A., Lynnfield, Mass., was on brief, for plaintiff, appellant.

William L. Patton with whom David J. Kerman and Ropes & Gray, Boston, Mass., were on brief, for defendant, appellee.

Before SELYA, Circuit Judge, CAMPBELL, Senior Circuit Judge, and PETTINE,^*  Senior District Judge.

PETTINE, Senior District Judge.

This appeal centers on a sex discrimination claim arising under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. ("Title VII"). Plaintiff-Appellant Dr. Rona Fields, a former associate professor of sociology at Clark University, instituted this lawsuit in May 1980, claiming she was denied tenure at Clark because of her gender. The case was tried before Judge Skinner, Massachusetts Federal District Court, in September 1985. Judge Skinner concluded that Dr. Fields had not proven entitlement to tenure; nonetheless, he held that Title VII relief was appropriate in light of the sexually discriminatory atmosphere of Clark University's sociology department. Accordingly, Judge Skinner held Clark University liable to Dr. Fields for back pay and attorneys' fees, and ordered the University to reappoint Dr. Fields for a two-year probationary period before reconsidering her tenure application.

The case was subsequently appealed to the First Circuit Court of Appeals. In Fields v. Clark Univ., 817 F.2d 931, 937 (1st Cir. 1987), this Court held:

The case was then heard in an abbreviated format¹  by District Judge Keeton. On April 16, 1991, Judge Keeton entered judgment for Clark University, ruling that Dr. Fields had failed to establish that the tenure decision was impermissibly tainted by gender bias in violation of Title VII. Rona Fields v. Clark University, No. 80-1011-K (D. Mass. Apr. 16, 1991).

The court below discussed the burdens of production and persuasion in Title VII cases as set forth both in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 93 S. Ct. 1817, 36 L. Ed. 2d 668 (1973) (rearticulated in Texas Dep't. of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 101 S. Ct. 1089, 67 L. Ed. 2d 207 (1981)), and in Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, 490 U.S. 228, 109 S. Ct. 1775, 104 L. Ed. 2d 268 (1989). The District Court judge refrained from deciding which of these standards applied to the instant case, finding that Dr. Fields had not satisfactorily established a prima facie case under either standard.

On appeal, Plaintiff-Appellant argued that, by not choosing one standard (McDonnell Douglas/ Burdine) or another (Price Waterhouse), the District Court, in effect, erroneously relied on the McDonnell standard. This argument necessitates further analysis of the McDonnell Douglas/Burdine and Price Waterhouse Title VII frameworks.

In order for a plaintiff to prevail in a Title VII action, the court must first find that plaintiff has proved a prima facie case by a preponderance of the evidence. Burdine, 450 U.S. at 253, 101 S. Ct. at 1093. A McDonnell Douglas/ Burdine prima facie showing is "proof of actions taken by the employer from which discriminatory animus can be inferred because experience has proved that in the absence of any other explanation it is more likely than not those actions were based on impermissible considerations." Furnco Constr. Corp. v. Waters, 438 U.S. 567, 568, 98 S. Ct. 2943, 2945, 57 L. Ed. 2d 957 (1978). "The burden of establishing a prima facie case of disparate treatment is not onerous. The plaintiff must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that she applied for an available position for which she was qualified, but was rejected under circumstances which give rise to an inference of unlawful discrimination." Burdine, 450 U.S. at 253, 101 S. Ct. at 1093.

If the court concludes that the plaintiff has proved a prima facie case by a preponderance of the evidence, the court must then consider the defendant's justification for the presumptively discriminatory action or practice. The defendant must meet a burden of production by articulating a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for its challenged actions; however, it need not prove that it was actually motivated by the proffered reason. Id. at 254-55, 101 S. Ct. at 1094-95.

The plaintiff then must have an opportunity to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant's proffered reason was merely a pretext for discrimination. If she successfully demonstrates that such a pretext exists, she has proven defendant's commission of a Title VII violation; if she fails to do so, the presumption of discrimination drops from the case. See, e.g., Unites States Postal Serv. Bd. of Governors v. Aikens, 460 U.S. 711, 715, 103 S. Ct. 1478, 1481, 75 L. Ed. 2d 403 (1983). Plaintiff's burden of persuasion, retained throughout, would then "merge[ ] with the ultimate burden of persuading the court that she has been the victim of intentional discrimination. She may succeed in this either directly by persuading the court that a discriminatory reason more likely motivated the employer or indirectly by showing that the employer's proffered explanation is unworthy of credence." Burdine, 450 U.S. at 256, 101 S. Ct. at 1095, citing McDonnell Douglas, 411 U.S. at 804-05, 93 S. Ct. at 1825-26.

In Price Waterhouse, 490 U.S. at 241-42, 109 S. Ct. at 1785-86, the Supreme Court held that "[w]hen ... an employer considers both gender and legitimate factors at the time of making a decision ... [the employee is not obligated] to identify the precise causal role played by legitimate and illegitimate motivations in the employment decision she challenges. We conclude, instead, that Congress meant to obligate her to prove that the employer relied upon sex-based considerations in coming to its decision." The Court continued:

Id. at 250, 109 S. Ct. at 1790.

Once the plaintiff has proven that her gender partly motivated the employer's adverse employment action or decision, the employer will be liable under Title VII unless "it can prove that, even if it had not taken gender into account, it would have come to the same decision regarding [her]." Id. at 242, 109 S. Ct. at 1786. The Court noted that, because it does not employ burden-shifting, this framework differs from Burdine. Under Price Waterhouse, "the plaintiff must persuade the factfinder on one point, and then the employer, if it wishes to prevail, must persuade it on another." Price Waterhouse, 490 U.S. at 246, 109 S. Ct. at 1788.

Price Waterhouse therefore does not supplant Burdine. Burdine' § burden-shifting approach applies to cases where "either a legitimate or an illegitimate set of considerations led to the challenged decision." Id. at 247, 109 S. Ct. at 1789 (emphasis in original). Price Waterhouse applies only "[w]here a decision was the product of a mixture of legitimate and illegitimate motives" (commonly referred to as "mixed motive" cases). Id. at 247, 109 S. Ct. at 1788.

Plaintiff-appellant urges this Court to hold that the appropriate legal framework for this case is found in Price Waterhouse, presumably because this framework places greater demands on the employer than does the McDonnell Douglas/ Burdine framework. Indeed, as Judge Keeton stated:

Fields, No. 80-1011-K, slip op. at 5.

The District Court found that under either McDonnell Douglas/ Burdine or Price Waterhouse, plaintiff did not clear her first legal hurdle.

Fields, No. 80-1011-K, slip op. at 8 (emphasis in original). Thus, there was no need to determine which standard would dictate defendant's subsequent burden, since the next stage of the battle would not be reached.² 

As a matter of law, the District Court did not err in failing to apply the Price Waterhouse standard. If it is true that plaintiff-appellant did not make out her prima facie case of sex discrimination, then a court cannot require defendant-appellee to do anything to defend its actions. The District Court appropriately refrained from applying the second tier of either McDonnell Douglas or Price Waterhouse analysis to the instant case. Only if the District Court's analysis of the facts of the case was clearly erroneous and the plaintiff did successfully make out a prima facie case of discrimination would the court have committed error by failing to articulate the applicable legal standard. Accordingly, we proceed to evaluate whether the district court's determination that Dr. Fields failed to make out a prima facie case was clearly erroneous.

In order to make out a prima facie case, the plaintiff must show:

See, e.g., Banerjee v. Board of Trustees of Smith College, 648 F.2d 61, 62 (1st Cir. 1981), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 1098, 102 S. Ct. 671, 70 L. Ed. 2d 639 (1981).

The only contested element of plaintiff's prima facie case is the second element--her qualifications. To pass this portion of the prima facie test, plaintiff

Banerjee, 648 F.2d at 63, quoting Banerjee v. Board of Trustees of Smith College, 495 F. Supp. 1148, 1155-56 (D. Mass. 1980).

In concluding that Dr. Fields had not fulfilled the requirements of the second element of her prima facie showing, the court below stated:

Fields, No. 80-1011-K, slip op. at 9-10.

In reviewing a university's tenure decision, neither the trial court nor the appellate court may "simply speculate that [the] plaintiff may have been denied tenure for reasons of [gender].... Inevitably, some tenure decisions ... will be very close.... Courts have no license to resolve such disputes except where there is evidence from which to conclude that an illicit motive was at work." Kumar v. Board of Trustees, Univ. of Mass., 774 F.2d 1, 12 (1st Cir. 1985) (Campbell, C.J., concurring). "[T]enure decisions are by their nature judgmental and subjective. In close cases reasonable people can differ. It is the choice of the university, however, not of the court, that is called for in a faculty member's contract." Id. at 15. Moreover, "[i]n the very complex and nuanced environment of university tenure decisions, a discrimination case with no 'smoking gun' evidence can be excruciatingly close for the district court." Id. at 21 (Coffin, J., dissenting).