Moody v. Vozel, No. 13-3772 (8th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff, a Caucasian male, filed suit after being terminated from the AHTD, alleging race and gender discrimination and violations of various statutory and constitutional rights. Because plaintiff has not provided analysis or development of his briefs, he has waived some of his claims. The court concluded that the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying plaintiff leave to amend because amendment would be futile; plaintiff failed to present direct evidence of discrimination where, at most, plaintiff's evidence showed discord with his female subordinates, not that any discriminatory animus motivated his termination by the decisionmakers; and, under the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting framework, plaintiff's claims of race and gender discrimination fail where, even if plaintiff made a prima facie showing, AHTD offered a legitimate, non-discriminatory justification for his termination - his violation of the sexual harassment policy. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court.
Court Description: Civil case - Employment discrimination. Challenges to district court's ruling dismissing plaintiff's official capacity, civil conspiracy, retaliation and constitutional claims were either waived, because the brief failed to develop them, or were meritless; plaintiff failed to produce direct evidence of race discrimination and his claim was properly analyzed under the McDonnell Douglas framework; assuming plaintiff made a prima facie case of race discrimination under McDonnell Douglas, the defendant offered a legitimate, non-discriminatory basis for his termination (violation of the Highway Department's policies on sexual harassment), which plaintiff failed to show was a pretext for race discrimination.
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