Schaffhauser v. United Parcel Serv., Inc., No. 14-1279 (8th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseInitially hired in 1987, Schaffhauser worked as a Plant Engineering Manager from 2007-2012. He received training on UPS’s anti-harassment, anti-discrimination, and ADA policies. The company prohibits unprofessional and discourteous actions, even if those actions do not constitute unlawful harassment. In 2012, Schaffhauser was at work chatting with Sharkey, Goodwin, and Williams (all African-Americans). Goodwin said, “I wish Rodney Barefield would take a swing at me and I would knock that motherf**r out.” Schaffhauser commented, “If he ever hit me, I would hit him back so hard it’d knock the black off him.” He admits making the comment, that it could be racist, and that it was a mistake, but claims he was just joking and did not intend it to be racist. In his report to human resources, Schaffhauser claimed that his medical condition was a “contributing factor in [his] poor choice of words.” Schaffhauser was demoted from manager to supervisor. Schaffhauser sued UPS, alleging reverse race discrimination and failure to accommodate a disability (he had received a steroid shot). The district court granted summary judgment to UPS. The Eighth Circuit affirmed. Schaffhauser did not request accommodation or inform UPS of the relevant details of his disability. UPS had a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for its action
Court Description: Benton, Author, with Gruender and Melloy, Circuit Judges] Civil case - Employment Discrimination. Plaintiff failed to produce any direct evidence that he was demoted based on race discrimination; applying the McDonnell Douglas analysis, assuming plaintiff made a prima facie case, UPS established a legitimate, non-discriminatory ground for the demotion (violation of UPS's Professional Conduct and Anti-Harassment Policy), which plaintiff failed to show was a pretext for race discrimination; assuming plaintiff made a prima facie case of discrimination based on his disability, he failed to show he ever requested a formal accommodation or that UPS was aware of his medical condition before the misconduct which served as the basis for his demotion.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.