Jones v. City of St. Louis, Missouri, No. 15-2283 (8th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff, an African-American man who has diabetes, filed suit against his employer, the City, alleging that it had discriminated against him based on his race and had retaliated against him for filing charges of unlawful discrimination, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq. The district court granted summary judgment to the City. The court concluded that the City did not change plaintiff's conditions following its pretermination investigation, and that plaintiff has not argued that taking medical leave is tantamount to being constructively discharged, nor could he succeed on such an argument on this evidentiary record. Therefore, plaintiff failed to set forth a prima facie case of race discrimination because he has not shown that he suffered an adverse employment action. The court also concluded that plaintiff failed to establish a prima facie case of race discrimination when the City rated his overall performance as unsuccessful because he failed to present evidence sufficient to establish that two Caucasian employees were similarly situated to him. Finally, plaintiff failed to file a separate charge of discrimination with the EEOC regarding his fitness exam and thus this claim fails. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
Court Description: Wollman, Author, with Melloy and Colloton, Circuit Judges] Civil case - Employment discrimination. For the court's prior opinion in the matter, see Jones v. City of St. Louis, Mo. 555 F. App'x 641 (8th Cir. 2014). With respect to Jones' claim that the city discriminated against him when it sought to discharge him and reprimand him for an emergency-call response and by refusing to accept his release to work, thereby causing him emotional distress resulting in depletion of his sick leave, the depletion of his sick leave did not constitute an adverse employment action and he failed to make a prima facie case of racial discrimination; with respect to his claim of race discrimination in performance evaluations, Jones failed to make a prima facie case because the white employees to which he compared his situation were not similarly-situated; Jones failed to file an EEOC complaint regarding the city's requirement that he undergo a fitness exam, and the district court properly dismissed the claim.
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