In Lowe v. Walbro, LLC (6th Cir. 19-2386, 8/26/2020), the Sixth Circuit reversed the district court’s summary judgment for the employer against Lowe’s Michigan state-law age discrimination claims. Plaintiff Lowe worked as an area manager for the employer. He was 60 and had worked for the employer for 40 years. In 2016, the employer hired another manager, Davidson, who was 35. Davidson removed responsibilities from Lowe until he was only supervising 2 employees. Another manager then decided to eliminate Lowe’s position as unnecessary given his limited responsibility. Lowe presented evidence that Davidson told him in his termination meeting that he was “getting up there in years” and was “at retirement age.” The district court concluded the comments were not direct evidence of discrimination and granted the employer summary judgment. The Sixth Circuit reversed, holding it had “no difficulty” concluding Davidson’s comments constituted direct evidence of discrimination, and further that triable issues existed as to whether the employer would have terminated Lowe for performance problems notwithstanding any age-related animus.
Archives
- January 2021
- December 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- February 2018
- September 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
Categories
Recent Posts
- “Hire Younger Tellers” – No Direct Evidence of Age Bias in Sixth Circuit
- No Appellate Jurisdiction for Review of Motion to Dismiss under FAA
- Sixth Circuit Finds District Court Misapplied Diversity Jurisdiction under FAA
- Sixth Circuit Upholds Discharge of Employee for Racial Slurs on Facebook
- Fifth Circuit Compels Arbitration Under Whistleblower Statute for Federal Contractors