Mosby v. Bd. of Education City of Norwalk ( 2018 )

17-3359-cv
Mosby v. Bd. of Education City of Norwalk
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT
SUMMARY ORDER
Rulings by summary order do not have precedential effect. Citation to a summary order filed
on or after January 1, 2007, is permitted and is governed by Federal Rule of Appellate
Procedure 32.1 and this court’s Local Rule 32.1.1. When citing a summary order in a
document filed with this court, a party must cite either the Federal Appendix or an electronic
database (with the notation “summary order”). A party citing a summary order must serve
a copy of it on any party not represented by counsel.
At a stated term of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, held at the
Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, 40 Foley Square, in the City of New York, on the
1st day of November, two thousand eighteen.
PRESENT:
ROBERT A. KATZMANN,
Chief Judge,
AMALYA L. KEARSE,
DENNY CHIN,
Circuit Judges.
_____________________________________
Alvin Mosby,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v. 17-3359
Board of Education City of Norwalk,
Defendant-Appellee.
_____________________________________
FOR PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT: JEFFREY BENJAMIN, Kupillas, Unger &
Benjamin, LLP, New York, NY, argued
orally for Alvin Mosby, Norwalk, CT, who
filed a brief pro se.
FOR DEFENDANT-APPELLEE: M. JEFFRY SPAHR, Office of Corporation
Counsel, City of Norwalk, Norwalk, CT.
Appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the District of
Connecticut (Meyer, J.).
UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND
DECREED that the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.
Appellant Alvin Mosby, proceeding pro se, sued the Board of Education of the City of
Norwalk (the “Board”) for racial discrimination and retaliation under Title VII of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964. He alleged that a 2013 Collective Bargaining Agreement (“CBA”) between
the Board and his union that changed retirees’ medical benefits produced a disparate impact on
African-American employees as compared to retired white employees. He also alleged that, in
retaliation for his discrimination complaints with outside agencies, the Board leaked his personal
information to the press. We assume the parties= familiarity with the underlying facts, the
procedural history of the case, and the issues on appeal.
We review a grant of summary judgment de novo, “resolv[ing] all ambiguities and
draw[ing] all inferences against the moving party.” Garcia v. Hartford Police Dep’t, 706 F.3d
120, 127 (2d Cir. 2013) (per curiam). “Summary judgment is proper only when, construing the
evidence in the light most favorable to the non-movant, ‘there is no genuine dispute as to any
material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.’” Doninger v. Niehoff,
642 F.3d 334, 344 (2d Cir. 2011) (quoting Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a)). Disparate impact claims require
a three-part analysis that involves shifting evidentiary burdens. See Gulino v. N.Y. State Educ.
Dep’t, 460 F.3d 361, 382 (2d Cir. 2006). Once a plaintiff has borne his initial burden of
establishing a prima facie showing of disparate impact by identifying the employment practice
that is allegedly responsible for the disparities, the defendant may rebut that prima facie case by
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indicating, inter alia, that the challenged employment practice is consistent with business
necessity. Id. If the defendant successfully meets that burden, the plaintiff can prevail only by
showing that other provisions, which would not cause “a similarly undesirable racial effect,”
would serve the defendant’s legitimate business interests. Id. (citation omitted).
The district court properly granted summary judgment to the Board on Mosby’s disparate
impact claim. Having held that Mosby alleged a prima facie case, the court ruled that the Board’s
explanation—that the changes to retiree medical benefits in the 2013 CBA were imposed as a
cost-saving measure—was consistent with a valid business necessity. See id.; Ste. Marie v.
Eastern R. Ass’n, 650 F.2d 395, 399 (2d Cir. 1981) (explaining that the shifted burden to
establish business necessity requires an employer simply “to articulate some legitimate,
nondiscriminatory reason” (internal quotation marks omitted)). Because the Board satisfied its
burden, Mosby was required to point to the availability of an alternative practice that would
satisfy the Board’s business justification without producing a disparate effect. See Gulino, 460
F.3d at 382. Although Mosby successfully moved for an extension of time to respond to the
Board’s motion for summary judgment, he did not request additional time to gather evidence
after the extension was granted. A review of the record before the district court demonstrates that
Mosby failed to submit any evidence of an alternative method of providing retirees’ medical
insurance benefits that would satisfy the Board’s proffered business necessity rationale without
producing a disparate impact. Accordingly, summary judgment on Mosby’s disparate impact
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claim was properly granted because he did not meet his burden under the Title VII burden-
shifting framework. See id.1
Similarly, we conclude that the district court properly granted summary judgment as to
Mosby’s retaliation claim. To state a retaliation claim, “a plaintiff must show that a reasonable
employee would have found the challenged action materially adverse, which in this context
means it well might have dissuaded a reasonable worker from making or supporting a charge of
discrimination.” Burlington N. & Santa Fe Ry. Co. v. White, 548 U.S. 53, 68 (2006) (internal
quotation marks omitted). No reasonable jury would find that the Board engaged in a materially
adverse action, as there was no evidence in the record to support Mosby’s claim that the Board
leaked his personal information to the press. Accordingly, we affirm the grant of summary
judgment on this claim for substantially the same reasons stated by the district court.
To the extent Mosby argues on appeal that the district court ignored arguments in support
of retaliation claims that he attempted to raise in an amended retaliation complaint, this argument
fails because that complaint was stricken and therefore was not part of the record before the
district court. See, e.g., United States v. Apple Inc., 787 F.3d 131, 139 n.3 (2d Cir. 2015)
(declining to consider evidence not before the district court); Int’l Bus. Machs. Corp. v.
Edelstein, 526 F.2d 37, 45 (2d Cir. 1975) (pointing out that federal appellate courts will
generally not consider rulings or evidence that are not part of the trial record).
1
On appeal, Mosby does not challenge the district court’s alternative holding that the 2013 CBA
provisions at issue were part of a “bona fide seniority system” justified under Title VII, which provides an
independent and adequate basis to affirm the district court. See JP Morgan Chase Bank v. Altos Hornos de Mexico,
S.A. de C.V., 412 F.3d 418, 428 (2d Cir. 2005).
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Likewise, to the extent that Mosby seeks to pursue retaliation claims that were not part of
his original complaint—i.e., that he was subjected to a retaliatory transfer and an offensive
remark—the district court properly refused to entertain such arguments because Mosby neither
asserted those claims in a proper amended pleading nor moved for leave to file an amended
complaint that would raise them or augment his existing claim. Instead, Mosby first raised these
new claims in his opposition to the Board’s motion for summary judgment. The district court did
not err in declining to consider these claims on the ground that their assertion was unduly
belated. See, e.g., Greenidge v. Allstate Ins. Co., 446 F.3d 356, 361 (2d Cir. 2006); Yercon v.
Henry, 91 F.3d 370, 378 (2d Cir. 1996). And while leave to amend should be freely granted, it is
not an abuse of discretion, see, e.g., Williams v. Citigroup Inc., 659 F.3d 208, 212 (2d Cir. 2011),
for the court not to grant such leave in the absence of a request, see, e.g., Cruz v.
FXDirectDealer, LLC, 720 F.3d 115, 126 (2d Cir. 2013); Greenidge, 446 F.3d at 361.
We have considered all of Mosby’s remaining arguments and find them to be without
merit. Accordingly, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.
FOR THE COURT:
Catherine O=Hagan Wolfe, Clerk of Court
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