Sharilyn Haggenmiller v. ABM Parking Services, Inc. , 837 F.3d 879 ( 2016 )


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  •                  United States Court of Appeals
    For the Eighth Circuit
    ___________________________
    No. 15-3107
    ___________________________
    Sharilyn Haggenmiller
    lllllllllllllllllllll Plaintiff - Appellant
    v.
    ABM Parking Services, Inc.
    lllllllllllllllllllll Defendant - Appellee
    ____________
    Appeal from United States District Court
    for the District of Minnesota - Minneapolis
    ____________
    Submitted: May 17, 2016
    Filed: September 14, 2016
    ____________
    Before RILEY, Chief Judge, COLLOTON and KELLY, Circuit Judges.
    ____________
    RILEY, Chief Judge.
    Sixty-three-year-old Sharilyn Haggenmiller was terminated from her job at
    ABM Parking Services, Inc. (ABM), a parking facility management company that
    operates parking facilities in the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP
    airport). Haggenmiller sued her former employer in Minnesota state court, alleging
    she was unlawfully terminated based on age in violation of the Minnesota Human
    Rights Act, see Minn. Stat. § 363A.08. ABM removed the action, and the district
    court1 granted summary judgment to ABM. Haggenmiller appeals. Having appellate
    jurisdiction, see 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm.
    I.    BACKGROUND
    A.     Facts
    ABM operates parking garages throughout the country. On July 1, 2004, ABM
    entered into the Parking Enterprise Operation Management Services Agreement
    (agreement) with the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC), a Minnesota public
    corporation that owns, operates, and maintains the MSP airport. Under the agreement,
    ABM operated the MSP airport parking facilities, and MAC reimbursed ABM for
    “authorized expenses,” including ABM employee salaries and benefits. Pursuant to
    the agreement, the ABM general manager at the MSP airport was “assigned only to
    and work[ed] exclusively for the MAC at this location” and was to report directly to
    MAC.
    Sharilyn Haggenmiller began working as a human resources administrative
    assistant for the MSP airport facility operated by ABM in August of 2004. The
    approximately ten to twelve ABM office employees at the MSP airport worked in a
    two-story office building near the entrance of general parking in terminal one and
    supported the nearly 100 individuals working in parking operations. After a couple
    years, Haggenmiller started working with the auditing department. Though she kept
    many of her administrative responsibilities, according to Haggenmiller, her primary
    responsibility was auditing. Each week, the auditors received crates full of parking
    tickets that had been removed from cashiers’ boxes in the parking facilities.
    Haggenmiller’s job was to manually check the parking tickets against the cashiers’
    reports and balance the daily total. Haggenmiller then created a report by manually
    entering the information into a computer program called Citrix. Haggenmiller’s other
    1
    The Honorable Richard H. Kyle, United States District Judge for the District
    of Minnesota.
    -2-
    duties involved billing and administrative tasks—including sending bad checks to
    collections, answering the phone, communicating with customers about refunds, and
    maintaining the company bulletin board.2
    During Haggenmiller’s time at ABM, new technology and automation
    eliminated some of her duties. For instance, ABM began (1) using a computer
    program that automatically populated reports Haggenmiller formerly entered
    manually; (2) accepting credit cards at entrance and exit ramps; and (3) operating a
    cash-counting machine, eliminating the need for auditors to count the cash by hand.
    Haggenmiller received positive performance reviews for her work. On her
    December 2012 performance evaluation, she received “Excellent” rankings in the
    categories of dependability, communication, and working with others, and a “Good”
    ranking in job knowledge and skill, quality of work, and work quantity. Delana
    Gerten, Haggenmiller’s supervisor, described her as “helpful, cooperative, reliable and
    courteous.” Gerten wrote, “Our Audit team can count on her, with a smile, to help in
    any task asked of her.” In September 2011, Haggenmiller listed “work until
    retirement” as a short-range goal on her performance review, though she testified she
    did not remember doing so.
    By June 2012, the last renewal term to the agreement between ABM and MAC
    had expired, and they were operating on a month-to-month basis. MAC hired Lumin
    2
    According to Greg Frankhauser, ABM’s general manager at the MSP airport,
    Haggenmiller’s primary responsibility was not auditing, but the data entry that came
    afterward once the auditors had given her the paperwork. Frankhauser stated
    Haggenmiller “did all kinds of miscellaneous [sic], whatever tasks came up.”
    Haggenmiller insists she was an auditor, and says her termination review form which
    listed her job title as “Administrative Assistant” was “[w]rongly titled.”
    -3-
    Advisors (Lumin), an independent auditing and consulting firm, to perform an audit
    of MAC’s “landside operations,” which included the MSP airport parking facilities.
    In the fall of 2012, ABM’s general manager left the company, and Greg
    Frankhauser, who at the time was the general manager of ABM in the St. Louis
    airport, became interim general manager at the MSP airport. In February 2013,
    Frankhauser officially became the general manager. Frankhauser knew Haggenmiller
    from when he worked at the MSP airport as ABM’s assistant general manager from
    2008 through 2011. Frankhauser testified that as general manager he had no part in
    Lumin’s audit, other than being interviewed about his own job duties.
    Lumin created an executive summary of the audit results, dated February 27,
    2013, to present to the MAC finance group. Lumin made several recommendations
    to help MAC “benefit from [new] technology,” including changes to personnel. One
    of Lumin’s recommendations was to eliminate the “Administrative Assistant/Auditor
    position”—Haggenmiller’s position—because new automation systems replaced the
    need to manually enter the audit reporting information. Lumin also found the “new
    payroll system” eliminated the need for the “ABM Payroll and Purchasing position,”
    then occupied by the oldest ABM employee at the MSP airport, 64-year-old Monica
    Martinson. Lumin additionally suggested hiring two roving shift managers, one for
    first shift and one for second, to better address operational and customer needs on the
    parking ramps and throughout the terminals. Lumin recommended having the shift
    managers, instead of auditors, take over the daily cash counts to “reduce[] the number
    of people involved in cash handling and free[] up the Auditors to audit.”
    The final Lumin audit report was presented to the MAC finance group in early
    April 2013. Sometime afterward, Rick Decker, MAC Assistant Manager of Parking,
    and Arlie Johnson, Assistant Airport Director of Landside Operations—the MAC
    officials to whom Frankhauser reported—brought Frankhauser into Johnson’s office
    -4-
    to discuss Lumin’s audit, the implementation of Lumin’s recommended changes, and,
    specifically, the elimination of the payroll and administrative assistant/auditor
    positions. Frankhauser testified he “had no choice” but to accept the changes MAC
    requested. In total, Lumin made 96 recommendations to MAC, and MAC
    implemented them all.
    A few days later, Frankhauser asked Decker if MAC was “firm” on eliminating
    those positions, and Decker responded that they were and “wanted to make sure
    [Frankhauser] enacted all of those changes.” At the time MAC made the
    recommendation, they were unaware of which ABM employees were in the positions.
    When Frankhauser called Decker back to tell him who was in the positions, he asked
    to “confirm [if] there [was] any flux on this” and was told, “no.” Frankhauser then
    requested written documentation so he could process approval of Haggenmiller’s
    termination through ABM’s regional offices. Frankhauser also told Decker at some
    point he would check to see “if there was anything else for [Haggenmiller and
    Martinson], if we had something open.” Decker said that would be fine, as long as
    Frankhauser did not create new positions.
    On April 12, 2013, Decker sent Frankhauser an email requesting that he
    eliminate the audit administrative assistant and accounting clerk, begin searching for
    two new shift managers “as soon as possible,” and look for a third to begin in August
    of that year. Frankhauser testified he began to look for open positions for
    Haggenmiller and Martinson beginning in May. He said he looked for “something
    along the lines of office work, something that they had been accustomed to,” including
    cashier and control room operator positions, but at the time, there was nothing open.
    Frankhauser submitted a Termination Review Form for the elimination of
    Haggenmiller’s position to ABM’s regional human-resources office in Cleveland,
    Ohio, which was approved on May 30, 2013, effective May 31. Under the section
    -5-
    Explain Reason for Termination, the form stated, in part, “As a result of [the Lumin
    audit] we have been instructed by the MAC to eliminate two positions that Lumin
    Advisors felt had no impact on the parking operation,” and that the office was
    “following the request of the MAC and Landside Operations in the elimination of
    these two positions.” The form stated Haggenmiller’s current duties were the “ones
    that no one will specifically absorb,” including “[m]ail distribution, setting out of the
    daily tickets, SR entry, and other tasks [that] are currently ones in which [sic] different
    people do now depending on who recognizes that it needs to be done.”
    On June 3, 2013, Frankhauser and Beth Sandeberg, a human resources manager
    for ABM, met with Haggenmiller in Frankhauser’s office. They explained her job
    was being eliminated due to Lumin’s audit and recommendations. Describing this
    meeting, Haggenmiller testified she was told she “was terminated for business
    reasons. I didn’t really understand. I was pretty upset.” She also said Frankhauser
    told her there would be “a lot more [layoffs] in your auditing department and
    throughout the company so you’re not the only one.” Shortly after, one of the new
    shift managers started.3 The new shift manager was more than 30 years younger than
    Haggenmiller.
    Frankhauser and Sandeberg terminated Martinson the next day. Of all the ABM
    office employees who were working at the MSP airport at the time, Haggenmiller and
    Martinson were the two oldest. On July 15, 2013, Sandeberg sent Haggenmiller an
    email about a job opening for a cash specialist supervisor position at the ABM
    location in downtown Minneapolis, but Haggenmiller testified she did not apply
    because she could not meet the job’s lifting requirement. In addition, the deadline for
    submitting applications for this position had expired.
    3
    Due to budget constraints, ABM’s search for additional shift managers was put
    off until 2014.
    -6-
    B.     Procedural History
    In March 2014, Haggenmiller filed a claim against ABM in the Hennepin
    County District Court. Haggenmiller alleged she was terminated based on age in
    violation of the Minnesota Human Rights Act.4 See Minn. Stat. § 363A.08. ABM
    removed the action to federal court. See 28 U.S.C. §§ 1332(a), 1441(b), and 1446.
    ABM subsequently moved for summary judgment. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 56. The
    district court granted summary judgment to ABM, and Haggenmiller timely appeals.
    II.    DISCUSSION
    “We review de novo a district court’s grant of summary judgment.” Reynolds
    v. RehabCare Grp. E., Inc., 
    591 F.3d 1030
    , 1032 (8th Cir. 2010). The grant of
    summary judgment is appropriate when, viewing the record “in the light most
    favorable to the to the non-moving party,” 
    id. (citation omitted),
    “the movant shows
    that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to
    judgment as a matter of law,” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). While “‘the burden of
    demonstrating the absence of any genuine issue of material fact rests on the movant,
    a nonmovant may not rest upon mere denials or allegations, but must instead set forth
    specific facts sufficient to raise a genuine issue for trial.’” Gibson v. Am. Greetings
    Corp., 
    670 F.3d 844
    , 853 (8th Cir. 2012) (quoting Wingate v. Gage Cty. Sch. Dist.,
    No. 34, 
    528 F.3d 1074
    , 1078-79 (8th Cir. 2008)).
    The parties agree we analyze discrimination claims under the Minnesota Human
    Rights Act under the same framework as claims under the Age Discrimination in
    Employment Act (ADEA), 29 U.S.C. §§ 621-34. See Ramlet v. E.F. Johnson Co.,
    4
    Haggenmiller also alleged (a) ABM retaliated against her for filing a claim for
    workers’ compensation benefits in violation of Minn. Stat. § 176.82; and (b) ABM
    terminated her because of her disability, see Minn. Stat. § 363A.08. The district court
    dismissed these claims in its summary judgment order, and Haggenmiller did not
    appeal their dismissal.
    -7-
    
    507 F.3d 1149
    , 1152 (8th Cir. 2007). “An age discrimination plaintiff may survive
    the defendant’s motion for summary judgment either by setting out direct evidence of
    discrimination or by creating an inference of discrimination under the McDonnell
    Douglas Corp. v. Green burden-shifting framework.” 
    Id. (citation omitted);
    see
    McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 
    411 U.S. 792
    (1973); see also Dietrich v.
    Canadian Pac. Ltd., 
    536 N.W.2d 319
    , 324 (Minn. 1995). Without direct evidence of
    age discrimination, Haggenmiller must establish a prima facie case by demonstrating
    “‘(1) she is a member of a protected group; (2) she was qualified for her position;
    (3) she was discharged; and (4) the discharge occurred under circumstances giving
    rise to an inference of discrimination.’” Doucette v. Morrison County, 
    763 F.3d 978
    ,
    982 (8th Cir. 2014) (quoting Elam v. Regions Fin. Corp., 
    601 F.3d 873
    , 879 (8th Cir.
    2010)).5
    ABM then has the opportunity to “‘articulate a non-discriminatory, legitimate
    justification for its conduct, which rebuts [Haggenmiller’s] prima facie case.’”
    
    Doucette, 763 F.3d at 982
    (quoting 
    Elam, 601 F.3d at 879
    ). “If [ABM] articulates
    such a reason, the burden returns to [Haggenmiller] to show [ABM’s] proffered reason
    is pretextual.” McGinnis v. Union Pac. R.R., 
    496 F.3d 868
    , 873 (8th Cir. 2007).
    Under the Minnesota Human Rights Act, “‘even if an employer has a legitimate
    reason for the [employment decision], a plaintiff may nevertheless prevail if an
    illegitimate reason more likely than not motivated the decision.’” LaPoint v. Family
    Orthodontics, P.A., 
    872 N.W.2d 889
    , 892-93 (Minn. Ct. App. 2015) (alterations in
    original) (omitting internal citation) (quoting McGrath v. TCF Bank Sav., 
    509 N.W.2d 365
    , 366 (Minn. 1993)); cf. 29 U.S.C. § 623(a)(1) (federal age discrimination).
    5
    This standard applies to reduction-in-force (RIF) claims, where, as the district
    court stated, “‘business considerations cause an employer to eliminate one or more
    positions within the company,’” quoting 
    Dietrich, 536 N.W.2d at 324
    .
    -8-
    The district court decided it “need not consider Haggenmiller’s prima facie
    case, because, even assuming she satisfies it,” ABM proffered a legitimate reason for
    her termination based on Lumin’s study and MAC’s instructions to ABM. The district
    court rejected Haggenmiller’s attempts to show ABM’s reason was pretextual,
    concluding “no reasonable jury could conclude” ABM’s “real motivation was age
    discrimination.”
    On appeal, Haggenmiller argues the district court applied the wrong standard
    to her claim by treating it as a failure to transfer claim, which she concedes she did not
    plead. Cf., e.g., Doerhoff v. McDonnell Douglas Corp., 
    171 F.3d 1177
    , 1180-81 (8th
    Cir. 1999) (“Although Doerhoff did not bring a failure to transfer claim . . . we note
    that this does not prevent him from attempting to use MDC’s failure to transfer him
    as evidence that the RIF was a pretext for age discrimination.”). Haggenmiller also
    contends the district court disregarded evidence that sufficiently created an inference
    of age discrimination on the part of ABM.
    Haggenmiller does not challenge ABM’s proffered reason for her
    termination—that MAC directed Frankhauser to eliminate her position due to Lumin’s
    audit. Rather, she argues ABM was not required to terminate her, just eliminate her
    position. Haggenmiller claims that one of the reasons ABM used to justify her
    termination was that there were no other open positions throughout the ABM
    enterprise, which she argues was false and demonstrates pretext. See, e.g., Reeves v.
    Sanderson Plumbing Prods., Inc., 
    530 U.S. 133
    , 147 (2000) (“In appropriate
    circumstances, the trier of fact can reasonably infer from the falsity of the explanation
    that the employer is dissembling to cover up a discriminatory purpose.”); Betz v.
    Chertoff, 
    578 F.3d 929
    , 933 (8th Cir. 2009) (“We agree that an employer’s false
    explanation may support—though it does not require—an inference of
    discrimination.”); Loeb v. Best Buy Co., 
    537 F.3d 867
    , 873 (8th Cir. 2008) (“The
    falsity of a nondiscriminatory basis for the employment action may also support a
    -9-
    finding of pretext.”). ABM contends Haggenmiller “was clearly terminated solely
    because of the audit, and incidentally, there were no positions for her to work in
    ABM’s MSP office at the time her position was eliminated.”
    Although Frankhauser was under no obligation to find alternative employment
    for Haggenmiller, cf. 
    Doerhoff, 171 F.3d at 1180
    n.5, he asked Decker if he could
    look for open positions for Haggenmiller and, after having received the direct order
    to eliminate Haggenmiller’s position, went back to make sure MAC was “firm” on its
    decision to eliminate her position. Frankhauser then looked for all “potentially open”
    jobs, including ABM positions in the MSP airport, other ABM facilities, and part-time
    jobs. Frankhauser went so far as to continue to look for jobs for Haggenmiller after
    her termination.6 When asked why he would look for open jobs for Haggenmiller and
    Martinson, Frankhauser explained there was “no reason not to have folks around that,
    you know, that have the ability to do what they’re doing,” but ABM “didn’t have
    anything” open. Haggenmiller testified that during her termination meeting, she was
    told there were no jobs available. Haggenmiller also points out that in the section
    “Explain Reason for Termination,” Martinson’s termination review form—but not
    hers—stated, “A search both in parking and within the ABM enterprise and [sic]
    found no other available positions for which they [sic].”
    6
    Once Frankhauser learned Haggenmiller hired an attorney, Frankhauser
    testified his job search for her came “to a screeching halt.” Haggenmiller likens his
    reaction to Smith v. URS Corp., 
    803 F.3d 964
    , 971 (8th Cir. 2015), where we stated
    a manager’s “seemingly defensive reaction” to allegations of discrimination could
    support a jury’s finding of the defendant’s “desire to hide an impermissible motive.”
    However, in Smith, this was only part of the evidence the plaintiff presented which
    we found, when taken together, sufficient to support an inference of racial
    discrimination. See 
    id. at 970-72.
    Furthermore, in Smith, the manager in question had
    falsely denied his involvement in an employee-ranking process, and the defendant
    never contested that allegation. 
    Id. at 971-72.
    -10-
    Haggenmiller alleges there were jobs open within the ABM enterprise in the
    area, including an entry-level human resources administrative position at another
    ABM location. ABM admits there were possibly jobs open in the downtown ABM
    location and a janitorial position and some part-time union positions, which require
    seniority preferences, at the MSP airport, but maintains the availability of open
    positions was never provided as one of the reasons for Haggenmiller’s termination.
    When asked about the entry-level position, Frankhauser testified he did not pass it on
    to Haggenmiller and Martinson because he “would never have sent two people
    [Haggenmiller and Martinson] for one job. That’s not right.”
    Haggenmiller claims Frankhauser’s failure to consider her for one of the shift
    manager positions Lumin recommended creating “provides persuasive evidence that
    ABM was not looking for open positions as it claimed to be.” Though a new shift
    manager started around the same time Haggenmiller was terminated, Frankhauser said
    ABM had begun the process of interviewing for those positions in March, and
    Frankhauser “did not consider [Haggenmiller and Martinson] for that because [ABM]
    had started the [interviewing] process.” Haggenmiller disputes the timeline, arguing
    Frankhauser could not have had approval to begin the search for new shift managers
    until he received Decker’s email on April 12. According to Frankhauser, however,
    he did not begin looking for open positions for Haggenmiller and Martinson until
    early May. Haggenmiller argues a jury would find Frankhauser’s reasons for not
    considering her for the shift manager position “deficient” and “simply not true.” To
    defeat summary judgment, Haggenmiller “‘must present affirmative evidence,’ not
    simply contend that a jury might disbelieve [ABM’s] evidence.” Walton v.
    McDonnell Douglas Corp., 
    167 F.3d 423
    , 428 (8th Cir. 1999) (quoting Anderson v.
    Liberty Lobby, Inc., 
    477 U.S. 242
    , 257 (1986)); cf. 
    Reeves, 530 U.S. at 148
    (“[A]n
    employer would be entitled to judgment as a matter of law if the record conclusively
    revealed some other, nondiscriminatory reason for the employer’s decision, or if the
    plaintiff created only a weak issue of fact as to whether the employer’s reason was
    -11-
    untrue and there was abundant and uncontroverted independent evidence that no
    discrimination had occurred.”).
    Applying the summary judgment standard, even if Haggenmiller has at least
    created a weak issue of material fact as to whether there were open jobs at the time she
    was terminated, she nonetheless readily concedes the alleged lack of other available
    positions at ABM cannot reasonably be considered ABM’s sole justification for her
    termination. Haggenmiller admitted she was told she was being fired “for business
    reasons,” and that reasoning was clearly indicated on her termination review form.
    Ultimately, the record does not support, and we think it unreasonable to surmise, that
    ABM insinuated the lack of other available positions was in part why Haggenmiller
    was terminated. Cf. 
    Reeves, 530 U.S. at 148
    (citing Furnco Const. Corp. v. Waters,
    
    438 U.S. 567
    , 577 (1978) (“[W]hen all legitimate reasons for rejecting an applicant
    have been eliminated as possible reasons for the employer’s actions, it is more likely
    than not the employer, who we generally assume acts only with some reason, based
    his decision on an impermissible consideration.” (emphasis added))); Taylor v. QHG
    of Springdale, Inc., 
    218 F.3d 898
    , 900-01 (8th Cir. 2000) (reasoning only where the
    claimant has “produced sufficient evidence to reject the [employer’s] legitimate
    explanation” would “additional independent evidence of discrimination” be
    unnecessary to “defeat summary judgment”); see also 
    Doerhoff, 171 F.3d at 1181
    .
    Haggenmiller maintains she presented sufficient evidence to support an
    inference of age discrimination. To show ABM’s age bias, Haggenmiller offered two
    age-related statements she argues the district court ignored. First, during her
    deposition, Sandeberg admitted that it had “cross[ed] [her] mind” that by terminating
    Haggenmiller and Martinson, ABM was terminating its two oldest employees at the
    MSP airport. We agree with the district court’s conclusion that Sandeberg’s statement
    was not indicative of age discrimination. See Bashara v. Black Hills Corp., 
    26 F.3d 820
    , 824 (8th Cir. 1994) (explaining such “concern . . . should be regarded as a natural
    -12-
    reaction to the ever-present threat of litigation attendant upon terminating an age-
    protected employee”).
    Second, Haggenmiller wants us to consider a statement Frankhauser made to
    Martinson that the district court apparently failed to address. According to Martinson,
    in early 2013, she asked Frankhauser why some of her job responsibilities were being
    taken away, and Frankhauser told her she would “never have to worry about [her]
    job,” but later told her she should consider retirement, during the time period when he
    was allegedly looking for other jobs for Haggenmiller and Martinson.7 Haggenmiller
    testified she knew about the statements, but was not present during either conversation
    and could not recall whether Frankhauser had ever made comments to any ABM
    employee in the MSP airport about retirement. Reasonable inquires into retirement
    are “not inherently discriminatory,” 
    Doucette, 763 F.3d at 986
    , and we are
    unpersuaded that this remark demonstrates Frankhauser harbored age-related bias.
    See also 
    Betz, 578 F.3d at 933-34
    ; Cox v. Dubuque Bank & Trust Co., 
    163 F.3d 492
    ,
    497 (8th Cir. 1998) (recognizing employers may make “reasonable” inquiries about
    employees’ retirement plans so long as they are not “unnecessary and excessive . . .
    [so] as to constitute evidence of discriminatory harassment”). But cf. Fisher v.
    Pharmacia & Upjohn, 
    225 F.3d 915
    , 923 (8th Cir. 2000) (recognizing some “[s]tray
    remarks” relating to age may be relevant circumstantial evidence of age
    discrimination).
    Haggenmiller argues the district court misapplied the summary judgment
    standard by not making inferences in her favor. Specifically, she takes issue with the
    7
    Martinson filed her own claim for age discrimination against ABM that
    survived summary judgment. See Martinson v. ABM Parking Servs., Inc., No. 14-
    CV-0870, 
    2015 WL 4771574
    , at *2 (D. Minn. Aug. 13, 2015). Haggenmiller
    submitted excerpts from Martinson’s deposition as one of her exhibits to her
    memorandum in opposition to summary judgment.
    -13-
    district court’s opinion that Haggenmiller’s positive performance reviews “suggested
    ABM regretted firing her and only did so because of the Lumin study”; instead,
    Haggenmiller suggests her performance reviews support her theory that ABM’s
    decision to eliminate her was not “automatic, inevitable, or immediate.” While
    Frankhauser’s testimony may support either finding, it is imperative at this stage that
    the district court make all reasonable inferences in Haggenmiller’s favor and not
    weigh the evidence. See, e.g., 
    Reeves, 530 U.S. at 150
    . At the same time, we disagree
    with the notion that even though Haggenmiller’s position was eliminated, losing her
    job in the wake of the Lumin audit was not inevitable. And ABM was not obligated
    to find an open position for her.
    Haggenmiller also asserts the district court erred by not considering the
    significance of the fact that she and Martinson were the oldest ABM employees at the
    MSP airport and were both terminated. Haggenmiller points to the district court’s
    statement that “nearly everybody was around the same age as Haggenmiller,” because
    nine of the ten ABM employees in the MSP airport were over 40, and eight were over
    50 years old. Neither of these facts alone supports a conclusion one way or another
    that ABM discriminated on the basis of age, and we are unconvinced the district court
    considered the ages of everyone in the office as conclusive proof that ABM did not
    discriminate. See 
    Reeves, 530 U.S. at 153
    .
    Finally, for the first time, Haggenmiller alleges ABM failed to disclose “the
    role it played in the selection of Haggenmiller and Martinson’s positions for
    elimination” and falsely “insisted that it had no influence or impact on Lumin’s
    recommendation to eliminate Haggenmiller’s position.” Because Haggenmiller did
    not present this argument before the district court, we do not consider it here. See
    Eagle Tech. v. Expander Americas, Inc., 
    783 F.3d 1131
    , 1138 (8th Cir. 2015).
    -14-
    III.   CONCLUSION
    Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to Haggenmiller, the district
    court did not err in granting summary judgment to ABM. Haggenmiller did not meet
    her burden of establishing a genuine issue of material fact that ABM’s proffered
    legitimate reason for her termination was pretext for age discrimination. See 
    Dietrich, 536 N.W.2d at 325-26
    . We affirm.
    ______________________________
    -15-
    

Document Info

Docket Number: 15-3107

Citation Numbers: 837 F.3d 879, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 16787, 129 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 893, 2016 WL 4791860

Judges: Riley, Colloton, Kelly

Filed Date: 9/14/2016

Precedential Status: Precedential

Modified Date: 11/5/2024

Authorities (19)

Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc. , 120 S. Ct. 2097 ( 2000 )

daniela-taylor-v-qhg-of-springdale-inc-successor-to-northwest-health , 218 F.3d 898 ( 2000 )

George BASHARA, Appellant, v. BLACK HILLS CORPORATION, ... , 26 F.3d 820 ( 1994 )

McGrath v. TCF BANK SAV., FSB , 1993 Minn. LEXIS 796 ( 1993 )

Holly COX, Appellee, v. DUBUQUE BANK & TRUST COMPANY, ... , 163 F.3d 492 ( 1998 )

Dietrich v. Canadian Pacific Ltd. , 1995 Minn. LEXIS 700 ( 1995 )

Marvin L. Fisher v. Pharmacia & Upjohn , 225 F.3d 915 ( 2000 )

Carl W. Walton v. McDonnell Douglas Corporation , 167 F.3d 423 ( 1999 )

Wingate v. Gage County School Dist., No. 34 , 528 F.3d 1074 ( 2008 )

Robert W. DOERHOFF, Appellant, v. McDONNELL DOUGLAS ... , 171 F.3d 1177 ( 1999 )

Ramlet v. E.F. Johnson Co. , 507 F.3d 1149 ( 2007 )

Reynolds v. RehabCare Group East, Inc. , 591 F.3d 1030 ( 2010 )

McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green , 93 S. Ct. 1817 ( 1973 )

Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. , 106 S. Ct. 2505 ( 1986 )

Betz v. Chertoff , 578 F.3d 929 ( 2009 )

Gibson v. American Greetings Corp. , 670 F.3d 844 ( 2012 )

Loeb v. Best Buy Co., Inc. , 537 F.3d 867 ( 2008 )

McGinnis v. Union Pacific Railroad , 496 F.3d 868 ( 2007 )

Elam v. Regions Financial Corp. , 601 F.3d 873 ( 2010 )

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