Employment — discrimination

Listen to this article

United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Civil

Employment — discrimination

Where an employee produced no evidence that similarly situated employees were treated differently, summary judgment was properly granted to the employer on her discrimination claim.

“Even considering Ms. Johnson’s nonhearsay interrogatory answers, she nevertheless failed to provide sufficient evidence of a similarly situated employee. Ms. Johnson has not produced facts demonstrating that Bithos or the men in the file room shared a similar record of misconduct, performance, qualifications or disciplining supervisors such that their different treatment reflects a discriminatory intent on the part of the DOJ. See Harris v. Warrick Cnty. Sheriff’s Dep’t, 666 F.3d 444, 449 (7th Cir. 2012) (holding that the plaintiff failed to identify a similarly situated employee because his comparators had not ‘violated standard operating procedures, disobeyed direct orders, or show[n] a lack of commitment to the job during their probationary periods’ as the plaintiff had). For instance, Ms. Johnson does not contend that either Bithos or the men in the file room made inappropriate comments to coworkers. Nor does she suggest that Bithos or the file-room men shared her job description or supervisor. ‘[W]hen uneven discipline is the basis for a claim of discrimination, the most-relevant similarities are those between the employees’ alleged misconduct, performance standards, and disciplining supervisor.’ Rodgers v. White, 657 F.3d 511, 518 (7th Cir. 2011). Bithos was a supervisor, not a legal assistant like Ms. Johnson, and the record is silent on the file-room men beyond stating their race and sex. The record contains no information with respect to any of the other individuals.”

Affirmed.

12-1703 Johnson v. Holder

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Hibbler, J., Ripple, J.