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Sufficiency of Evidence

By: Derek Hawkins//August 22, 2017//

Sufficiency of Evidence

By: Derek Hawkins//August 22, 2017//

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7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Clayton Owens v. Chicago Board of Education

Case No.: 16-3607

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and BAUER and EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judges

Focus: Sufficiency of Evidence

Owens contends that Miller discriminated against him because of his age (61 at the time) and his first suit. The district court granted summary judgment to the Board. 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 119772 (N.D. Ill. Sept. 6, 2016). The claim of age discrimination failed, the court concluded, because no other older employee had fared poorly in Miller’s evaluations and because she had legitimate reasons to downrate Owens. A sheaf of documentary evidence shows that he dealt slowly, if at all, with serious problems such as the lack of hot water in the lavatories.

We agree with the district court that the record would not permit a reasonable trier of fact to conclude that Owens’s age influenced his “unsatisfactory” rating. See Ortiz v. Werner Enterprises, Inc., 834 F.3d 760 (7th Cir. 2016) (discussing the standards for the resolution of employment-discrimination claims). The judgment is affirmed to the extent it dismisses Owens’s age-discrimination claim but otherwise is reversed, and the case is remanded for trial.

Affirmed in part. Reversed and Remanded in part.

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.

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