Title VII Claim – Sufficiency of Evidence

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Mark Skiba v. Illinois Central Railroad Company

Case No.: 17-2002

Officials: FLAUM, SYKES, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Title VII Claim – Sufficiency of Evidence

Plaintiff‐appellant Mark Skiba alleges his former employer, defendant‐appellee Illinois Central Railroad (“IC”), unlawfully discriminated against him on the basis of age and national origin, as well as retaliated against him for complaining about a superior, in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA”), 29 U.S.C. §§ 621–34, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”), 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e–2000e‐17. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of IC. Plaintiff now appeals. We

affirm.

Plaintiff claims that in granting summary judgment, the district court merely “view[ed] the evidence as unconnected fragments” and “fail[ed] to consider the evidence as a whole.” As such, the evidence presented below does not permit a reasonable factfinder to conclude plaintiff’s age caused the adverse employment actions at issue here. Turning briefly to plaintiff’s Title VII discrimination claim, we agree with the district court that there is no evidence that IC’s actions were taken because of plaintiff’s national origin. Plaintiff seemingly recognizes this fact as well; his fifty‐three-page brief devotes only one page to his Title VII claim.

Affirmed

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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.