Argued: September 19, 2000
Appeal from judgment of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (Gerard L. Goettel, Judge dismissing plaintiff’s age and sex discrimination claims on summary judgment. Affirmed in part, reversed in part.
Plaintiff Robert F. Byrnie appeals from a judgment of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, Gerard L. Goettel, Judge, dismissing his complaint alleging defendants Town of Cromwell Public Schools and Cromwell Board of Education (“Cromwell”) failed to hire him for a part time teaching position as an art teacher on the basis of his age, in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (“ADEA”), 29 U.S.C. � 621 et seq., and on the basis of his gender, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. � 2000e et seq. and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, as amended, 20 U.S.C. � 1681 et seq. The district court dismissed Byrnie’s disparate treatment claims under both statutes on summary judgment on the grounds that Byrnie had failed to produce sufficient evidence to show that Cromwell’s nondiscriminatory reason for hiring another candidate was pretext. The district court also dismissed Byrnie’s disparate impact claims under both statutes on summary judgment because the statistical evidence offered by Byrnie of gender and age discrimination was insufficiently linked to any identifiable hiring practice or policy. On appeal, Byrnie contends summary judgment was inappropriate on his disparate treatment claims because unlawful discrimination could be inferred from a number of circumstances, including: the objective superiority of his paper credentials in comparison with the chosen candidate’s; the vague and conclusory nature of Cromwell’s business reason; and the destruction of documents made in connection with the hiring process. Byrnie also contends that summary judgment was inappropriate on his age-related disparate impact claim because he could allege a specific employment practice as the cause of statistical evidence indicating an age imbalance in Cromwell’s teaching hires. Summary judgment on his gender-related disparate impact claim was inappropriate, Byrnie argues, because he was prevented from alleging a cause for the statistical evidence showing gender imbalance among Cromwell’s teachers due to Cromwell’s destruction of documents. For the reasons below, we affirm the district court’s dismissal of Byrnie’s disparate impact claims but reverse with regard to Byrnie’s disparate treatment claims.
