Plaintiff/Employee in Age Discrimination Lawsuit Failed to Sufficiently Discredit Defendant/Employer’s Nondiscriminatory Reason for Termination of Employee
In the Age Discrimination in Employment Act case of Muhammad vs. Sills, Cummis & Gross, U.S. Dist. Ct. 25-7-5385, the Honorable Jose L. Linares granted the defendant/employer’s motion for summary judgment. Plaintiff Elijah Muhammad was a former employee of defendant law firm Sills, Cummis & Gross. Plaintiff claimed that Sills Cummis terminated his employment and redistributed his duties to employees significantly younger than him in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. Sills Cummis filed a motion for summary judgment. The court found that plaintiff/employee met his initial burden of establishing a prima facie case of age discrimination. Defendant/employee maintained that plaintiff’s employment was terminated because of its economic need to reduce the workforce. Defendant maintained that it made the decision, among other reductions-in-force, to reduce the total number of operations clerks it employed and to consolidate the job functions of those it retrained. The court found that defendant/employer met its burden of articulating a legitimate reason for terminating plaintiff’s employment. Plaintiff failed to sufficiently discredit defendant’s nondiscriminatory reason for his termination.
Reference: Case & Analysis, New Jersey Law Journal 219N.J.L.J.105, (January 12, 2015)
Filed Under: Employment Law; Business Litigation; Age Discrimination
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