ADEA -- 2000



Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products Inc.   (U.S. Supreme Court)

Burden of proof in ADEA cases

In an important employment decision, a unanimous Supreme Court resolved a split among the circuits on 6/12/00 in ruling that a plaintiff's prima facie case of discrimination, combined with sufficient evidence for a reasonable factfinder to reject the employer's nondiscriminatory explanation for its decision, may be adequate to sustain a finding of liability for intentional discrimination. The plaintiff is not always required to introduce additional, independent evidence of discrimination because the trier of fact may infer the ultimate fact of discrimination from the falsity of the employer's explanation. When considering a motion for judgment as a matter of law, the court must review all of the evidence in the record, drawing all reasonable inferences in favor of the nonmoving party, without making credibility determinations or weighing the evidence. Under the particular circumstances of this ADEA (Age Discrimination in Employment Act) case, the Supreme Court held that the employer was not entitled to judgment as a matter of law.