Lisa Hartman v. University of Maryland

Filing

UNPUBLISHED PER CURIAM OPINION filed. Originating case number: 1:10-cv-02041-JFM Copies to all parties and the district court/agency. [999491067]. [14-1229]

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UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 14-1229

LISA L. HARTMAN,
Plaintiff – Appellant,
v.
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND AT BALTIMORE,
Defendant - Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
Maryland, at Baltimore.
J. Frederick Motz, Senior District
Judge. (1:10-cv-02041-JFM)

Submitted:

October 31, 2014

Decided:

December 11, 2014

Before KEENAN, DIAZ, and FLOYD, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

John H. Morris, Jr., Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellant.
Douglas F. Gansler, Attorney General of Maryland, Paul D.
Raschke, Assistant Attorney General, Baltimore, Maryland, for
Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

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PER CURIAM:
Lisa

L.

Hartman

appeals

from

the

district

court’s

grant of summary judgment exercising supplemental jurisdiction
and denying Hartman’s state-law-based age discrimination claim
and

other

claims,

including

a

separate

claim

of

age

discrimination under the Age Discrimination and Employment Act
(ADEA).

Hartman

discretion

in

argues

that

exercising

the

district

supplemental

court

abused

jurisdiction

its

over

her

state law age discrimination claim, made under the Maryland Fair
Employment

Practices

Act,

Md.

Code

Ann.,

State

Gov’t

§

20-

606(a)(1)(i) (FEPA).

She contends also that in considering her

claim,

court

the

district

did

not

ascertain

the

Maryland state law and apply it to her claim.

applicable
She further

asserts that she presented sufficient evidence for her state
claim to survive summary judgment.

Finding no error, we affirm.

We review a district court’s grant of summary judgment
de novo, viewing the facts and drawing reasonable inferences in
the light most favorable to the nonmoving party.

Halpern v.

Wake Forest Univ. Health Scis., 669 F.3d 454, 460 (4th Cir.
2012).
genuine

Summary
dispute

judgment
as

to

any

is

appropriate

material

fact

entitled to judgment as a matter of law.”
56(a).

when
and

“there
the

is

no

movant

is

Fed. R. Civ. P.

“At the summary judgment stage, facts must be viewed in

the light most favorable to the nonmoving party only if there is
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a genuine dispute as to those facts.”

Scott v. Harris, 550 U.S.

372, 380 (2007) (internal quotation marks omitted).

A district

court should grant summary judgment unless a reasonable jury
could return a verdict for the nonmoving party on the evidence
presented.
(1986).
nor

Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. 477 U.S. 242, 249

“Conclusory or speculative allegations do not suffice,

does

a

mere

scintilla

nonmoving party’s] case.”
312

F.3d

645,

649

(4th

of

evidence

in

support

of

[the

Thompson v. Potomac Elec. Power Co.,
Cir.

2002)

(internal

quotation

marks

omitted).
The

district

court

properly

exercised

jurisdiction

over the state law claim pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1367 (2012),
which provides that district courts may exercise supplemental
jurisdiction

over

state

law

claims

that

“are

so

related

to

claims in the action within such original jurisdiction that they
form part of the same case or controversy under Article III of
the United States Constitution.”

28 U.S.C. § 1367(a).

The

state and federal claims “must derive from a common nucleus of
operative fact. . . . [I]f the plaintiff’s claims are such that
he would ordinarily be expected to try them all in one judicial
proceeding, then . . . there is power in federal courts to hear
the whole.”
Inc.,

145

Axel Johnson, Inc. v. Carroll Carolina Oil Co.,

F.3d

marks omitted).

660,

662

(4th

Cir.

1998)

(internal

quotation

Hartman contends that the district court abused
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its discretion in exercising jurisdiction over the FEPA claim
because the standard of what is required to support a claim for
age-related discrimination under FEPA is not the same as under
the ADEA, and the district court treated the claims as the same.
Hartman

contends

that

under

Maryland

law,

the

court

could

theoretically decide to apply the mixed-motive approach, which a
federal court is not permitted to consider in an ADEA claim.
See Gross v. FBL Fin. Servs., Inc., 557 U.S. 167, 173-74 (2009).
The

district

court’s

exercise

of

discretion

as

to

whether to remand a case to state court involves consideration
of “principles of economy, fairness, convenience and comity.”
Carnegie-Mellon v. Cohill, 484 U.S. 343, 357 (1988).

Here, the

federal and state claims were the subject of the same summary
judgment motion filed by the UMB, and they were decided at the
same

time

in

the

district

court

judicial

economy

same

opinion

correctly
outweighed

by

concluded
any

the

district

that

concerns

court.

considerations
about

comity,

The
of
and

proceeded to decide the state claim, which was properly before
it.

Given the posture of the case, and the issues to be decided

by the court, its retention of jurisdiction over Hartman’s claim
based on FEPA did not constitute an abuse of discretion.
Hartman contends that the district court should have
remanded the state law claim because Maryland courts are not
“legally

bound

to

following

federal
4

case

law

construing

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application

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of

authority.”

the

ADEA,

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including

relevant

Supreme

Court

She argues that the district court’s failure “to

ascertain the extent to which Maryland law, construing § 20-606
in the context of age discrimination, embraced the federal case
law applying the ADEA” requires reversal.

However, she fails to

demonstrate that the district court’s approach in this case was
inconsistent with Maryland law interpreting FEPA or that this
case presented any novel issues under FEPA.
that

the

court

should

have

applied

a

Hartman contends

mixed-motive

theory

to

prove her case and that the court did not do so because it is
prohibited

by

federal

law.

See

Gross,

557

U.S.

at

175-78

(holding that ADEA does not permit mixed-motive discrimination
claims; rather, the plaintiff must prove that the employer would
not have taken the adverse action but for the protected ground).
However, a mixed-motive analysis only applies where there is
first some evidence that age discrimination played a role in
Hartman’s termination.
The ADEA forbids an employer from taking an adverse
employment
employee’s

action
age.

against
29

U.S.C.

an

employee

§

623(a)(1).

“because

of”

Similarly,

it

the
is

unlawful under Maryland law for an employer to “fail or refuse
to

hire,

discharge,

or

otherwise

discriminate

against

any

individual with respect to the individual’s compensation, terms,
conditions, or privileges of employment because of . . . age.”
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Md. Code Ann., State Gov’t § 20-606(a)(1); see also Md. Code
Ann., State Gov’t § 20-601(d)(2) (defining “employer” to include
the State).
pursuant

A plaintiff bringing a disparate-treatment suit

to

the

ADEA

must

prove

that

age

was

not

merely

a

motivating factor of the challenged adverse employment action
but was in fact its “but-for” cause.

Gross, 557 U.S. at 180;

see Univ. of Tex. Sw. Med. Ctr. v. Nassar, 133 S. Ct. 2517, 2523
(2013) (reaffirming Gross).
present

direct

motivation

or

evidence

To do so, the plaintiff may either
the

employer’s

under

proceed

of

the

familiar

impermissible
burden-shifting

framework established in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411
U.S.

792,

802-07

(1973).

See

Reeves v.

Sanderson

Plumbing

Prods., Inc., 530 U.S. 133, 142 (2000) (assuming that McDonnell
Douglas

burden-shifting

framework

applies

to

ADEA

claims);

Mereish v. Walker, 359 F.3d 330, 334 (4th Cir. 2004) (applying
McDonnell Douglas framework to ADEA claims).
direct

evidence

of

traditionally

held

parties

engage

must

discrimination,

that
in

in

“Maryland

employment

the

. .

.

In the absence of
Courts

have

discrimination

actions,

burden-shifting

paradigm

described by the . . . Supreme Court in McDonnell Douglas.”
Dobkin v. Univ. of Baltimore Sch. of Law, 63 A.3d 692, 699-700
(Md. Ct. Spec. App. 2013) (citing cases).
To

prevail

under

the

burden-shifting

framework,

Hartman must show that: (1) she is “a member of a protected
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class”—that is, forty years or older; (2) she “suffered adverse
employment action;” (3) she “was performing her job duties at a
level that met her employer’s legitimate expectations at the
time

of

the

adverse

employment

action;

and

(4)

the

position

remained open” or she was replaced by a substantially younger
person.

Hill v. Lockheed Martin Logistics Mgmt., Inc., 354 F.3d

277, 285 (4th Cir. 2004).
With these standards in mind and after reviewing the
record,

we

conclude

that

the

district

court

did

not

err

in

granting summary judgment on Hartman’s FEPA age discrimination
claim.

We therefore affirm the judgment.

We dispense with oral

argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately
presented in the materials before this Court and argument would
not aid the decisional process.
AFFIRMED

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