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Bodaghi v. Department of Natual Resources3/13/2000
Certiorari to the Colorado Court of Appeals
EN BANC
JUSTICE KOURLIS dissents, and JUSTICE RICE joins in the dissent.
We are called upon to review and make clear the application of Colorado law prohibiting discriminatory or unfair employment practices and thus to decide a case involving claims of unlawful employment discrimination in the context of a state agency's promotion practices. In Bodaghi v. Department of Natural Resources, 969 P.2d 718, 724 (Colo. App. 1998), on our remand, the court of appeals rejected the findings and conclusions of Robert W. Thompson, Jr., the administrative law judge (ALJ) and reversed the order of the State Personnel Board that found that the Department of Natural Resources engaged in unlawful and intentional discrimination. Before the ALJ, the employee had made a prima facie case of discrimination and the employer had proffered a non-discriminatory basis for its promotion decision, which the ALJ found from all the evidence in the record to be incredible and untrue. Relying upon evidence in the record, the ALJ found that the Department engaged in unlawful discrimination.
In this case, then, we must resolve an important issue: Whether it is permissible for an ALJ to infer from all the evidence in the record that the Department's employment decision constituted unlawful discrimination when the ALJ has rejected as incredible evidence offered to support the Department's assertion of a non-discriminatory purpose. We conclude that such an inference is permissible, relying upon our recent precedent in Colorado Civil Rights Commission v. Big O Tires, Inc., 940 P.2d 397 (Colo. 1998).
We wish to make patently clear that in Colorado " here a prima facie case of discrimination is proven and the reasons given [by the employer as a legitimate, nondiscriminatory action] are found to be a pretext for that discrimination, no additional evidence is required to infer intentional discrimination." Id. at 402.
I.
Because of the importance of the questions raised and the apparent discrepancy between the judgment of the court of appeals and our recent opinion in Big O Tires, we granted certiorari to review the court of appeals' judgment in this case. We now reverse the judgment of the court of appeals.
In Bodaghi, the court of appeals rejected the order of the State Personnel Board (Board), which affirmed the finding of intentional discrimination by its ALJ. We granted certiorari to determine whether evidence beyond that used to make a prima facie case and to refute the employer's proffered evidence of non-discriminatory purpose is necessary to permit an inference of intentional discrimination. We also granted certiorari to determine whether the court of appeals erred in substituting its findings for those of the ALJ. We hold that where an employee has made a prima facie case of discrimination and the factfinder disbelieves the proffered evidence of the employer, a factfinder may infer intentional discrimination without requiring additional evidence from the employee. We also conclude that the court of appeals erred in holding that "the record was insufficient to sustain a finding that the complainant was discriminated against because of his ethnic background." 969 P.2d at 725. Furthermore, we conclude that the court of appeals improperly substituted its own findings and conclusions for those of the ALJ. Accordingly, we return this case to the court of appeals with directions that it reinstate the order of the Board.
II. Facts
A. Background
In 1984, petitioner Ahmad Bodaghi (Bodaghi), an Iranian-born citizen of the United States, began his employment as an En
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