Dep't of Transportation v. Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities1/11/2005
This appeal arises from a complaint filed by the defendant, Jayantha Mather, with the named defendant, the commission on human rights and opportunities (commission), alleging that the plaintiff, the department of transportation (department), had discriminated against him, on the basis of his race and national origin, by not promoting him to the position of transportation principal engineer (principal engineer). A referee employed by the commission found in Mather's favor after concluding that Mather had established a prima facie case of discrimination and that the department's two nondiscriminatory reasons for its decision not to promote Mather, namely, that he had performed poorly during his interview for the principal engineer position and that he lacked a professional engineer license, were pretextual. The department appealed from the referee's decision to the trial court, which concluded that the referee properly had determined, first, that Mather had established a prima facie case of discrimination and, second, that the depart-ment's purported reliance on Mather's substandard interview performance was a pretext for discrimination. The trial court also concluded, however, that Mather's failure to obtain a professional engineer license was a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for the depart-ment's decision not to promote him to principal engineer. The trial court then remanded the case to the referee for reconsideration of Mather's claim in light of that court's decision to sustain one of the referee's findings of pretext but not the other. The department filed this appeal, claiming, inter alia, that it was entitled to judgment as a matter of law in view of the court's determination that Mather's failure to obtain a professional engineer license was a legitimate, nondiscrimina-tory reason for the department's decision not to promote him. We agree with the department and, therefore, reverse the judgment of the trial court.
The following relevant facts and procedural history are necessary to our resolution of this appeal. In 1997, Mather, a native of Sri Lanka, was employed by the department as a supervising engineer in the soils and foundations unit. The soils and foundations unit is responsible for ensuring that the ground upon which highways, bridges and buildings are constructed is capable of supporting those structures. Thus, the engineering work performed by the soils and foundations unit is highly technical in nature and extremely important to the safety of people traversing the state's highways and bridges and people occupying state buildings.
In the summer of 1997, Theodore Batko, the principal engineer in the soils and foundations unit, announced that he was planning to retire. After Batko's announcement, Joseph Obara, the manager of the department's design services division, notified Mather, as well as two other supervising engineers, Leo Fontaine and George Gonzalez, that Batko's replacement would be appointed on a temporary basis.
For several years prior to 1997, persons holding the position of principal engineer in the soils and foundations unit were required to hold a professional engineer license. Although internal discussions ensued among department officials as to whether to continue that requirement after Batko's retirement, the decision was made to do so, and Mather was notified of that decision in August, 1997. Upon learning of the decision to continue the license requirement, Mather, who previously had failed to achieve a passing score on the professional engineer license examination, indicated that he intended to retake the test. Mather subsequently took and failed the examination in October, 1997, October, 1998, and April, 1999.
In l
Page 1 2 3 4 Connecticut Employee Leasing Services
Employee Leasing Services
|