Wash. Court of Appeals published opinion — D2 52293-4-II Published Opinion.pdf

Citation: Wash. Court of Appeals published opinion — D2 52293-4-II Published Opinion.pdf
Jurisdiction: Washington (state)
Source verification: official_capture_completeness_unverified
Original Source: https://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/pdf/D2%2052293-4-II%20Published%20Opinion.pdf ↗

Related Parts of This Source

1,750 chars

there was a nondiscriminatory reason for the adverse action.’ ” Id. (quoting St. Mary’s Honor

Ctr. v. Hicks, 509 U.S. 502, 509, 113 S. Ct. 2742, 125 L. Ed. 2d 407 (1993)).

Therefore, we conclude that Home Depot satisfied its burden of showing a legitimate,

nondiscriminatory reason for terminating Mackey.

7. Pretext/Discrimination as a Motivating Factor

In the third and final step of the McDonnell Douglas framework, the burden shifts back to

the employee to produce sufficient evidence to establish a question of fact as to pretext: that the

employer’s alleged nondiscriminatory reason for the adverse employment action was pretextual

or that even if the stated reason was legitimate, discrimination, retaliation, or violation of public

policy also was a substantial motivating factor. See Mikkelsen, 189 Wn.2d at 527. We conclude

that Mackey did not present sufficient evidence to create a genuine issue of material fact

regarding this step.

a. No Evidence of Pretextual Reason

The ways that an employee can show that a stated reason for termination was a pretext

include, but are not limited to, “ ‘that the reason has no basis in fact, it was not really a

motivating factor for the decision [or] it lacks a temporal connection to the decision or was not a

19
For the current opinion, go to https://www.lexisnexis.com/clients/wareports/.
No. 52293-4-II

motivating factor in employment decisions for other employees in the same circumstances.’ ”

Scrivener, 181 Wn.2d at 447-48 (quoting Kuyper v. Dep’t of Wildlife, 79 Wn. App. 732, 738-39,

904 P.2d 793 (1995)).

Here, Home Depot submitted strong evidence that the actual reason Home Depot

terminated Mackey was the investigation results. Home Depot concluded that Mackey had