If City Indisputably Has Legitimate Grounds for Terminating Employee, Allegations of Discrimination and Retaliation Are Immaterial

In Curley v. City of North Las Vegas, published December 2, 2014, the 9th Circuit affirmed summary judgment granted to a city against the lawsuit of a former employee who alleged his termination resulted from discrimination based on his disability and retaliation for his complaints about the alleged discrimination.  The employee had received many oral and written reprimands during his time with the city.  He had multiple verbal altercations with fellow employees; made several threats of violence against co-workers; constantly complained about his managers and employer; and conducted personal business while at work.  The plaintiff did not dispute that the city had legitimate grounds to fire him, but alleged that the firing was actually motivated by his disability and his complaints about failure to accommodate his disability, and therefore violated the Americans with Disability Act.  The 9th Circuit held that it did not have to decide whether plaintiff could establish a prima facie case of discrimination or retaliation, because he conceded that if he had met his burden the city could establish legitimate grounds for terminating him.  A plaintiff's attack on an employer's reason for termination as pretextual may raise a triable issue of fact, despite the existence of legitimate grounds for termination, if the reasons are so intertwined that the showing of pretext as to one throws the rest into doubt; if the pretext is so "fishy and suspicious" that the employer may be found to have no credibility; or if the employer offered a plethora of reasons, and several of them may be pretextual.  None of those circumstances was present in this case.