Fired and told “you’re a little too old for your job,” Old Rose LOSES her age-bias claim

 

From the blog that brought you the classy September 2011 post, “This old mother****** may just have an age discrimination claim,” comes a story of a woman whom her former employer **cough** affectionately **cough** referred to as “Old Rose.”

On other occasions, the plaintiff Rosemary Marsh was told, “you’re slipping, you’re getting old.” Another time, she was asked if she was “too old to get down there” when she bent down to replace paper in the photocopier. And when the company eventually fired Ms. Marsh — you had to figure that was coming, right? — she was allegedly told, “I think you’re just getting a little too old for your job.”

Sounds like the makings of a good age discrimination claim. Well, not in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. No ma’am:

The first three alleged statements were not made in connection with a decision to fire Marsh. At the most, these statements show only that Horn felt that Marsh was an elderly individual and that some stage of old age was correlated with a decrease in job performance. To hold that age was the but-for cause of Marsh’s termination, a factfinder would still have to infer from these statements that Horn’s supposed disdain for the elderly led her to fire Marsh. Thus, these statements do not constitute direct evidence of age discrimination.

Hold up there one sec. I read in the opinion that the defendant claimed that Ms. Marsh was a poor performer. But, Ms. Marsh claims they freaking told her, “I think you’re just getting a little too old for your job.” I’m sensing pretext here, amirite?

Finally, Marsh asserts that Horn’s alleged age-related statements, discussed above, demonstrate that AERC of Michigan’s proposed reasons for her termination are a mere pretext used to mask age discrimination….Marsh cannot demonstrate that these alleged comments were made by a decision-maker or that the individuals with the power to fire her harbored any discriminatory animus. Thus, the alleged statements of an individual with no authority to fire Marsh cannot demonstrate that AERC of Michigan considered Marsh’s age when firing her, much less that AERC of Michigan’s espoused reasons were pretextual and that age was actually the but-for cause of Marsh’s termination.

The case is Marsh v. Associated Estates Realty Corp.