PITTSBURGH – A federal judge has granted summary judgment in favor of the employer in the case of a former Pittsburgh-based regional bank employee fired in early 2018 for "inappropriately displaying a brown monkey in the workplace."
In her 22-page memorandum opinion and order issued Dec. 12, U.S. Magistrate Judge Patricia L. Dodge, on the bench in Pennsylvania's Western District, granted Dollar Bank's motion for summary judgment.
Dodge dismissed the case after concluding that the plaintiff, Donald C. Hennessey Jr., had not proven "that discrimination was likely the motivating factor of his termination."
Dollar Bank, headquartered in Pittsburgh, is a regional bank that services southwestern Pennsylvania and northeast Ohio.
Hennessey's allegations of racial and age discrimination against Dollar Bank were initially filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which issued Hennessey a right to sue.
Hennessey, who is white, was employed at Dollar Bank from June 2000 until he was fired in January of 2018.
"After working as a senior teleprocessing technician from June 2000 until June 2005, he became a senior computer operator in June 2005 and worked in that position until his termination in January 2018," the memorandum said.
In January 2018, Hennessey hung a stuffed monkey he'd purchased from a store's Valentine's Day display by the fabric fastener on its paws from a wire rack in the computer room on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday
"At the time he purchased it, plaintiff told his wife he thought the monkey would look cute hanging from the rack," the memorandum said. "Although he had taken decorations into work before, neither plaintiff nor anyone else had ever hung any decorations from the wire rack."
The hanging stuffed monkey offended some, though not all, of Hennessey's African-American co-workers, according to the memorandum.
Hennessey "stated that he was unaware that monkeys can be a derogatory image for African-Americans," the memorandum said.
Hennessey was fired for violating the bank's code of conduct and harassment policy following a bank Human Resources investigation during the latter half of the same month.
In its motion for summary judgment, Dollar Bank claimed Hennessey could not maintain a prima facie case of reverse discrimination because he had not pointed to similarly situated non-white employees who received more favorable treatment or to circumstances that would support an inference of unlawful discrimination, according to the memorandum.
Dollar Bank also maintained to have provided a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for Hennessey's firing.
Hennessey countered that he did offer a prima facie case of discrimination "both because there is no heightened standard for reverse discrimination claims and because Dollar replaced him with an African-American employee," the memorandum said. "He further asserts that he has proffered sufficient evidence of pretext to preclude summary judgment."
Gibson concluded that Hennessey failed to provide evidence of inferred racial discrimination had been "more likely than not" a cause of his firing.
"Even assuming for the purposes of this opinion that plaintiff has established a prima facie case of reverse discrimination, Dollar articulated a legitimate nondiscriminatory reason for its actions, that is, plaintiff was terminated for inappropriately displaying a brown monkey in the workplace," the memorandum said. "Plaintiff has failed to elicit evidence from which a reasonable factfinder could conclude that Dollar's reason was fabricated or that discrimination was likely the motivating factor of his termination."