PITTSBURGH – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has upheld the ruling of a Pennsylvania federal court which dismissed the case of a white man who says he was fired from his bank job two years ago for, he says, inappropriately displaying a monkey in the workplace on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Dollar Bank, headquartered in Pittsburgh, is a regional bank that services southwestern Pennsylvania and northeast Ohio. Hennessey was employed at Dollar Bank from June 2000 until he was fired in January of 2018.
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, the plaintiff told his wife he thought the monkey would look cute hanging from the rack. Although he had taken decorations into work before, neither plaintiff nor anyone else had ever hung any decorations from the wire rack,” the memorandum said.
The hanging stuffed monkey offended some, though not all, of Hennessey’s African-American co-workers, and Hennessey later stated “was unaware that monkeys can be a derogatory image for African-Americans.”
Hennessey was summarily fired for violating the bank’s code of conduct and harassment policy following a bank Human Resources investigation during the latter half of January 2018.
Hennessey then filed a reverse discrimination lawsuit against Dollar Bank in July 2018.
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.
Dodge granted summary judgment in favor of plaintiff Donald C. Hennessey Jr.’s former employer, Dollar Bank on Dec. 12, 2019 after finding Hennessey had not proven “that discrimination was likely the motivating factor of his termination.”
On Dec. 20, 2019, Hennessey, through his counsel, filed an appeal to the Third Circuit appeals court over Dodge’s granting of the summary judgment motion.
His argument fared no better at the federal appellate level.
“[Hennessey] has not adduced evidence of inconsistencies that contradict the core facts undergirding Dollar Bank’s reason for terminating him,” Third Circuit Judge Marjorie O. Rendell said in a Nov. 19 ruling.
“The District Court stated, and we agree, that ‘the inconsistencies and contradictions on which plaintiff relies to support his case fail to establish pretext because they do not refute Dollar Bank’s proffered legitimate reason for his termination: The suspending of a brown monkey from the ceiling in a shared workspace over the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend.’ Indeed, these facts are undisputed and none of the three inconsistencies on which Hennessey relies to argue pretext place any of these core facts in dispute.”
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit case 19-3964
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania case 2:18-cv-00977
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com