Mora v. Jackson Mem. Found., Inc.
2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 104072 (S.D. Fla. 2008)
In defending an allegation of age discrimination, an employer established that it would have terminated the employee based on unsatisfactory performance and conduct problems, absent any consideration of the employees age. The employee did not challenge evidence that she would have been terminated at an earlier date unlesse two employees intervened on her behalf. She was subsequently given different responsibilities by the company’s CEO and, within the first month of receiving such responsibilities, called in sick twice without explaining why, which the CEO felt displayed bad judgment on her part. Further, it was undisputed that the employee made several errors in a project she was working on and that the the CEO was unhappy with her work in that regard. As a result, the CEO sent an e-mail to the executive administrator indicating that, unless his impression of the employee changed, he planned to fire her because she lacked adequate writing and preparation skills for the job. The employee then neglected to fix the errors despite being asked to do so by the CEO, leading to the CEO to send a second e-mail to the executive administrator indicating that he would fire her. These undisputed facts supported the court’s decision to grant summary judgment in favor of the employer.