Hawn v. Executive Jet Management, Inc.

FOR PUBLICATION
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

GREGORY S. HAWN; MICHAEL R.  No. 08-15903
PRINCE; ARIC A. ALDRICH,
Plaintiffs-Appellants, D.C. No.
v.  2:04-CV-02954-
SMM
EXECUTIVE JET MANAGEMENT, INC.,
OPINION
Defendant-Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court
for the District of Arizona
Stephen M. McNamee, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted
January 12, 2010—San Francisco, California

Filed August 16, 2010

Before: Alex Kozinski, Chief Judge, J. Clifford Wallace,
Circuit Judge, and William H. Alsup, District Judge.*

Opinion by Judge Wallace

*The Honorable William H. Alsup, United States District Judge for the
Northern District of California, sitting by designation.

11733
11736 HAWN v. EXECUTIVE JET MANAGEMENT

COUNSEL

Tod F. Schleier, Schleier Law Offices, P.C., Phoenix, Ari-
zona, for the plaintiffs-appellants. Bradley H. Schleier, Schl-
eier Law Offices, P.C., Phoenix, Arizona, on the brief.
 HAWN v. EXECUTIVE JET MANAGEMENT 11737
Celeste M. Wasielewski, Duane Morris LLP, Washington,
D.C., for the defendant-appellee. Lorraine P. Ocheltree,
Duane Morris LLP, San Francisco, California, and Maureen
Beyers, Osborne Maledon PA, Phoenix, Arizona, on the brief.

OPINION

WALLACE, Senior Circuit Judge:

Gregory Hawn, Michael Prince and Aric Aldrich (collec-
tively, plaintiffs) appeal from the district court’s summary
judgment in favor of their former employer, Executive Jet
Management (Executive Jet). We have jurisdiction pursuant
to 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we affirm.

I.

Plaintiffs are male pilots who were employed by Executive
Jet, which is in the business of aircraft management and char-
ter operations. All of the plaintiffs were terminated after a
female flight attendant, Robin McCrea, alleged that plaintiffs
had sexually harassed her and created a hostile work environ-
ment through an array of conduct including sexualized banter,
crude jokes, and the sharing of crude and/or pornographic
emails and websites. According to plaintiffs, however,
McCrea was an active participant in, or initiator of, much of
the conduct of which she accused them. Plaintiffs contend that
their terminations were illegal because McCrea and other
Executive Jet female flight attendants engaged in similar con-
duct but were not terminated because they were females.

Plaintiffs and McCrea were stationed at Executive Jet’s
base at Williams Gateway Airport in Arizona. On January 6,
2003, McCrea complained to her immediate supervisor, Amy
Jackson, that Aldrich had behaved inappropriately during a
training seminar a few days earlier. Jackson reported the com-
11738 HAWN v. EXECUTIVE JET MANAGEMENT
plaint to Executive Jet’s Human Resources Director, Cynthia
Brusman. On January 10, 2003, McCrea faxed a letter to
Brusman that stated she had experienced a hostile work envi-
ronment at the Williams Gateway base and requested a trans-
fer.

In response, Executive Jet’s Chief Pilot, Michael
Chakerian, interviewed McCrea, Aldrich, Prince, and several
other Executive Jet employees. Chakerian submitted the
results of his interviews in a written report to Executive Jet.
Chakerian’s report reflected that Prince and Aldrich were
“shocked” by McCrea’s allegations because she had partici-
pated in, and often encouraged, the banter and joking of
which she complained. Chakerian’s report also reflected that
another male pilot stationed at the Williams Gateway base
was similarly surprised by McCrea’s allegations. A female
flight attendant interviewed by Chakerian described McCrea
as short-tempered, aggressive, and negative. A female pilot
interviewed by Chakerian similarly described McCrea as per-
sonally insecure and moody, and also described McCrea as
flustered during the training exercise. Both this female pilot
and the female flight attendant implied to Chakerian that
McCrea’s allegations may have been motivated by her desire
for a transfer to a different Executive Jet base.

On January 14, 2003, McCrea faxed another letter to Brus-
man. This time, McCrea attached a twelve-page document
that detailed her allegations against Aldrich stemming from
the training seminar. This document also contained new alle-
gations of sexual harassment against Aldrich, Prince, Hawn,
and others. Following receipt of these new and more detailed
allegations, Executive Jet hired an independent investigator,
James Sterling, to look into McCrea’s accusations. This inves-
tigation lasted approximately two months. In the meantime,
on January 27, 2003, McCrea filed a discrimination charge
against Executive Jet with the United States Equal Employ-
ment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
 HAWN v. EXECUTIVE JET MANAGEMENT 11739
Around March 31, 2003, Sterling’s report was submitted to
Executive Jet. In the “Synopsis” of his report, Sterling stated:

The results of this investigation indicate that there
have been confirmed instances of a few of the
behaviors indicated in Ms. McCrea’s document of
complaint. However, there are also a greater number
of incidents that she has alleged happened that have
been unconfirmed, denied or told to me in a different
light, implying that Ms. McCrea either participated
in the actions or in some instances initiated them.

In the concluding “Summary” of his report, Sterling stated
that “[t]hroughout the duration of this investigation, I have
continually found there to be some items in Ms. McCrea’s
document of complaint to be verified.” Sterling continued, “in
the same vein, I must say that there have been numerous
items, which have not been corroborated by this investiga-
tion.” He concluded: “The bottom line is that there appears to
be some fact as well as some fiction interwoven throughout
Ms. McCrea’s document of complaint. . . . To conclude this
investigation I believe that the company will have to ‘sift the
wheat from the [chaff],’ in Ms. McCrea’s document of com-
plaint . . . .”

On April 18, 2003, all three plaintiffs were terminated. A
few months later, in July 2003, the EEOC issued a determina-
tion of the merits of McCrea’s complaint, finding in part that
“the evidence revealed that Respondent fostered a hostile
work environment created by demeaning, crude, derogatory
sex-based remarks.”

In February 2004, each of the plaintiffs filed a claim of dis-
crimination with the EEOC. All of these claims were dis-
missed. Plaintiffs subsequently filed this action, alleging
discrimination on the basis of race, sex and national origin in
violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42
U.S.C. § 2000e-2 and 42 U.S.C. § 1981.
11740 HAWN v. EXECUTIVE JET MANAGEMENT
Plaintiffs complain that Executive Jet was aware that a
group of five female flight attendants, one of whom was
McCrea, had “engaged in sexual e-mails [and] sexual discus-
sions” similar to the conduct that led to plaintiffs’ termina-
tions. Unlike plaintiffs, however, the female employees were
not disciplined in any way, much less terminated. Plaintiffs
argue that their terminations were thus discriminatory
because, in effect, Executive Jet singled them out for termina-
tion because they were “risk free” young, white, American
males, while it failed to terminate females who had engaged
in the same objectionable behavior. Plaintiffs point, in partic-
ular, to Executive Jet’s position statement in its response to
McCrea’s EEOC charges. In that document, the company rep-
resented that “virtually all” of McCrea’s claims were denied
or uncorroborated and that, in many instances, McCrea was a
participant in or initiator of the conduct at issue. According to
plaintiffs, McCrea’s allegations came suspiciously on the
heels of a training exercise in which she exhibited an abysmal
performance.

The district court entered summary judgment in favor of
Executive Jet, concluding that plaintiffs failed to establish a
prima facie case of employment discrimination. The district
court also concluded that plaintiffs failed to raise a triable
issue of material fact that their terminations were a pretext for
unlawful discrimination. Plaintiffs seek review of the sum-
mary judgment and the district court’s denial of their motion
to exclude all evidence of and references to the EEOC’s deter-
mination regarding McCrea’s charge. Although plaintiffs’
complaint states claims for gender, race, and national origin
discrimination, plaintiffs press only their gender discrimina-
tion claims before us. Similarly, although plaintiffs asked the
district court to strike all references to the EEOC’s determina-
tion in McCrea’s charge and the EEOC’s dismissal of their
complaints, plaintiffs here press only for the exclusion of evi-
dence relating to the EEOC’s determination of McCrea’s
charges.
 HAWN v. EXECUTIVE JET MANAGEMENT 11741
II.

We review the district court’s summary judgment de novo.
Universal Health Servs., Inc. v. Thompson, 363 F.3d 1013,
1019 (9th Cir. 2004). “We must determine, viewing the evi-
dence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party,
whether there are any genuine issues of material fact and
whether the district court correctly applied the relevant sub-
stantive law.” EEOC v. Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps,
345 F.3d 742, 746 (9th Cir. 2003). We may affirm the district
court’s summary judgment on any ground supported by the
record. Venetian Casino Resort, L.L.C. v. Local Joint Exec.
Bd. of Las Vegas, 257 F.3d 937, 941 (9th Cir. 2001).

We analyze plaintiffs’ Title VII claims through the burden-
shifting framework of McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green,
411 U.S. 792 (1973). Under this analysis, plaintiffs must first
establish a prima facie case of employment discrimination.
Noyes v. Kelly Servs., 488 F.3d 1163, 1168 (9th Cir. 2007).
If plaintiffs establish a prima facie case, “[t]he burden of pro-
duction, but not persuasion, then shifts to the employer to
articulate some legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for the
challenged action.” Chuang v. Univ. of Cal. Davis, Bd. of
Trs., 225 F.3d 1115, 1123-24 (9th Cir. 2000). If defendant
meets this burden, plaintiffs must then raise a triable issue of
material fact as to whether the defendant’s proffered reasons
for their terminations are mere pretext for unlawful discrimi-
nation. Noyes, 488 F.3d at 1168; see also Coleman v. Quaker
Oats Co., 232 F.3d 1271, 1282 (9th Cir. 2000) (plaintiffs must
“introduce evidence sufficient to raise a genuine issue of
material fact” as to pretext).

[1] To establish a prima facie case, plaintiffs “must offer
evidence that ‘give[s] rise to an inference of unlawful dis-
crimination.’ ” Godwin v. Hunt Wesson, Inc., 150 F.3d 1217,
1220 (9th Cir. 1998) (alteration in original), citing Tex. Dep’t
of Cmty. Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 253 (1981). Plain-
tiffs may establish a prima facie case based on circumstantial
11742 HAWN v. EXECUTIVE JET MANAGEMENT
evidence by showing: (1) that they are members of a protected
class; (2) that they were qualified for their positions and per-
forming their jobs satisfactorily; (3) that they experienced
adverse employment actions; and (4) that “similarly situated
individuals outside [their] protected class were treated more
favorably, or other circumstances surrounding the adverse
employment action give rise to an inference of discrimina-
tion.” Peterson v. Hewlett-Packard Co., 358 F.3d 599, 603
(9th Cir. 2004); see also Wallis v. J.R. Simplot Co., 26 F.3d
885, 889 (9th Cir. 1994).

[2] The focus in the case before us is on the fourth element
of plaintiffs’ prima facie case: whether similarly situated
employees engaged in similar conduct but received more
favorable treatment by Executive Jet. The district court con-
cluded that plaintiffs failed to establish a prima facie case
because they did not show that the female employees who
allegedly received more favorable treatment by Executive Jet
were in fact similarly situated to plaintiffs. The district court
offered two primary reasons for this conclusion: First, the
female flight attendants were not similarly situated because
they did not report to the same supervisor as plaintiffs, and
second, even if the female flight attendants had reported to the
same supervisor as plaintiffs, they were not similarly situated
because plaintiffs’ conduct gave rise to a complaint, while the
female flight attendants’ alleged conduct did not.

A.

At the outset, plaintiffs assert that the district court engaged
in an overly narrow inquiry in conducting its examination of
their prima facie case. Plaintiffs complain that the district
court erroneously focused on whether similarly-situated per-
sons received more favorable treatment. Instead, according to
plaintiffs, the district court should have looked more broadly
at whether the record as a whole gave rise to an inference of
discrimination.
 HAWN v. EXECUTIVE JET MANAGEMENT 11743
[3] It is true that the elements and contours of a prima facie
case will differ according to the facts at hand. In McDonnell
Douglas, the Court explained that a prima facie case will vary
according to the unique factual circumstances presented in
every action: “the prima facie proof required from respondent
is not necessarily applicable in every respect to differing fac-
tual situations.” 411 U.S. at 802 n.13. We have also stated that
a plaintiff may show “an inference of discrimination in what-
ever manner is appropriate in the particular circumstances.”
Diaz v. Am. Tel. & Tel., 752 F.2d 1356, 1361 (9th Cir. 1985).
A plaintiff may do so through comparison to similarly situ-
ated individuals, or any other circumstances “surrounding the
adverse employment action [that] give rise to an inference of
discrimination.” Peterson, 358 F.3d at 603.

[4] Here, however, plaintiffs’ case relies on a comparison
between themselves and a group of female employees. Plain-
tiffs’ action sounds in disparate treatment and seeks to raise
an inference of discrimination based solely on circumstantial
evidence. Plaintiffs’ proof of discrimination is that McCrea
engaged in or encouraged the language and conduct of which
she later complained, and that she and other female flight
attendants engaged in lewd and inappropriate conduct but
were not disciplined or terminated as were plaintiffs. Plain-
tiffs invoke the comparison to a group of allegedly similarly-
situated female employees to make out a claim of disparate
treatment. The district court did not err by focusing on the
inference of discrimination that is central to plaintiffs’ case.

B.

Plaintiffs next take issue with the district court’s analysis
insofar as it determined that plaintiffs and the suspect female
flight attendants were not similarly-situated because they did
not report to the same supervisor. The district court held that
to be similarly situated, “coworkers must have been dealt with
by the same supervisor, subject to the same standard, and
engaged in similar conduct.” Plaintiffs argue that the district
11744 HAWN v. EXECUTIVE JET MANAGEMENT
court improperly focused on whether the female employees
had the same supervisor as them.

[5] It was error for the district court to impose a strict
“same supervisor” requirement. We have stated that “whether
two employees are similarly situated is ordinarily a question
of fact.” Beck v. United Food & Commercial Workers Union
Local 99, 506 F.3d 874, 885 n.5 (9th Cir. 2007). The employ-
ees’ roles need not be identical; they must only be similar “in
all material respects.” Moran v. Selig, 447 F.3d 748, 755 (9th
Cir. 2006); see also Aragon v. Republic Silver State Disposal,
Inc., 292 F.3d 654, 660 (9th Cir. 2002). Materiality will
depend on context and the facts of the case.

Generally, we have determined that “individuals are simi-
larly situated when they have similar jobs and display similar
conduct.” Vasquez v. County of Los Angeles, 349 F.3d 634,
641 (9th Cir. 2003). In Vasquez, for example, we considered
that employees were not similarly situated where the type and
severity of an alleged offense was dissimilar. Id. Likewise, in
Nicholson v. Hyannis Air Service, Inc., a case decided after
entry of summary judgment here, we held that an alleged dis-
tinction between a female pilot and several male pilots was
not material. 580 F.3d 1116, 1125-26 (9th Cir. 2009). Under
the allegations of that case, we concluded that a female pilot,
who had deficient communication and cooperation skills, was
similarly situated to male pilots, who had deficiencies in their
technical piloting skills, because both types of deficiencies
could be addressed through retraining. Any distinction
between the two types of skill sets was “not material for pur-
poses of determining whether the male pilots were ‘similarly
situated’ to” the plaintiff; therefore, the female pilot had made
out a prima facie case of discrimination by showing that the
male pilots received remedial training for their deficiencies
while she received no such instruction. Id. at 1126. Nicholson
again demonstrates that whether employees are similarly situ-
ated — i.e., whether they are “similar in all material
respects,” id. at 1125 (internal quotation marks omitted) — is
 HAWN v. EXECUTIVE JET MANAGEMENT 11745
a fact-intensive inquiry, and what facts are material will vary
depending on the case.

[6] We do not exclude the possibility that the presence or
absence of a shared supervisor might be relevant in some
cases. But here, the undisputed facts demonstrate that whether
plaintiffs and the female flight attendants shared the same
direct supervisor should not have been determinative of
whether they were similarly situated, because plaintiffs’ direct
supervisor, Chakerian, was excluded from the decision to ter-
minate them. Instead, the decision to terminate plaintiffs was
made directly by Executive Jet’s president, Albert Pod. The
fact that plaintiffs and the female flight attendants had differ-
ent direct supervisors did not render them dissimilar in a
material respect, because the relevant decision-maker, Albert
Pod, was aware of both the allegations against plaintiffs and
the allegations plaintiffs had made against the female flight
attendants. Similarity between two persons or groups of peo-
ple is a question of fact that cannot be mechanically resolved
by determining whether they had the same supervisor without
attention to the underlying issues.

III.

Therefore, we turn to the alternate ground on which the dis-
trict court concluded that plaintiffs were not similarly situated
to the female flight attendants. The district court held that,
even assuming the female flight attendants reported to the
same supervisor as plaintiffs, the two groups were not simi-
larly situated because the female employees’ alleged conduct
was not unwelcome and never resulted in a complaint. This
consideration provides an independent and sufficient basis to
affirm the district court’s summary judgment. See Venetian
Casino Resort, 257 F.3d at 941.

A.

The concept of “similarly situated” employees may be rele-
vant to both the first and third steps of the McDonnell Doug-
11746 HAWN v. EXECUTIVE JET MANAGEMENT
las framework. In this case, plaintiffs sought to establish that
the relevant female flight attendants were “similarly situated”
to them but received more favorable treatment in step one of
the McDonnell Douglas analysis. See, e.g., Peterson, 358
F.3d at 603. Turning to step three of the McDonnell Douglas
analysis, plaintiffs alleged that Executive Jet’s explanation for
their terminations was pretextual because, among other
things, the company failed to discipline or terminate McCrea
even though she was similarly situated to them. See Vasquez,
349 F.3d at 641; see generally Fonseca v. Sysco Food Servs.
of Ariz., Inc., 374 F.3d 840, 849 (9th Cir. 2004) (describing
different ways in which an employment discrimination plain-
tiff might establish pretext).

Even though a comparison to “similarly situated” individu-
als may be relevant both to plaintiffs’ prima facie case and
proof of pretext, these inquiries constitute distinct stages of
the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting analysis. See gener-
ally Furnco Constr. Corp. v. Waters, 438 U.S. 567, 577
(1978); Lynn v. Regents of the Univ. of Cal., 656 F.2d 1337
(9th Cir. 1981) (first and third stages must remain distinct
because, “[t]o do otherwise would in many instances collapse
the three step analysis into a single step at which all issues
would be resolved”); Nicholson, 580 F.3d at 1124. The differ-
ence between the first and third steps of the McDonnell Doug-
las framework is not without some consequence. Among
other things, a plaintiff’s burden is much less at the prima
facie stage than at the pretext stage. Compare Tex. Dep’t of
Cmty. Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 253 (1981), and Wal-
lis, 26 F.3d at 889, with Godwin, 150 F.3d at 1220-22, and
Steckl v. Motorola, Inc., 703 F.2d 392, 393 (9th Cir. 1983)
(requiring “specific, substantial evidence of pretext” to defeat
employer’s motion for summary judgment); see also Wheeler
v. Aventis Pharm., 360 F.3d 853, 857 (8th Cir. 2004) (describ-
ing pretext stage as “rigorous,” but prima facie stage as “not
onerous”).

The district court considered the relevant inquiry —
whether plaintiffs and the subject female employees were
 HAWN v. EXECUTIVE JET MANAGEMENT 11747
similarly situated — in the context of both plaintiffs’ prima
facie case and at the pretext stage. Insofar as the district court
considered Executive Jet’s argument in the context of plain-
tiffs’ prima facie case of discrimination, this was unusual. Our
cases generally analyze an employer’s reasons for why
employees are not similarly situated at the pretext stage of
McDonnell Douglas, not the prima facie stage. See, e.g.,
Vasquez, 349 F.3d at 641. It may well be that the present
inquiry is more appropriate for resolution at the third stage of
the McDonnell Douglas analysis rather than that of pretext.
The pretext determination is often cast in terms of the legiti-
mate, nondiscriminatory reason offered by the employer for
taking adverse employment action against a plaintiff. See,
e.g., Vasquez, 349 F.3d at 641; Wall v. Nat’l R.R. Passenger
Corp., 718 F.2d 906, 909 (9th Cir. 1983).

Although we seek to conduct our inquiry at the proper
McDonnell Douglas step, we keep in mind that “[t]he prima
facie case method established in McDonnell Douglas was
‘never intended to be rigid, mechanized, or ritualistic. Rather,
it is merely a sensible, orderly way to evaluate the evidence
in light of common experience as it bears on the critical ques-
tion of discrimination.’ ” U.S. Postal Serv. Bd. of Governors
v. Aikens, 460 U.S. 711, 715 (1983), citing Furnco, 438 U.S.
at 577. Thus, we keep sight of the ultimate issue in this case:
“whether the employer is treating some people less favorably
than others because of their race, color, religion, sex, or
national origin.” Furnco, 438 U.S. at 577 (quotation marks
and citation omitted). In this case, there is no need to discuss
the issue further. The district court held that plaintiffs had not
made out a prima face case because, among other reasons,
they had not shown they were similarly situated to the female
employees in question. The district court then went on to hold
that Executive Jet’s argument was not pretextual for the same
reasons. We may therefore turn to the substance of plaintiffs’
claims.
11748 HAWN v. EXECUTIVE JET MANAGEMENT
B.

Turning to the substance of the issue, plaintiffs seek to
blunt the relevance of the complaints made against them.
They argue that the presence or absence of a complaint is not
a sufficient justification for differential treatment and that
McCrea’s complaint was not actually the basis for their termi-
nations. Plaintiffs point to (1) the Sterling report, which
reflected that many of McCrea’s allegations were uncorrobo-
rated; (2) Executive Jet’s position statement submitted to the
EEOC, in which it maintained that McCrea could not estab-
lish a prima facie case of discrimination because the “over-
whelming majority” of the incidents could not be
corroborated and McCrea could not show that the conduct
was unwelcome; and finally, (3) Brusman’s testimony that the
use of sexual language or the telling of sexual jokes to
coworkers was inappropriate behavior warranting termination,
“whether anybody is offended by it or not.”

Executive Jet management was aware, at the time of plain-
tiffs’ terminations, of plaintiffs’ accusations that McCrea and
several female flight attendants had engaged in sexualized
banter and other similar conduct. Chakerian’s report to his
superiors indicated that plaintiffs Aldrich and Prince found
McCrea’s allegations surprising because she had participated
in the conduct giving rise to her complaint. Sterling’s report
reflected an allegation by Prince that McCrea had “hit him on
the butt twice,” an allegation by Aldrich that McCrea asked
“quite frequently about his sex life,” and allegations that
McCrea participated in “raunchy” banter, as well as some
sexually-oriented emails sent by another flight attendant.

[7] Plaintiffs’ accusations, nevertheless, do not demon-
strate that the designated female employees were similarly sit-
uated to plaintiffs. Plaintiffs cite the Sterling report
selectively. The report confirmed several of McCrea’s com-
plaints, including that Hawn pinched McCrea on the buttocks;
that Prince forwarded obscene emails to his coworkers; that
 HAWN v. EXECUTIVE JET MANAGEMENT 11749
pilots, including Prince, had romantic relationships with flight
attendants; and that Aldrich called the lead flight attendant a
“fat cow.” Sterling’s report concludes that “the company will
have to ‘sift the wheat from the [chaff]’ in Ms. McCrea’s doc-
ument of complaint . . . .” Even if Executive Jet believed that
the majority of McCrea’s allegations were not corroborated,
and that McCrea participated in some of the complained-of
conduct, several instances of sexually harassing behavior by
Aldrich, Prince and Hawn were undisputed.

[8] Moreover, plaintiffs and the female flight attendants
are distinguishable because plaintiffs’ conduct gave rise to a
complaint of sexual harassment, while the female flight atten-
dants’ alleged conduct did not. Plaintiffs never complained of
discriminatory treatment or sexual harassment to Executive
Jet contemporaneous to the alleged conduct by the female
flight attendants. When plaintiffs did report such conduct, it
was made defensively in the context of the company’s investi-
gations into McCrea’s accusations against them. Even in the
context of the company’s investigations, plaintiffs did not
lodge a complaint at any time, and they did not report that
they found the female flight attendants’ alleged conduct
harassing or unwelcome. We have distinguished misconduct
by one employee from misconduct by another employee on
the basis of whether it prompted complaints or consternation
by other employees. In Meyer v. California and Hawaiian
Sugar Co., we upheld summary judgment for an employer
where the female plaintiff had been terminated after making
racially insensitive remarks, even though male employees also
had made racist remarks but received no discipline, because
the female plaintiff’s comments “had such an adverse impact
on minority employees that they impaired her usefulness in
her sensitive duties in the Personnel Department and, coming
from her, reflected unfavorably on [the employer’s] policies
toward its minority employees.” 662 F.2d 637, 640 (9th Cir.
1981). We concluded that, where there was no evidence that
the male employees’ remarks had “provoked anything compa-
rable to the vigorous reaction” that resulted from the plain-
11750 HAWN v. EXECUTIVE JET MANAGEMENT
tiff’s comments, the other incidents were “not such parallels
to her case as to raise a genuine issue of pretext.” Id.

[9] The presence of complaints has also been deemed a
valid distinguishing factor by other circuits. See Yeager v.
City Water & Light Plant, 454 F.3d 932, 934 (8th Cir. 2006)
(“An employer that promulgates a sex harassment policy may
reasonably distinguish between sexually oriented conduct that
elicits a complaint from an offended co-worker, and arguably
comparable conduct that is nonetheless tolerated by co-
workers without complaint”). In a case presenting similar
facts to this action, Morrow v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., two
male employees were terminated after complaints of sexual
harassment were brought against them. 152 F.3d 559, 560
(7th Cir. 1998). They filed an action, complaining that their
employer had enforced its sexual harassment policy more
strictly against males than against similarly-situated females.
Id. at 560. Affirming the district court’s summary judgment
in favor of the employer, the Seventh Circuit stated,

Wal-Mart’s quick decision to terminate the plaintiffs
may seem unfair in a work environment that appears
rife with similarly off-color conduct. . . . Although
some of Wal-Mart’s female employees seem to have
engaged in questionable behavior, there is no evi-
dence that any of this behavior sparked complaints
of harassment like those that Wal-Mart received con-
cerning [plaintiffs]. Without evidence of similar
employee complaints, Wal-Mart cannot be faulted
for failing to respond to these incidents in the same
way that it responded to [plaintiffs’] situations.

Id. at 564.

[10] We do not support a “race to the Human Resources
office” as the sole determinant of the relevance of a com-
plaint. The existence of a complaint may not always be mate-
rial or determinative in light of the facts in a given case. We
 HAWN v. EXECUTIVE JET MANAGEMENT 11751
stress again that the determination whether a plaintiff and a
coworker are similarly situated will generally be a question of
fact. But in the case before us, plaintiffs’ conduct was the sub-
ject of a complaint to Executive Jet, while the conduct of
McCrea and other female flight attendants was not. Moreover,
plaintiffs’ reports of inappropriate conduct by female employ-
ees were made only in the context of the independent investi-
gation by an outsider, and contain no indication that the
conduct was unwelcome or harassing to them. In the course
of that investigation, several allegations of harassing conduct
by plaintiffs was not only corroborated, but also admitted by
plaintiffs. That difference was properly taken into consider-
ation when the district court entered summary judgment.

IV.

[11] In Plummer v. Western International Hotels Co., we
held that a plaintiff has a “right to introduce an EEOC proba-
ble cause determination in a Title VII lawsuit.” 656 F.2d 502,
505 (9th Cir. 1981). But Plummer’s rule was created in the
context of the admissibility of an EEOC probable cause deter-
mination in a Title VII action by the same plaintiff who com-
plained to the EEOC. The Plummer rule is not applicable to
all EEOC determinations. In Gilchrist v. Jim Slemons
Imports, Inc., we held that a letter of violation was a “substan-
tially different” document than an EEOC probable cause
determination in that a letter of violation represented the
EEOC’s conclusion that a violation has occurred. The letter
of violation thereby posed a much greater risk of unfair preju-
dice, because a “jury may find it difficult to evaluate indepen-
dently evidence of age discrimination after being informed
that the EEOC has already examined the evidence and found
a violation.” 803 F.2d 1488, 1500 (9th Cir. 1986). We there-
fore concluded that Plummer did not establish a per se rule of
admissibility for all EEOC documents, and that the district
court should instead exercise its discretion to admit or exclude
a letter of violation. Id.
11752 HAWN v. EXECUTIVE JET MANAGEMENT
Plaintiffs argue that the district court abused its discretion
by denying their motion to strike all reference to the EEOC’s
determination in the McCrea charge. They assert that, because
the rule of per se admissibility of EEOC findings applies
“only in cases in which the issue in the court proceeding was
identical to that which the EEOC had earlier investigated,” the
EEOC’s determination should not have been admitted here.
Further, plaintiffs assert that the McCrea determination is
irrelevant because it was issued months after they were termi-
nated.

[12] Admission of the EEOC determination was not an
abuse of discretion. As Plummer stated, there is little reason
to fear prejudice in a bench trial, where “the admission of
incompetent evidence over objection will not ordinarily be a
ground of reversal if there was competent evidence received
sufficient to support the findings. The judge will be presumed
to have disregarded the inadmissible and relied on the compe-
tent evidence.” Plummer, 656 F.2d at 505 (internal quotation
marks omitted). The same rationale applies here, where plain-
tiffs’ motion to strike was made in the context of a summary
judgment proceeding where there could be no jury, thereby
reducing the danger of the type of prejudice expressed in Gil-
christ. See Plummer, 656 F.2d at 505 (“[T]here is support for
the general proposition that the admissibility of evidence var-
ies between jury and non-jury trials”). The district court exer-
cised its discretion in weighing the admissibility of the
document, as required under Gilchrist, and plaintiffs have
made no showing of prejudice from its admission.

AFFIRMED.