John Fuertes v. Ford Motor Company

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR FULL-TEXT PUBLICATION File Name: 09a0778n.06 No. 09-5321 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT FILED JOHN J. FUERTES, ) Dec 10, 2009 ) LEONARD GREEN, Clerk Plaintiff-Appellant, ) ) v. ) ON APPEAL FROM THE UNITED ) STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE FORD MOTOR COMPANY, INC., ) WESTERN DISTRICT OF KENTUCKY ) Defendant-Appellee. ) ) Before: COLE, GIBBONS, and GRIFFIN, Circuit Judges. JULIA SMITH GIBBONS, Circuit Judge. Plaintiff-appellant John Fuertes appeals the decision of the district court to grant summary judgment for defendant-appellee Ford Motor Co. (“Ford”). Fuertes sued his former employer, Ford, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., alleging claims of national heritage discrimination, retaliation, hostile work environment, and interference with employment opportunities and prospective advantage. Following a period of discovery, the district court granted Ford’s motion for summary judgment on all claims, finding several of the claims to be time-barred and concluding that Fuertes failed to establish that the reasons offered by Ford for its promotion decisions were a pretext for prohibited discrimination, that there was any causal connection between the protected activities undertaken by the plaintiff and Ford’s decisions, that Ford undertook any actions to interfere with Fuertes’s efforts to gain new employment, or that any inappropriate conduct in the workplace was so severe or pervasive as to foster a hostile work environment. After carefully reviewing the record, the applicable law, and the parties’ briefs, we find that the district court’s opinion carefully and correctly sets out the facts and the governing law. Because this court’s issuance of a full opinion would serve no jurisprudential purpose and would be duplicative, we affirm on the basis of the district court’s well-reasoned memorandum opinion and order of February 13, 2009, granting summary judgment to defendant-appellee. 2