Opinions of the United
2003 Decisions States Court of Appeals
for the Third Circuit
1-29-2003
Rahman v. Citterio USA Corp
Precedential or Non-Precedential: Non-Precedential
Docket 02-1894
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Recommended Citation
"Rahman v. Citterio USA Corp" (2003). 2003 Decisions. Paper 849.
http://digitalcommons.law.villanova.edu/thirdcircuit_2003/849
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NOT PRECEDENTIAL
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
No. 02-1894
FARIDA B. RAHMAN,
Appellant
v.
CITTERIO U.S.A. CORPORATION
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Middle District of Pennsylvania
(D.C. Civil No. 00-cv-01811)
District Court Judge: Honorable Edwin M. Kosik
Submitted Pursuant to Third Circuit LAR 34.1(a)
January 28, 2003
Before: SLOVITER and RENDELL, Circuit Judges,
and DEBEVOISE, District Judge*
(Filed January 29, 2003)
OPINION OF THE COURT
RENDELL, Circuit Judge.
*The Honorable Dickinson R. Debevoise, Senior Judge, United States District Court for
the District of New Jersey, sitting by designation.
Farida Rahman appeals the order of the District Court for the Middle District of
Pennsylvania granting summary judgment for Citterio USA Corporation (“Citterio”) on her
employment discrimination claims. Rahman is a Bangladeshi, Muslim female. She was
hired by Citterio to work at its meat processing plant on a temporary basis from March 18,
1994 through May 20, 1994, and again from October 5, 1994 through December 21, 1994.
Rahman worked at Proklean, an independent contractor with Citterio that provides
sanitation services at Citterio’s plant, from December 1996 through March 3, 1997. In
2000, Rahman commenced an action under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and
1991, and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, 43 Pa. C. S. § 951 et seq., claiming
Citterio discriminated against her on the basis of race, national origin, religion, and gender
by not rehiring her between 1994 and 1999. The District Court granted Citterio’s motion
for summary judgment and we will affirm.
I. Jurisdiction and Standard of Review
The District Court had jurisdiction over Rahman’s federal claims under 28 U.S.C. §
1331 (2000) and 28 U.S.C. § 1343 (2000) and supplemental jurisdiction over her state
claims under 28 U.S.C. § 1367(a) (2000). We exercise jurisdiction over the District
Court’s final order pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 (2002). We exercise plenary review over
the Court’s grant of summary judgment, applying the same standard as the District Court.
Abramson v. William Paterson College of N.J., 260 F.3d 265, 276 (3d Cir. 2001).
II. Discussion
Citterio concedes for this appeal that Rahman has made out a prima facie case, but
contends that she has not rebutted its proffered reasons for not hiring her: her poor
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performance during her two temporary jobs at the plant and her poor performance at
Proklean. Rahman has offered no direct evidence of discrimination and relies entirely on
circumstantial evidence. Under the McDonnell-Douglas burden-shifting framework,
Rahman bears the burden of rebutting Citterio’s proffered legitimate reasons. To meet this
burden, she must “demonstrate such weaknesses, implausibilities, inconsistencies, or
contradictions in [Citterio’s] proffered legitimate reasons for its action that a reasonable
factfinder could rationally find them ‘unworthy of credence.’” Fuentes v. Perskie, 32 F.3d
759, 765 (3d Cir. 1994).
Rahman argues that the District Court incorrectly viewed the evidence in the light
most favorable to Citterio, and that she has shown enough inconsistencies in Citterio’s
position to allow a jury to find intentional discrimination. We disagree.
First, the District Court carefully evaluated each piece of evidence Rahman offered
and found it wholly lacking. Rahman latches onto language in the Court’s opinion stating
that the fact that a letter from Rahman’s manager describing her “work as ‘ok’ does not
mandate the conclusion that [Citterio] was completely satisfied with [Rahman’s] work,”
A17 (emphasis added), to argue that the Court was viewing the evidence in a light favorable
to Citterio. Rahman cites to Abramson, 260 F.3d at 277, in which we reversed summary
judgment because the district court had incorrectly framed its analysis in terms of whether
“a reasonable person would ‘necessarily construe’ the conduct in question as being
improperly motivated.” However, a complete reading of the context of the District Court’s
statement reveals that the Court was not improperly framing the issue. The “mandates”
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statement was made in response to Rahman’s assertion that the letter from her manager
revealed a “blatant contradiction” between his pre- and post-litigation positions. The
Court’s response was that the letter saying her work was “ok” does not blatantly contradict
his later testimony that her work was “below average.” This was a proper response and does
not reveal an incorrect reading of the evidence.
Second, having independently reviewed the record and taking the evidence in the
light most favorable to Rahman, we agree with the District Court that she has not shown
such inconsistencies that a reasonable factfinder could find Citterio’s reasons “unworthy of
credence.” Correspondence between her and her manager at Citterio prior to the initiation
of her suit, A136, and her manager’s testimony, A119, show that the manager did not think
she had performed well enough in her sanitation jobs at the plant and with Proklean, and that
she had to be reshown how to do jobs. A122. Although it is true that other people who were
non-Muslim were retained or hired during the time period that Rahman sought a job, those
employees performed better overall than Rahman or were union members. Rahman relies
on her own belief that she was a good worker, and comments from Citterio that she was
“average” during her first temporary job, but that is not enough to rebut evidence that
Citterio clearly thought she was not performing well the second time she was hired at
Proklean. There is simply nothing here from which to infer intentional discrimination.
Because we agree with the District Court that Rahman has not raised any genuine
issues as to any material fact, we will affirm the Court’s grant of summary judgment to
Citterio.
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___________________________
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TO THE CLERK OF COURT:
Please file the foregoing opinion.
/s/ Marjorie O. Rendell
Circuit Judge