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Webb Wheel Products12/30/2004
ovember.
"Q: You don't dispute that even if they had moved you to another job on another shift that it would have been appropriate to lay you off 10 or 11 days later when they reached all these people with much more seniority than you, you don't dispute that, do you?
"A: No, sir."
We conclude that in light of the foregoing, Webb Wheel was not entitled to a JML. As we stated in Aldridge:
"An employer's stated basis for a discharge is sufficient as a matter of law when the underlying facts surrounding the stated basis for the discharge are undisputed and there is no substantial evidence indicating (a) that the stated basis has been applied in a discriminatory manner to employees who have filed workers' compensation claims, (b) that the stated basis conflicts with express company policy on grounds for discharge, or (c) that the employer has disavowed the stated reason or has otherwise acknowledged its pretextual status."
854 So. 2d at 568. The underlying facts surrounding Webb Wheel's stated basis for Hanvey's discharge--that it laid him off pursuant to a valid workforce reduction--are clearly disputed as of October 19, the day on which Hanvey was either "let go" or laid off. Furthermore, Hanvey presented substantial evidence indicating that his purported layoff by Webb Wheel conflicted with the company's express workforce-reduction policy.
E. Pretext
We now turn to the question whether a conclusive determination can be made in this case as to sole causation. After a defendant has presented legitimate reasons for his discharge, "'" he plaintiff then has the burden of going forward with rebuttal evidence showing that the defendant's [stated] reasons"' for [discharging] the plaintiff are not true." Culbreth, supra, 599 So. 2d at 1122, quoting Twilley v. Daubert Coated Prods., Inc., 536 So. 2d 1364, 1369 (Ala. 1988), quoting in turn Pushkin v. Regents of the Univ. of Colorado, 658 F.2d 1372, 1387 (10th Cir. 1981). In answering that question, "we review the entire record, not merely the evidence as it stood at the time [Webb Wheel] first moved for a JML." Aldridge, 854 So. 2d at 568.
Webb Wheel argues that Hanvey has not produced any evidence indicating that Webb Wheel's stated reason for the discharge (that it laid him off pursuant to a workforce reduction) was pretextual, citing Bullion v. JMBL, Inc., 657 So. 2d 834 (Ala. 1995) (because employer presented evidence that it laid off plaintiff, burden shifted to plaintiff to show by substantial evidence that employer's stated basis was pretextual); Graham v. Shoals Distrib., Inc., 630 So. 2d 417, 419-20 (Ala. 1993) (employer's decision to lay off employee is legitimate, nonretaliatory reason for its action). Webb Wheel insists that by presenting evidence of its legitimate reason for laying Hanvey off, it has rebutted any inference of retaliation raised by Hanvey's initial showing. Webb Wheel further argues that any evidence offered by Hanvey to rebut its stated basis for his layoff is based upon conjecture and is thus insufficient to create a fact question for the jury.
We disagree. As previously noted, despite Webb Wheel's characterization of its treatment of Hanvey as a layoff, the jury had before it evidence that as of October 19, Webb Wheel discharged Hanvey. In addition to the foregoing evidence, the jury also could have considered the two-hour delay between Hanvey's request for pain medication, when Hale told him to sit down and wait until he returned, and the meeting with Hill in which Hanvey was either told he was laid off or let go before he had finished his shift. Viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to Hanvey, the non-movant, as we are
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