Blue Bird Prevails in Appeal Over Worker’s Race Bias Lawsuit

Blue Bird Corp. was rightly awarded summary judgment in a racial discrimination lawsuit brought by an African-American man who worked as a line shift supervisor at the company’s bus assembly plant because he couldn’t establish a prima facie case of bias, the Eleventh Circuit ruled.

Wayne Jackson, who worked at Blue Bird between 2013 and 2016, sued his former employer under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act after he was fired for alleged failures related to medical issues of those he supervised. Jackson couldn’t show a valid “comparator” employee who was treated more favorably, which meant he didn’t establish a prima facie case, according to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Jackson failed to convince the appeals panel that the district court erred in saying he didn’t properly identify a valid comparator because he had mentioned his direct supervisor, a white man named Shelby Hill. Hill wasn’t comparable because he didn’t engage in the same basic conduct, the court said.

“We cannot say that the conduct for which Jackson was held accountable appears to be the same basic conduct in which Hill is alleged to have engaged,” the three-judge panel wrote.

The judges also held that Jackson had failed to rebut Blue Bird’s reasoning for its actions and explain how they were pretext for discrimination by race.

“Even if Jackson had established a prima facie case of discrimination, we would nevertheless affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Blue Bird because the record clearly demonstrates that Jackson failed to establish pretext,” the judges wrote Nov. 15.

The per curiam Judges Beverly B. Martin, Robin S. Rosenbaum, and R. Lanier Anderson III joined in the decision.

The case is Jackson v. Blue Bird Corp., 11th Cir., No. 18-14155, unpublished 11/15/19.