Opinion
Civil Action No. 04-01716-JF.
March 7, 2005
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER
Plaintiff is suing for age discrimination; the defendant has filed a motion for summary judgment.
Plaintiff was hired at the age of 74 to a part-time clerk's position in the Police Department of the Borough of Jenkintown. In 2003, the Borough decided to merge two part-time positions into one full-time position, and plaintiff was dismissed from his employment. The full-time position was filled by a younger female applicant.
The defendant has offered justifications for the decision to terminate plaintiff's employment, none of which have anything to do with age. The Police Chief who made the ultimate decisions claims that he had, in effect, offered the full-time position to plaintiff, but plaintiff rejected it because he did not wish to work full-time. Plaintiff claims that this assertion is a complete falsehood. There is also some evidence to suggest that the reorganization of the Police Department's staff occurred in conjunction with the acquisition of computers and a decision to computerize the workings of the Clerk's Office. The defendant claims that the lady who ultimately filled the position was more capable in a computerized setting than the plaintiff. Plaintiff asserts that he received one day of training on the computer but was never afforded an opportunity to show that he was, indeed, capable of operating under the new format.
As this brief summary discloses, there are enough factual disputes to preclude the grant of summary judgment. Conceivably, a jury could reasonably find that plaintiff's age was a significant factor in the personnel decisions, notwithstanding the strong evidence to the contrary. The case is simply not amenable to summary disposition.
ORDER
AND NOW, this 7th day of March 2005, upon consideration of defendant's motion for summary judgment and plaintiff's response, IT IS ORDERED:That the defendant's motion for summary judgment is DENIED.