Clark v. Mathews Int'l. Corp., No. 10-1037

Action Claiming Age-Based Termination

In Clark v. Mathews Int'l. Corp., No. 10-1037, an action claiming that plaintiff was terminated and suffered other adverse employment actions due to his age, the court affirmed summary judgment for defendants in part where 1) a 4% drop in the employment rate of over-age-forty employees was not sufficient for purposes of establishing that age was a factor in a termination decision; and 2) plaintiff failed to create a triable issue of fact regarding whether he was intentionally selected for termination during the RIF at issue because of his age.  However, the court reversed in court where the court was unsure whether a Missouri court would find that there was a genuine issue of material fact regarding whether plaintiff's age was a contributing factor in his termination or the rejection of his request to join a certain division of the company.

As the court wrote:  "Matthews International Corporation ("Matthews") terminated Eddy Clark in
January 2007. Alleging that he was terminated and suffered other adverse employment actions due to his age, Clark sued Matthews under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA") and the Missouri Human Rights Act "MHRA"). The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Matthews, and Clark appealed. We affirm in part and reverse in part."

Related Resources

• Read the Eighth Circuit's Decision in Clark v. Mathews Int'l. Corp., No. 10-1037