No. 19-7744

Partha A. Rai Chowdhuri v. SGT, Inc., et al.

Lower Court: Fourth Circuit
Docketed: 2020-02-24
Status: Denied
Type: IFP
Response WaivedIFP
Tags: amendment-request civil-rights common-law due-process employment-discrimination fair-proceedings fourteenth-amendment fourth-circuit-review material-adverse-action prima-facie-case record-amendment seventh-amendment temporal-proximity
Latest Conference: 2020-03-20
Question Presented (from Petition)

1) Whether the Fourth Circuit erred and disregarded this Court's precedents when it denied Petitioner's request to amend significantly incorrect records in the District Court for the limited purpose of asserting Petitioner's right to proceedings that are free and fair under the Seventh and Fourteenth Amendments and common law.

2) Whether the Fourth Circuit's unpublished ruling on Petitioner's present matter creates differences from Third Circuit's Precedential ruling on No. 13.3521, 27 Sept. 2016, in Millicent Carvalho-Grevious v. Delaware State University No. 15-3521 (3rd Cir.2017), which states: "We hold that, at the prima facie stage, a plaintiff need only proffer evidence sufficient to raise the inference that her engagement in a protected activity was the likely reason for the adverse employment action, not the but-for reason.", "We conclude that [Nassar (University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar, 133 S. Ct. 2517 (2013))] does not alter the plaintiff's burden at the prima facie stage".

3) Whether the Fourth Circuit's unpublished ruling on Petitioner's present matter creates differences from the Eleventh Circuit's opinion in Wright v. Southland Corp., 187 F.3d 1287 (11th Cir. 1999), Judge Gerald Tjoflat, explaining that, though Plaintiff may establish a prima facie case of discrimination using the McDonnell Douglas method, Plaintiff may also more easily establish a case using traditional methods, also explained the importance of not exclusively relying on McDonnell Douglas in cases where there isn't direct evidence, by providing a hypothetical in which factors for McDonnell Douglas wouldn't be met even though discrimination could likely be found), the Seventh Circuit's opinion in Sylvester v. SOS Children's Villages Illinois Inc. 453 F.3d 900 (7th Cir. 2006), where Judge Posner found that there was no rich mosaic of circumstantial evidence, but there was "enough" circumstantial evidence to preclude summary judgment), and the U.S. Supreme Court's decisions which touch the issue - which the opinions in Wright and Sylvester agree with - such as International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. United States, 431 U.S. 324 (1977), where US Supreme Court rejected employer's assertion that McDonnell Douglas is the "only means of establishing a prima facie case of individual discrimination.".

4) Whether the Fourth Circuit's affirmation of the District Court MSJ Order on October 24, 2018, reflects differences with the Eleventh Circuit's ruling in Bechtel Constr. Co. v. Secretary of Labor, 50 F.3d 926, 934 (11th Cir.1995), where the ruling states: Proximity in time is sufficient to raise an inference of causation (the general rule is close temporal proximity between employee's protected conduct and adverse employment action is sufficient circumstantial evidence to create a genuine issue of material fact of a causal connection, with the exception that temporal proximity alone is insufficient to create a genuine issue of fact as to causal connection where there is unrebutted evidence that the decision maker did not have knowledge that the employee engaged in protected conduct Respondents' Counsel didn't provide evidence the Managers were unaware of Petitioner's protected activity, and the SGT Inc. Dy. Program Manager acknowledged on Feb. 22, 2016, that they were).

5) Given

Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether the Fourth Circuit erred in denying Petitioner's request to amend records and assert rights under the Seventh and Fourteenth Amendments

Docket Entries

2020-03-23
Petition DENIED.
2020-03-05
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 3/20/2020.
2020-02-28
Waiver of right of respondents SGT, LLC/KBR Wyle, Inc. to respond filed.
2020-02-26
Waiver of right of respondent CyberData Technologies, Inc. to respond filed.
2019-12-24
Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due March 25, 2020)
2019-11-19
Application (19A558) granted by The Chief Justice extending the time to file until December 24, 2019.
2019-11-14
Application (19A558) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from November 25, 2019 to December 24, 2019, submitted to The Chief Justice.

Attorneys

CyberData Technologies, Inc.
Edward J. TolchinOffit Kurman, Respondent
Partha A. Rai Chowdhuri
Partha A. Rai Chowdhuri — Petitioner
SGT, LLC/KBR Wyle, Inc.
Jeffrey Jules PargamentPargament & Hallowell, PLLC, Respondent