Eleanor Reed v. Avis Budget Group, Inc.

MEMORANDUM

Eleanor Reed, a former employee of Avis Budget Group, claims that Avis retaliated against her by failing to rehire her pursuant to a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) because she complained about race and disability discrimination and filed a successful claim with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) for the alleged discrimination. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Avis. The facts Reed alleges are familiar to both parties. We “review[] a district court’s grant of summary judgment de novo [and] determine, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, whether there are any genuine issues of material fact.” Dawson v. Entele Int'l., 630 F.3d 928, 934 (9th Cir.2011).

Reed’s retaliation claim for the filing of the DFEH complaint fails because there was no evidence that managers Spain and Stephens, who made the decision not to rehire Reed, knew of the filing of the DFEH complaint. Human Resources Manager Height, who did know about the complaint, was not a decisionmaker. See Cohen v. Fred Meyer, Inc., 686 F.2d 793, 796 (9th Cir.1982) (“Essential to a causal link is evidence that the employer was…