James W. Coghlan v. American Seafoods Company LLC

We must decide whether the showing necessary for an employee to prevail against his employer’s motion for summary judgment in this employment discrimination case is heightened because the person who demoted him had previously appointed and promoted him; if so, we must decide whether the employee’s evidence of discrimination is sufficient to meet the heightened burden.

I

James Coghlan is a resident of Washington and a commercial fisherman. From 1997 onward, he was employed by American Seafoods Company LLC (ASC), which operates fishing vessels off the coast of the Pacific Northwest and in Alaskan waters. Until the American Fisheries Act (AFA) was passed in 1998, ASC was owned and operated by a Norwegian parent corporation. The AFA required certain fishing companies, including those engaged in the Alaska pollock and cod fisheries, to be American-owned. ASC complied with the law, but its management remains largely the same as it was before the AFA was passed and is made up primarily of native Norwegians.

In 1997 Coghlan was working as mas-ter of the Victoria Ann when ASC purchased that vessel. He continued to serve as master of the Victoria Ann until 1998, when ASC took the…