Source: cases/42usc2000e-2/f-supp-3d-384-199-henderson-v-mbta.case
Case source: https://www.neochart.com/catalog/cases/f-supp-3d/volume_384/0199_01/index.html
There is no question he satisfies the first and third elements of the prima facie case: he is a member of a protected class because of his race, he applied for and did not receive the supervisor position, and two white applicants received the job instead.
After examining Melchionda's, Higgins's, and Henderson's answers, the Court cannot say that Henderson's score was based on objective criteria that would demonstrate he was not qualified for the job or similarly qualified to the successful candidates.
Henderson's low score in the interview therefore does not defeat his prima facie case.
This nondiscriminatory justification satisfies the MBTA's burden of production.
An employer may properly rely on interview performance in making promotion decisions.
Even though the scoring of the answers appears subjective in some areas, there is no evidence from which a reasonable jury could find racial discrimination.
Accordingly, the MBTA is entitled to summary judgment on Count I.
This theory also fails to satisfy the causation element of the prima facie case.
casedsl 1.2 # author: Flash2 (gemini-3.8-flash-high) # triaged-by: Fable (2026-11-10) case /f-supp-3d/384/0199-01 name Henderson v. Mass. Bay Transp. Auth. cite 384 F. Supp. 3d 199 (2019) # IR court field says: United States District Court for the District of Columbia court United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts date 2019-06-17 url catalog/cases/f-supp-3d/volume_384/0199_01/index.html source ir/caselaw/f_supp_3d_384.jsonl sha1=8c5e0873bd5c75a99e20ab8fd9991f8494661a69 chars=26756 opinion order : order by Saris @0..26756 controlling law 42usc2000e-2 (a)(1) role applied posture civil; Title VII race discrimination (failure to promote) and retaliation (denied overtime "podium duty"); transit authority's motion for summary judgment allowed on both counts (D. Mass.) result claimant-lost element employer : satisfied [conceded] route public-employer pattern regional-transit-authority fact @9158..9220 [supports] | He has continued as a laborer foreman at the MBTA to this day. gloss Not contested. element protected-class : satisfied [conceded] route race pattern black-employee fact @2123..2208 [supports] | Henderson, a black male, began working at the MBTA in 1991 as a construction laborer. held @14539..14794 | There is no question he satisfies the first and third elements of the prima facie case: he is a member of a protected class because of his race, he applied for and did not receive the supervisor position, and two white applicants received the job instead. element adverse-action : satisfied [conceded] route failure-to-hire-or-promote pattern internal-applicant-passed-over-for-maintenance-supervisor fact @9096..9157 [supports] | Henderson was informed he did not get the job on February 28. fact @8006..8121 [supports] | Higgins, who is white, received the highest scores of all the candidates, with a 94 from Martin and a 93 from Emde. element qualified : satisfied [triable] route performance-and-expectations pattern low-interview-score-on-largely-subjective-questions-does-not-defeat-prima-facie-case fact @2355..2410 [supports] | From 2000 to 2005, he served as a temporary supervisor. fact @17224..17346 [supports] | A review of the answers to this question does not reveal an objective basis for scoring Melchionda an 8 and Henderson a 5. fact @16532..16653 [cuts-against] | Here, Melchionda got an 8 (out of 10) and Henderson got a 4, which made sense because Henderson provided fewer specifics. held @17347..17597 | After examining Melchionda's, Higgins's, and Henderson's answers, the Court cannot say that Henderson's score was based on objective criteria that would demonstrate he was not qualified for the job or similarly qualified to the successful candidates. held @17730..17816 | Henderson's low score in the interview therefore does not defeat his prima facie case. gloss Covers both the "qualified" prong and the First Circuit's fourth prong (position filled by someone with similar or inferior qualifications); the MBTA contested both on the interview scores. element employer-reason : satisfied [conceded] route relative-qualifications pattern second-lowest-interview-score-of-twenty-candidates fact @8540..8625 [supports] | Henderson received the second-lowest score of the twenty candidates with a 61 and 56. fact @8852..9009 [supports] | Ultimately, because Higgins and Melchionda received the highest scores in the interview, the selection committee recommended hiring them in mid-January 2013. held @17959..18038 | This nondiscriminatory justification satisfies the MBTA's burden of production. ? basis: burden of production only; the court finds it met in one sentence and Henderson attacks the reason as pretext rather than its articulation. `conceded` follows the house convention for an undisputed articulation; it is not a finding that the reason was true. element pretext : not-satisfied [no-evidence] route falsity-of-reason pattern bent-screening-rule-for-white-outside-hire-points-to-cronyism-not-race fact @5097..5158 [supports] | He left the computer skills section of his application blank. fact @16654..16899 [supports] | For another question dealing with computer experience, though, the committee's notes reflect that Henderson had more computer experience than Melchionda (who described his computer skills as "minimal"), yet Henderson received three points lower. fact @20779..20941 [cuts-against] | While Melchionda had worse computer skills, the undisputed evidence is that he had more experience supervising larger teams than Henderson and interviewed better. fact @21487..21580 [cuts-against absent] | Henderson also provides no evidence that the committee ever discussed or considered his race. rule @20942..21027 | An employer may properly rely on interview performance in making promotion decisions. held @21096..21252 | Even though the scoring of the answers appears subjective in some areas, there is no evidence from which a reasonable jury could find racial discrimination. held @23558..23623 | Accordingly, the MBTA is entitled to summary judgment on Count I. gloss Weaknesses in the stated reason (interviewing a candidate who left a minimum requirement blank) were held to suggest at most cronyism (references from the head of HR), which is not unlawful; dated promotion statistics and EEO-complaint counts did not show the decision-makers' intent. element retaliation : not-satisfied [no-evidence] route causal-link pattern adverse-action-predates-the-complaint-and-decision-makers-unaware-of-it fact @6153..6311 [supports] | On October 12, while HR was reviewing applications for the supervisor position, another laborer foreperson was assigned to "podium duty" instead of Henderson. fact @25066..25203 [cuts-against] | Even if it did, Henderson testified that it occurred in February 2013, five months after Gilcoine denied him podium duty in October 2012. fact @25816..25939 [cuts-against absent] | There is no evidence Gilcoine or the union stewards responsible for assigning podium duty knew about Henderson's complaint. rule @25204..25357 [quoted] | "Causation moves forward, not backwards, and no protected conduct after an adverse employment action can serve as the predicate for a retaliation claim." held @25735..25815 | This theory also fails to satisfy the causation element of the prima facie case.