Johnson v. Russell-Stanley Corp.
Docket: No. 04-2672
Court: Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit; December 20, 2004; Federal Appellate Court
Jerome Johnson, an African-American former quality control inspector at Russell-Stanley Corporation, filed a lawsuit alleging violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 due to race-based failure to promote and wrongful termination. He also asserted state law claims for retaliatory discharge and spoliation of evidence. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Russell-Stanley, determining that Johnson had not exhausted his administrative remedies regarding the failure-to-promote claim and had failed to provide evidence of discrimination related to his termination. The court found that Johnson did not refute Russell-Stanley’s stated reason for his termination—falsification of drum test reports—indicating it was not pretextual. Additionally, Johnson did not establish the essential element of his spoliation claim, as he could not show that he would likely have prevailed in his lawsuit but for the alleged destruction of evidence. On appeal, Johnson did not challenge the district court's findings or present any substantive legal arguments, merely describing his work and making unsupported claims of discrimination. His appeal was dismissed for failing to comply with Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 28(a)(9), which requires proper legal argumentation and citations, even for pro se litigants.