Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc.

Roger Reeves (plaintiff), 57, sued his former employer Sanderson Plumbing (defendant) under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, claiming his firing was actually about his age. Sanderson said it fired Reeves over timekeeping errors in the department he supervised, but Reeves presented evidence that this reason was pretextual, including testimony that his supervisor called him too old to have "come over on the Mayflower" and treated him worse than younger employees, plus evidence he had in fact kept accurate records. A jury ruled for Reeves, but the court of appeals threw out the verdict, reasoning Reeves had shown the stated reason was false without independently proving age discrimination caused his firing.