In an age discrimination suit filed in the wake of a lay-off, the plaintiff need not show that the employer retained workers under the age of 40, but only that workers who are “sufficiently younger” than the plaintiff were kept on, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled.
In his opinion in Showalter v. University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, U.S. Circuit Judge Samuel A. Alito found that the U.S. Supreme Court has effectively overturned a line of 3rd Circuit cases that required such laid-off plaintiffs to show that the company retained workers who are “unprotected” by the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.
