United States Seventh Circuit

In an employment discrimination action, district court judgment is affirmed where: 1) plaintiff was not discriminated against and fired because of his gender as the evidence that he accessed inappropriate web sites provided a nondiscriminatory basis for the employer's action, and plaintiff also failed to show suspicious timing or ambiguous statements; 2) plaintiff's state law claims were properly dismissed as plaintiff was an at-will employee and defendant's employee handbook did not change the nature of his employment; and 3) plaintiff's defamation claim based on the report made by defendant and used during the grievance proceedings fails as statements made by the employer to explain its actions are privileged.

Appellate Information

• Argued 06/01/2009
• Decided 06/29/2009
• Published 06/29/2009

Judges

• EVANS, Circuit Judge., Before EASTERBROOK, Chief Judge, and BAUER and EVANS, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Seventh Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Mary Runnells (argued), Thomas A. Berry, Price & Runnells, Bloomington, IN, for Plaintiff-Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• John P. Ryan (argued), Hall, Render, Killian, Heath & Lyman, Indianapolis, IN, for Defendant-Appellee.