Fortino v. Quasar Co.

Three American executives (American executives) (plaintiffs) worked for the Quasar Company (defendant), which was an unincorporated division of an American corporation that was wholly owned by the Japanese company Matsushita Electric Industrial Company (MEI). Quasar marketed products made by MEI. MEI sometimes assigned Japanese executives to Quasar on a temporary basis. Those executives were authorized to enter the United States under visas that authorized Japanese citizens working in executive roles to enter the country. The United States had created such visas pursuant to a treaty with Japan that authorized companies of the respective countries to hire executives based on citizenship (i.e., Japanese companies operating in America could hire Japanese executives to work in America). In 1985, Quasar suffered a large loss in revenue, which prompted MEI to send a Japanese executive to the United States to prevent such losses from happening again. The Japanese executive reorganized Quasar and cut the workforce in half during the process. The three American executives (who were not of Japanese origin) were terminated during the reorganization. No executives of Japanese origin were terminated during the reorganization; to the contrary, several were rotated back to Japan and received salary increases. The American executives sued Quasar for national-origin discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The matter was tried before a judge, who found for the American executives, and Quasar appealed.