Sarsha v. Sears, Roebuck & Co.

In 1988, 46-year-old Kenneth Sarsha (plaintiff) was terminated by Sears, Roebuck & Co. (Sears) (defendant) for dating a subordinate, Rebecca Schaertl. Sarsha was the second-in-command at a Sears department store. Sears claimed that it fired Sarsha for willful misconduct; Sarsha dated Schaertl after supervisors warned him not to date coworkers. Sears did not terminate Schaertl. Sears had no written policy that prohibited employees from dating, and Sarsha claimed that there was no informal policy either. Several former and current members of Sears’s management expressed either no awareness of an informal policy or varying understandings of what conduct would violate Sears’s informal policy against dating. Sarsha met his second wife when they worked together at Sears; Sears threw them a party to celebrate. Sarsha also claimed that he dated another Sears employee in 1986 and that the former store manager knew about the relationship but did not object. Sarsha acknowledged that two managers had three conversations with him over a one-and-a-half-year period that mentioned dating but contended that he was not informed that dating coworkers was prohibited or he could be terminated because of it. Sarsha sued Sears in federal court, alleging age-based and sex-based discrimination claims. The district court granted Sears’s summary-judgment motion on both grounds. Sarsha appealed. On appeal, the parties disputed whether Sears’s professed reason for the termination was pretextual.