## Facts

- Gail Derr worked for Gulf Oil Corporation’s Gulf Mineral Resources Company division, initially as a clerk floater and later as an associate lease analyst in the lease records unit with three male lease analysts.
- Her associate lease analyst role was a career-ladder position; she was performing better than satisfactory work and was being prepared for promotion to lease analyst.
- Gulf expected a lease analyst opening soon because lease analysts were nearing retirement, including one considering early retirement.
- Due to business decline, assistant comptroller Dale Lyon decided to transfer one person out of the lease records unit into an accounting clerk position.
- Lyon selected Derr for the transfer/demotion without consulting her immediate supervisor and with limited knowledge of lease records work; he consulted only A.C. Weiler, the accounting manager.
- Evidence showed Weiler held sex-based bias, including criticizing Derr’s career goals because she had small children and repeatedly suggesting women should not get “too much education.”
- After the demotion, Derr experienced antagonistic treatment from Weiler and resigned on November 30, 1982; her pay did not immediately decrease.
- The trial court found that, absent the discriminatory demotion, Derr would have been promoted to lease analyst and paid more beginning March 1, 1983.

## Issues

1. Whether the district court clearly erred in finding that sex was a determinative factor in Derr’s demotion, establishing Title VII liability.
2. Whether the evidence supported a finding of constructive discharge based on working conditions following the discriminatory demotion.
3. Whether backpay and equitable relief (including reinstatement) were properly awarded and calculated.

## Decision

- The Tenth Circuit affirmed the finding that Derr’s sex was a determinative factor in the demotion; the discriminatory-demotion liability finding was not clearly erroneous.
- The Tenth Circuit reversed the finding of constructive discharge because the post-demotion conditions did not meet the objective standard of intolerability that would compel a reasonable person to resign.
- The court affirmed that Derr was entitled to make-whole relief for the discriminatory job action and lost promotion opportunity, but remanded to modify/recalculate remedies in light of the absence of constructive discharge.

## Legal Principles

- In Title VII bench trials, appellate review of factual findings is under the clearly erroneous standard; a finding will be upheld if supported by sufficient evidence.
- A discriminatory demotion violates Title VII when sex is a determinative factor in the decision; bias shown through decisionmaker statements and decision process can support an inference of discriminatory motive.
- Constructive discharge requires working conditions so objectively intolerable that a reasonable person in the employee’s position would feel compelled to resign; a discriminatory demotion alone is insufficient without additional facts meeting that threshold.
- Remedies should place the employee as nearly as possible in the position she would have occupied absent discrimination; backpay may reflect a lost promotion by awarding the wage differential from the date the promotion would have occurred.
- When constructive discharge is not established, remedies tied to treating the resignation as a discharge (including the scope of reinstatement/backpay based on separation) must be limited accordingly.

## Conclusion

The court upheld Title VII liability for Derr’s discriminatory demotion based on evidence that sex bias affected the selection decision, but rejected constructive discharge because the record did not show objectively intolerable conditions requiring resignation; it remanded for recalculation of backpay and equitable relief consistent with treating the case as a discriminatory demotion and denied promotion, not a discharge.


Derr v. Gulf Oil Corp., 796 F.2d 340 (10th Cir. 1986)