Preston v. Wisconsin Health Fund

397 F.3d 539 (7th Cir. 2005)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

D is a teamsters health and welfare fund that provides health services directly in clinics that it owns, as well as indirectly by paying for medical or dental treatment that its participants obtain outside D's clinics. D had been hemorrhaging money for many years when Trojak became its chief executive officer in 1998. The dental clinic alone, under P, its long-time director, lost $1 million the following year. Trojak fired P and replaced him with Hamilton, a much younger dentist who had no apparent credentials for the job except eagerness for it. Trojak testified at his deposition that P's ideas were too few and too late and that he was impressed by Hamilton's 'can do' attitude. P claimed that Trojak favored Hamilton for personal reasons (rumors were they were having an affair. They frequently dined together and sometimes after dinner would retreat to his apartment for-according to their not terribly credible deposition testimony-platonic sessions solely devoted to disinterested discussion of the future of the dental clinic. Trojak is no longer with D, and Hamilton is no longer the dental director. P sued D claiming that Trojak favored Hamilton due to Trojak’s romantic involvement with Hamilton and that constituted sex discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. The lower court held that there was no sex discrimination. P appealed from summary judgment in favor of D.