356
Opinion of the Court
granted certiorari, 511 U. S. 1106 (1994), to resolve conflicting views among the Courts of Appeals on the question whether all relief must be denied when an employee has been discharged in violation of the ADEA and the employer later discovers some wrongful conduct that would have led to discharge if it had been discovered earlier. Compare Welch v. Liberty Machine Works, Inc., 23 F. 3d 1403 (CA8 1994); O'Driscoll v. Hercules Inc., 12 F. 3d 176 (CA10 1994); 9 F. 3d 539 (CA6 1993) (case below); Washington v. Lake County, 969 F. 2d 250 (CA7 1992); Johnson v. Honeywell Information Systems, Inc., 955 F. 2d 409 (CA6 1992); Summers v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co., 864 F. 2d 700 (CA10 1988); Smallwood v. United Air Lines, Inc., 728 F. 2d 614 (CA4), cert. denied, 469 U. S. 832 (1984), with Mardell v. Harleysville Life Ins. Co., 31 F. 3d 1221 (CA3 1994); Kristufek v. Hussman Foodservice Co., Toastmaster Div., 985 F. 2d 364 (CA7 1993); Wallace v. Dunn Construction Co., 968 F. 2d 1174 (CA11 1992), vacated pending rehearing en banc, 32 F. 3d 1489 (1994). We now reverse.
II
We shall assume, as summary judgment procedures require us to assume, that the sole reason for McKennon's initial discharge was her age, a discharge violative of the ADEA. Our further premise is that the misconduct revealed by the deposition was so grave that McKennon's immediate discharge would have followed its disclosure in any event. The District Court and the Court of Appeals found no basis for contesting that proposition, and for purposes of our review we need not question it here. We do question the legal conclusion reached by those courts that after-acquired evidence of wrongdoing which would have resulted in discharge bars employees from any relief under the ADEA. That ruling is incorrect.
The Court of Appeals considered McKennon's misconduct, in effect, to be supervening grounds for termination. That
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