Cite as: 530 U. S. 133 (2000)
Opinion of the Court
Justice O'Connor delivered the opinion of the Court. This case concerns the kind and amount of evidence necessary to sustain a jury's verdict that an employer unlawfully discriminated on the basis of age. Specifically, we must resolve whether a defendant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law when the plaintiff's case consists exclusively of a prima facie case of discrimination and sufficient evidence for the trier of fact to disbelieve the defendant's legitimate, nondiscriminatory explanation for its action. We must also decide whether the employer was entitled to judgment as a matter of law under the particular circumstances presented here.
I
In October 1995, petitioner Roger Reeves was 57 years old and had spent 40 years in the employ of respondent, Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc., a manufacturer of toilet seats and covers. 197 F. 3d 688, 690 (CA5 1999). Petitioner worked in a department known as the "Hinge Room," where he supervised the "regular line." Ibid. Joe Oswalt, in his mid-thirties, supervised the Hinge Room's "special line," and Russell Caldwell, the manager of the Hinge Room and age 45, supervised both petitioner and Oswalt. Ibid. Petitioner's responsibilities included recording the attendance and hours of those under his supervision, and reviewing a weekly report that listed the hours worked by each employee. 3 Record 38-40.
In the summer of 1995, Caldwell informed Powe Chesnut, the director of manufacturing and the husband of company president Sandra Sanderson, that "production was down" in
ley Strauss, Stephen A. Bokat, and Robin S. Conrad; for the Equal Employment Advisory Council by Ann Elizabeth Reesman; for the Product Liability Advisory Council, Inc., by Andrew L. Frey, Charles Rothfeld, and Stephen M. Shapiro; for the Society for Human Resource Management by Peter J. Petesch, Thomas J. Walsh, Jr., Timothy S. Bland, and John E. Duvall; and for the Texas Association of Business and Chamber of Commerce by Dean J. Schaner and Scott M. Nelson.
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