Case Study: Mr. Cortez V. Sam's Club

1. What was the legal issue in this case? What did the court decide? This case is based on Mr. Cortez, who worked for Sam's Club from 1986 to 2003. Mr. Cortez sued Sam's Club for discrimination in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, alleging that the company failed to promote him to general manager as he requested for several years. Mr. Cortez also argued that although he was qualified, even more qualified than other younger employees that were promoted, Sam's Club constantly ignored and denied him the opportunity to be promoted. The defendant alleged that Mr. Cortez did not receive the promotion because he had received performance improvement coaching within the past year and company policy did not allow the promotion …show more content…
The documentation for the Coaching for Improvement is maintained on the employee record for 12 months. In this case, Sam's Club claimed that Mr. Cortez had an active coaching in his file during the promotion opportunities period, and that employees with an active coaching in their file are not eligible for promotion. The defendant also testified that the reason for Mr. Garner (general manager) gave Mr. Cortez a written coaching for improvement was because, Mr. Cortez left for vacation but failed to leave any notes with instructions on what needed to be completed, did not completed an alcohol move that he was asked, and he did not leave any training plans for the new associates to do. Nevertheless, Mr. Cortez testified in court that he challenged this coaching because it was issued while he was on vacation and he argued that the written coaching was undeserved. As is mentioned in the textbook in the Cortez v. Wal-Mart Stores’ case,” Mr. Garner testified that a coaching is not always based on the subjective opinions of a supervisor”. (p.564) This testimony can also be interpreted as that sometimes it is subjected to the supervisor's subjective