Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc., handed down on March 20, 1998, reversed a lower court's evidentiary rulings in dismissing a plaintiff's claim that she was not promoted due to unlawful gender bias in violation of Title VII, and found instead that the plaintiff had presented enough relevant evidence for a jury to hear her case.
Nevertheless, the trial court still granted the employer's motion and dismissed the case because it found Lyoch had failed, as part of her prima facie case, to identify the qualifications for the positions and adequately show how she met those qualifications at the time the positions were filled.
The EighthCircuit, however, observing that where promotion criteria are "subjective and secret" they "are particularly easy for an employer to invent in an effort to sabotage a plaintiff's prima facie case and mask discrimination," found that a plaintiff need not bear the same burden as when an employer applies objective criteria to all applicants.
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