When you destroy the evidence that could justify a termination, don’t be surprised when a court refuses to take your side. That’s the message from the 6th Circuit’s recent decision in Kean v. Brinker International, Inc., where a 59-year-old general manager of a Chili’s, owned and operated by Brinker International, was fired despite running one of the most successful stores in his market.
Brinker claimed he was let go for not “living the Chili’s way”—an amorphous explanation about bad “culture.” Instead, Kean claimed age discrimination, supported by his stellar performance records and his post-firing replacement by someone 26 years his junior.
Brinker, however, could not support any its reasons for Kean’s termination because it had destroyed all of the documents related to the termination.
No emails.
No complaints.
No performance reviews.
No documentation explaining why he was fired.
Just one HR summary document that no one could authenticate (not even the person who allegedly wrote it), which it drafted after Kean’s firing.
The 6th Circuit held that the document should have been tossed as inadmissible and concluded that without it, the employer’s story did not have sufficient legs to merit a dismissal of the claim. So now, this case goes to a jury, with strong circumstantial evidence suggesting the employee was fired because of his age and replaced by someone 26 years younger.
Here’s the important lesson for employers: If litigation is anyone remotely possible, preserve your records. That means emails, personnel files, internal notes—everything. Courts and juries don’t take kindly to companies who “accidentally” delete the paper trail. If you delete the receipts, don’t expect anyone to believe your story.
Because in an discrimination case, juries don’t need much more than a bad excuse and missing documents to start connecting dots. And those dots often easily lead to a dollar sign followed by six or seven digits.
