DISCLAIMER:  Any unofficial case summaries below are prepared by the clerk's office
                        as a courtesy to the reader. They are not part of the opinion of the court.

183648P.pdf   04/16/2020  Timothy Couch  v.  American Bottling Company
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  18-3648
   U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa - Des Moines   
   [PUBLISHED] [Stras, Author, with Loken and Grasz, Circuit Judges] 
   Civil case - Employment discrimination. Plaintiff alleged defendant gave 
   him a negative review, suspended him and then terminated him for filing a 
   formal charge of discrimination against the defendant; as plaintiff had no 
   direct evidence of retaliation, the court analyzes the claim under the 
   familiar McDonnell Douglas framework; even if the court assumed plaintiff 
   made a prima facie case of retaliation, defendant provided legitimate, 
   non-discriminatory, performance-based grounds for its actions which 
   plaintiff failed to show were pretexts; with respect to plaintiff's 
   state-law based retaliation claim, he failed to meet his burden to show 
   pretext, and his claim fails.