Google Inc., the world's most popular Internet search engine, must defend an age discrimination suit filed by a former employee who says he was fired after a supervisor told him he was "too old to matter."

A state appeals court in San Jose, Calif., has reinstated the case, overturning a lower court order dismissing it. Brian Reid, a former director of operations and engineering at Mountain View, Calif.-based Google, was 54 years old when he filed the complaint in 2004, according to court documents.

Reid produced sufficient evidence of bias for the case to proceed, including on one occasion when a Google vice president told him he was "too old to matter," according to the ruling. He also claimed that Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt sent an e-mail directing another vice president to put together a "proposal for getting Reid out," the appeals court said.

A three-judge panel concluded that "Reid produced sufficient evidence that Google's reasons for terminating him were untrue or pretextual," that Google "acted with discriminatory motive" and that a judge or jury should be allowed to decide the matter.

Google hired Reid in June 2002 as director of operations and engineering, according to court documents. Two years later, he was transferred to a new job designing an engineer retention program, Reid said in the complaint. Schmidt told him the post was "important," though he wasn't given a budget or staff, according to court papers.

After the transfer, two employees, 15 and 20 years younger than Reid, assumed his previous duties, he said in the complaint. Google claimed Reid was terminated because the engineer retention program was eliminated, according to the appeals court ruling.

In 2004, Vice President of Engineering Wayne Rosing told Reid he wasn't a "cultural fit" at Google, according to the complaint. When Reid asked who made the decision to fire him, Rosing said it was Google co-founder Larry Page.

According to the ruling, Reid had received a favorable performance review showing he "consistently met expectations."

Google e-mails show there was "no intention of hiring Reid in another department after he was removed from engineering," according to the appeals court ruling.

Reid left the company on Feb. 27, 2004, and filed his lawsuit five months later.

Google spokesman John Murchinson didn't immediately return a phone call or e-mail seeking comment. Reid's lawyer, Lorraine Ocheltree, also didn't immediately return a call.