Duarte v. St. Barnabas Hosp.

341 F.Supp.3d 306

Ruth Rojas DUARTE, Plaintiff,

v.ST. BARNABAS HOSPITAL, Defendant.

15 Civ. 6824 (PGG)

United States District Court, S.D. New York.

Signed September 15, 2018

Filed September 17, 2018

Bennitta Lisa Joseph, Joseph & Norinsberg LLC, Bruce J. Gitlin, Bruce J. Gitlin, P.C., Gabrielle Vinci, Nesenoff & Miltenberg. LLP, Megan Sarah Goddard, Goddard Law PLLC, New York, NY, Stephen Bergstein, Bergstein & Ullrich, LLP, New Paltz, NY, for Plaintiff.

James Stuart Frank, John Francis Fullerton, III, Adriana Stefanie Kosovych, David Wayne Garland, Epstein Becker & Green, P.C., New York, NY, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION & ORDER

PAUL G. GARDEPHE, U.S.D.J.:

Plaintiff Ruth Duarte alleges that her former employer, St. Barnabas Hospital (the "Hospital"), discriminated against her on the basis of her hearing disability, in violation of the New York City Human Rights Law ("NYCHRL"), N.Y.C. Admin. Code § 8-101 etseq.¹ Following a five-day trial, the jury returned a verdict in Plaintiff's favor, awarding her $624,000 in compensatory damages for emotional distress, and $750,000 in punitive damages. (Verdict (Dkt. No. 144) )

The Hospital has moved under Fed. R. Civ. P. 59 for a new trial and/or a remittitur concerning the damage awards. (Def. Mot. (Dkt. No. 163) ) For the reasons stated below, the Hospital's motion for a new trial will be granted with respect to the compensatory and punitive damage awards unless Plaintiff accepts a remittitur reducing the amount of compensatory damages to $125,000, and the amount of punitive damages to $125,000.

BACKGROUND

I. HARASSMENT SUFFERED BY PLAINTIFF

Plaintiff Duarte was born and raised in Ecuador, and has suffered from a hearing disability since childhood. (Trial Tr. ("Tr.") at 727, 768) In the late 1970s, at the age of 19, Plaintiff immigrated to the United States and settled in the Bronx. (Id. at 727-29) Plaintiff learned English, and she obtained a bachelor's degree in public administration in 1994, and a master's degree in social work in 2007. (Id. at 731-37)

On July 9, 2007, immediately after receiving her master's degree, Plaintiff began work as a bilingual clinician at St. Barnabas Hospital's David Casella Children's Services program ("DCCS") in the Bronx. (Id. at 194, 741-43) DCCS is a clinic that provides mental health services to children. (Id. at 223) While employed at DCCS, Plaintiff provided psychotherapy services for children and adolescents through individual, family, and group therapies. (Id. at 743) Plaintiff was employed at DCCS until August 7, 2014. (Id. at 746)

Edgardo Quinones was the divisional director for children's services throughout Plaintiff's employment at DCCS. (Id. at 204) In that role, Quinones supervised more than thirty-five employees, including four clinical supervisors, who in turn directly supervised clinicians such as Duarte. (Id. ) Milagros Arce-Tomala was Plaintiff's clinical supervisor. (Id. at 535) When Arce-Tomala was on vacation, Quinones served as Plaintiff's direct supervisor. (Id. at 785)

As a clinician at DCCS, Plaintiff was required to attend two types of staff meetings, both of which occurred on Wednesdays and were conducted in a large conference room at DCCS. (Id. at 342-43, 348, 567) At administrative meetings – which took place every other Wednesday – DCCS managers discussed, inter alia, new policies, "work performance and quality and levels of service,"² and the timely completion of paperwork. (Id. at 342, 346-47, 353, 755-56, 765) Attendees at administrative meetings included Quinones, Arce-Tomala, an intake worker, a family support worker, an administrative assistant, seven to ten clinicians (including Plaintiff), and – on some occasions – a registration clerk and a child psychiatrist. (Id. at 340-41, 755)

Clinical team meetings took place on alternate Wednesdays. (Id. at 347) Quinones, Arce-Tomala, half of the clinicians, a clinical supervisor, and psychiatrists attended the clinical team meetings. (Id. at 198-99, 350) Because only half the clinicians attended clinical team meetings at a time, Plaintiff was present at clinical team meetings only once a month. (Id. at 348)

Quinones presided at both the administrative and clinical team meetings (together, "staff meetings") unless he was unavailable, in which case Arce-Tomala presided. (Id. at 578, 756) When Quinones was present, he sat at the head of the table, and Arce-Tomala usually sat next to him. (Id. at 571-72) Plaintiff's hearing disability made it difficult for her to hear what was said at these meetings. (Id. at 760) Accordingly, Plaintiff generally sat next to Quinones, or Arce-Tomala, depending on who was leading the meeting, to ensure that she could hear the primary speaker. (Id. at 571, 577, 579-80, 757)

In 2007, notwithstanding her proximity to Quinones at the staff meetings, Plaintiff sometimes could not hear what he was saying, and she would ask him to repeat his remarks. (Id. at 760-61) Quinones would then call Plaintiff "deaf," or ask her if she was deaf. (Id. at 761)

In 2008, Duarte began bringing a hearing aid device to the staff meetings. (Id. at 559, 594, 762) The device was a "little rectangular box" – about two by three inches in size – with ear-bud headphones that Duarte wore during staff meetings. (Id. at 200, 389) Rosa Torres – another DCCS clinician (id. at 558, 562) – testified that, at these meetings, Plaintiff "would take out her" hearing aid device and "set it up."³ (Id. at 560) Plaintiff "would always comment [that she] ha[d] to put [the hearing device] on, ... so [she could] hear the speaker," and she openly adjusted the device at staff meetings. (Id. at 560, 562) Once Plaintiff started using the device, she brought it to every staff meeting. (Id. at 357)⁴

Even with her hearing aid, however, Plaintiff still had difficulty hearing at staff meetings, and she sometimes asked Quinones to repeat himself. (Id. at 763-65) Plaintiff testified that, when she made these requests, Quinones "started to make such comments as ... you are deaf? You don't listen? Put your thing on. I want you to hear what I said. I don't want to hear later on that you say that you didn't hear me." (Id. at 766) Quinones would "sometimes add things like, I want you to hear what I'm going to say. I don't want to hear later that you didn't hear. You hear when it's convenien[t] to you." (Id. ) After making these remarks, Quinones would slap the conference room table with his hands. (Id. at 766-67)

According to Duarte, Quinones's hand-slapping on the table triggered painful memories for Plaintiff, and caused her to cry and remain silent. (Id. at 766-67) During Plaintiff's childhood, her father verbally and physically abused her when she could not hear him. (Id. at 768) Plaintiff testified that her father often asked her, "are you deaf?" and hit her, because he believed she "was not obeying him." (Id. ) Plaintiff told Quinones about her father's abuse. (See id. at 768-69, 784-85)

During 2009, Plaintiff continued to experience difficulty hearing during staff meetings, and continued to ask Quinones to repeat himself. (Id. at 769-70) According to Plaintiff, Quinones responded in the same fashion. (Id. at 770) Quinones made comments about Duarte's hearing at staff meetings "[t]wo or three times" in 2009 before Plaintiff took medical leave in the fall. (Id. at 790-91) Plaintiff was on medical leave from October 16, 2009, until August 16, 2010. (Id. at 877)

When Plaintiff returned to work in 2010, she resumed attending staff meetings, and again sat next to Quinones. (Id. at 770-71) Plaintiff continued to experience difficulty hearing during staff meetings, and asked Quinones to repeat himself. (Id. at 771, 773) When Duarte asked Quinones to repeat himself, he would call her "deaf" and say, "[p]ut your things on your ear." (Id. at 773) Quinones continued to slap the conference room table at these moments, again triggering memories of Plaintiff's childhood and making her feel "guilty [for] having [her] impairment." (Id. at 774) Duarte testified that Quinones made comments about her hearing impairment on two or three occasions in 2010. (Id. at 791-92)

Plaintiff spoke with Quinones in 2010 about his remarks concerning her hearing impairment. (Id. at 783-84) According to Duarte, these conversations took place in her office when Quinones was reviewing her progress notes for patients. (Id. at 786) Plaintiff told Quinones, "I don't like when you say this. It is very hurtful to me. It hurts me. Can you please stop." (Id. at 784) Duarte reminded Quinones of the abuse she had suffered as a child, and told Quinones, "I don't like it when [you] say that I'm deaf or when [you] ma[k]e remarks to remind me of my childhood, my adolescent days." (Id. ) Duarte addressed these concerns with Quinones on two or three occasions in 2010, but there was no change in his behavior. (Id. at 784-86)

Quinones's remarks concerning Duarte's disability continued through 2011. (Id. at 774) When Plaintiff told Quinones during staff meetings that she could not hear him, he ridiculed her disability. (Id. ) This occurred on approximately three occasions in 2011. (Id. at 792) During 2011, Duarte had "[t]wo or three" more conversations with Quinones about his remarks concerning her disability. (Id. at 787) According to Duarte, Quinones referred to her as "dumb" or "stupid" during one of these conversations, which left her in tears. (Id. at 788)

Plaintiff complained to Arce-Tomala about Quinones's remarks on two or three occasions in 2011. (Id. at 793-95) According to Duarte, she pleaded with Arce-Tomala not to "go on vacation. When you go on vacation, and [Quinones] reviews my [progress] notes, he tells me things that I feel bad about, such as remarks about my hearing disability." (Id. at 795) Arce-Tomala told Duarte, "You've got to speak to him, you've got to deal with him." (Id. at 796)

At staff meetings between 2011 and 2014, Quinones continued to ask Plaintiff if she was deaf. (Id. at 585, 846, 849) Plaintiff again complained to...