Fischer v. United Parcel Serv. Inc

FRANK KEVIN FISCHER, Plaintiff-Appellee/Cross-Appellant,

v.UNITED PARCEL SERVICE, Inc., Defendant-Appellant/Cross-Appellee.

No. 08-1600

08-1601

United States Court Of Appeals For The Sixth Circuit

Date：: July 27, 2010

Before: SUHRHEINRICH, SUTTON and COOK, Circuit Judges.

COOK, Circuit Judge.

Kevin Fischer sued his former employer, United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS), accusing it of firing him in retaliation for (1) a previous race discrimination lawsuit he brought against the company; and (2) filing several internal complaints. A jury returned a verdict in Fischer's favor, awarding him back pay, compensatory damages, and punitive damages. UPS filed a post-trial motion challenging the sufficiency of the evidence, certain evidentiary rulings, and the validity of the punitive damage award. UPS alternatively sought remittitur of the compensatory award. The court vacated the punitive damage award but denied the other requests for relief, and UPS appealed. Fischer cross-appealed, arguing that the district court erred by vacating the punitive damage award and by granting summary judgment in favor of UPS on his state-law retaliation claim based on his internal complaints.

I. Background

Fischer began his career with UPS in 1985 as an hourly worker and, over the years, rose through the ranks to become a National Account Manager (NAM) in 1997. As a NAM, Fischer's principal responsibility involved selling UPS products and services to large corporate accounts. Throughout his tenure as a NAM, Fischer produced excellent sales numbers.

In October 2000, Fischer, an African American, sued UPS in federal court, claiming race discrimination, retaliation, and harassment. UPS obtained summary judgment on the race discrimination and retaliation claims, and the harassment claim proceeded to trial in December 2001. Fischer's supervisor, Alison Jarlett, testified for the defense. The jury returned a verdict in UPS's favor. For much of the pendency of the suit, Fischer was on medical leave from his job. He returned to work in February 2002, approximately two months after the harassment trial ended. The instant case concerns Fischer's experiences after his return. According to Fischer, Jarlett singled him out for differential treatment beginning on his first day back on the job. Fischer claimed that the retaliatory treatment continued for more than a year, eventually culminating in his termination on February 11, 2003.

Fischer sued UPS in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, accusing the company of violating Title VII and Michigan's Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act by unlawfully retaliating against him for his prior lawsuit and several internal complaints he filed just prior to his termination. The district court granted UPS's motion for summary judgment on theportion of the claim premised on Fischer's internal complaints, but, finding genuine disputes over material facts, allowed the claim of retaliation for the prior lawsuit to go to trial. Fischer v. United Parcel Serv., No. 05-70366, 2007 WL 313565 (E.D. Mich. Jan. 30, 2007). Following a seven-day trial, the jury returned a verdict in Fischer's favor, awarding him $150,000 in back pay, $650,000 in compensatory damages, and $1,300, 000 in punitive damages. The court reduced the punitive damages award to reflect Title VII's $300,000 statutory cap and entered judgment in Fischer's favor. UPS then moved for judgment as a matter of law or, in the alternative, a new trial or, as a second alternative, for remittitur. The district court refused to grant judgment as a matter of law on the merits but vacated the punitive damages award as unsupported by evidence of pervasive disregard of anti-discrimination policies by the company. Fischer v. United Parcel Serv., No. 05-70366, 2008 WL 880521 (E.D. Mich. Mar. 31, 2008). It also denied UPS's request for a new trial and refused to remit the compensatory award. The court entered a second amended judgment for Fischer in the amount of $800,000, and UPS brought this timely appeal. Fischer cross-appeals the adverse summary judgment ruling on his internal complaints retaliation claim, as well as the district court's decision to vacate the punitive damages award.

II. UPS's Appeal

On appeal, UPS attacks the district court's denial of its motion for judgment as a matter of law, for a new trial, or for remittitur. UPS claims that Fischer failed to supply evidence from which a reasonable jury could infer that his firing occurred in retaliation for his prior lawsuit, or that UPS'sproffered legitimate reason for his discharge was pretextual. Alternatively, UPS seeks a new trial on grounds that the district court abused its discretion in excluding the outcome of Fischer's prior lawsuit as unfairly prejudicial under Federal Rule of Evidence 403(b). As a second alternative, UPS argues that the district court erred by failing to remit the compensatory damages award, which UPS characterizes as excessive.

A. Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law

We give fresh review to the denial of a motion for judgment as a matter of law. Lowery v. Jefferson County Bd. of Educ., 586 F.3d 427, 432 (6th Cir. 2009). "Judgment as a matter of law is appropriate only when there is a complete absence of fact to support the verdict, so that no reasonable juror could have found for the nonmoving party." Pouillon v. City of Owosso, 206 F.3d 711, 719 (6th Cir. 2000) (quotation marks and citation omitted).

A prima facie unlawful retaliation claim under Title VII requires the plaintiff to demonstrate that (1) he engaged in protected activity; (2) the defendant knew of this exercise of protected rights; (3) the defendant thereafter took adverse employment action against the plaintiff; and (4) a causal connection exists between the protected activity and the adverse employment action. Morris v. Oldham County Fiscal Court, 201 F.3d 784, 792 (6th Cir. 2000). Once the plaintiff establishes a prima facie case, the burden shifts to the defendant "to produce evidence of a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for its actions." Niswander v. Cincinnati Ins. Co., 529 F.3d 714, 720 (6th Cir. 2008). If the defendant meets its burden, then the plaintiff must demonstrate that the legitimate reason is pretextual. Id.

1. Causation

UPS argues that Fischer failed to prove any facts from which the jury could infer a causal connection between his prior lawsuit (the protected activity) and his termination (the adverse employment action). Causation exists where the plaintiff "proffer[s] evidence sufficient to raise the inference that [the] protected activity was the likely reason for the adverse action." Michael v. Caterpillar Fin. Servs. Corp., 496 F.3d 584, 596 (6th Cir. 2007) (quoting Dixon v. Gonzales, 481 F.3d 324, 333 (6th Cir. 2007)). "In determining whether there is a causal relationship between a plaintiff's protected activity and an allegedly retaliatory act, courts may consider whether the employer treated the plaintiff differently from similarly situated individuals and whether there is a temporal connection between the protected activity and the retaliatory action." Barrett v. Whirlpool Corp., 556 F.3d 502, 516-17 (6th Cir. 2009).

At trial, both sides presented evidence that prior to the first lawsuit Fischer enjoyed a cordial, productive relationship with Jarlett, his direct supervisor, and that the two experienced no difficulty communicating. After he returned to duty, however, Fischer testified that from his first day back on the job, Jarlett's treatment ofhim differed noticeably. He described his post-return interactions with her as "cold" and "distant," and their communication as deteriorating to "terrible" and "almost nonexistent." Jarlett ignored Fischer's presence in the office, even though she remained cordial withthe other NAMs. Two of Fischer's co-workers corroborated his characterization of Jarlett's changed attitude. And Jarlett singled Fischer out for heightened scrutiny from the first day of his return, when she emailed higher-ups about Fischer's traffic-induced late arrival, precisely tracking his tardiness down to the minute. Jarlett also restricted Fischer exclusively to the office for several months and demanded to know his whereabouts at all times negative treatment none of the other NAMs under her supervision experienced.

"[W]here some time elapses between when the employer learns of a protected activity and the subsequent adverse employment action, the employee must couple temporal proximity with other evidence of retaliatory conduct to establish causality." Mickey v. Ziedler Tool & Die Co., 516 F.3d 516, 525 (6th Cir. 2008). UPS seizes on the time lapse between Fischer's first lawsuit (filed in October 2000) and his firing (in February 2003), arguing that the delay between the filing of the first suit and Fischer's discharge suggests a lack of causation. But this portrayal of the timing skews the practical reality Fischer had been on medical leave from before his discrimination case came to trial until his February 2002 return. And Fischer presented evidence that Jarlett's retaliatory conduct began on his very first day back on the job and continued unabated until his termination. Thus, as the district court noted in denying UPS's motion for summary judgment, "[t]he alleged retaliatory acts began when the opportunity first presented itself, immediately after he returned to work just two months after the lawsuit concluded." 2007 WL 313565, at *15. And contrary to UPS's claim that Fischer failed to identify any similarly-situated employees who received different treatment, Fischer presented a wealth of evidence that Jarlett treated him differently than all the other NAMs in hisoffice. Thus, the jury possessed sufficient evidence from which it could infer a causal link between Fischer's first lawsuit and his termination.

2. Pretext

UPS proffered a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for firing Fischer insubordinate conduct in three meetings Jarlett...