Miller-Weaver v. Dieomatic Inc.

657 S.W.3d 245

Sherice Renee MILLER-WEAVER, Respondent,

v.DIEOMATIC INCORPORATED, d/b/a LMV Automotive Systems, Appellant.

WD 85078

Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District.

OPINION FILED: December 13, 2022

Bert S. Braud and Dennis E. Egan, Kansas City, MO, Attorneys for Respondent.

Kathleen M. Nemechek and Stephen M. Bledsoe, Kansas City, MO, Attorneys for Appellant.

Before Division Three: Karen King Mitchell, Presiding Judge, and Cynthia L. Martin and Anthony Rex Gabbert, Judges

Karen King Mitchell, Presiding Judge

Dieomatic Incorporated, d/b/a LMV Automotive Systems (LMV), appeals, following a jury trial, the judgment in favor of plaintiff below, Sherice Renee Miller-Weaver (Weaver), on her claims for actual and punitive damages based on (1) racially hostile work environment under the Missouri Human Rights Act §§ 213.010-213.137 (MHRA);¹ and (2) failure to issue a proper service letter under § 290.140.1, which resulted in a judgment against LMV of $1,225,001.00² plus attorneys’ fees and costs.

LMV raises four points on appeal. In its first point, LMV argues that the trial court should have instructed the jury using the MHRA's "motivating factor" causation standard, based on a 2017 amendment to the MHRA effective August 28, 2017, instead of the previous "contributing factor" standard because Weaver's hostile work environment claim accrued after August 28, 2017.³ LMV's second point, also based on the 2017 MHRA amendments, argues that the trial court should have enforced the $500,000 damage cap in § 213.111.4(2)(d), effective August 28, 2017, because Weaver's hostile work environment claim accrued after August 28, 2017. In its third point, LMV argues that the trial court should not have entered judgment for Weaver on her "racial harassment" claim because she failed to plead a claim of racial harassment or racially hostile work environment in her petition. In its fourth point, LMV argues that the punitive damages award on Weaver's service letter statute claim was not supported by clear and convincing evidence. Finding no merit in LMV's arguments, we affirm.

Background⁴

LMV, located in Liberty, Missouri, manufactures component parts for automobile manufacturers. On April 13, 2015, LMV hired Weaver, an African-American woman, as a human resources (HR) coordinator and, shortly afterward, promoted her to the position of senior HR coordinator. She reported directly to the HR manager who, during her employment, was Ken McIsaac until October 31, 2016, and Robert Clemens thereafter. At all times during Weaver's employment, Andy Hrasky was either the assistant general manager or the general manager of LMV. In his position as general manager, Hrasky terminated Weaver's employment on November 14, 2017.

Weaver testified that, by early 2016, she had noticed things that were "not right" at LMV. She first noticed white employees, mostly men but some women, not responding to her when she greeted them or spoke to them. She stated that they would not shake her hand but pulled away as if they did not want her to touch them. Weaver also testified about other occurrences at LMV in 2016, including (1) T-shirts worn by temporary LMV workers that had Confederate flags on them; (2) a hat with a Confederate flag on it that was worn into a company-wide meeting by a member of LMV's "fairness committee," created by LMV to address employee concerns; (3) a truck, driven by an LMV employee and parked in its lot every day, with a large Confederate flag attached to the back on a pole; (4) a swastika emblem inside an employee's toolbox; and (5) complaints made to her by African-American workers that their training was made more difficult due to racism.

Those concerns and others were raised in a lengthy email Weaver sent to McIsaac on August 11, 2016. Weaver and her HR colleague Mahasin Pledger, who is also African-American, had met with McIsaac and Hrasky the day before to discuss their concerns of racism, particularly the presence of Confederate flags on an employee's truck and on clothing. Weaver stated that she had hoped to get the support of LMV senior management to denounce racism but that both men were defensive in the August 10 meeting. Hrasky told Weaver that some of their concerns were not valid and that the Confederate flag "thing" was not "necessarily bad." Both men later testified that the Confederate flag was offensive to "some people."

Weaver testified that she had been thinking about sending her August 11 email for a couple of months but was concerned that complaining could lead to her termination. She started the email by explaining that the events mentioned in it were examples of the "types of things we have been dealing with" and that she and Pledger were "discriminated against weekly and lately it's been daily." She ended the email to McIsaac with the following statement:

I am not in any way implying that you are racist or have ever treated me with racist intent but ... the things that happen to us are being allowed and we are not being protected like others. We are committed to LMV. But we need LMV to support us as well.... [W]e would like to sit down with you and discuss this information and hopefully come to a place of mutual respect and understanding.

Her email detailed ongoing complaints of improper treatment, including the following: (1) being questioned about the way she looked, smiled, and greeted white workers; (2) being expected to work harder, longer, and more frequently on-site (rather than remotely) than white employees with similar responsibilities; (3) she and Pledger being treated with "clear disrespect" and "made to feel less than equal" to white employees, all while having to "make sure we never get upset"; (4) having to contend with employees who display the Confederate flag and KKK emblems on clothing and vehicles, giving the appearance that LMV supported such displays; and (5) bringing complaints of racism to LMV management and either being ignored or told offensive comments were just "dry humor."

Hrasky labeled Weaver's email a "diatribe" and admitted he was not sure he even read all of it. He testified that he saw "no reason to change anything." Weaver testified that nothing changed after the meeting and email, there was no investigation into her complaints, and the problems persisted. Sometime after October 31, 2016, when Clemens replaced McIsaac as HR manager, Weaver again complained about a truck bearing the Confederate flag, this time to Clemens. Clemens testified that he walked through the parking lot that day, did not see the truck or the flag, and did not hear from Weaver again about it.

Although Weaver had received an "A" performance evaluation in June 2016, being praised for her job knowledge and dependability, she was downgraded to a "B" in her September 2017 review. Weaver, upset about what she believed to be false statements in the 2017 review, refused to sign it. In October 2017, Weaver was criticized by a white employee for having created a "ghetto" flyer for a Halloween "trunk or treat" company event,⁵ which Weaver then reported to Clemens. By that point, Weaver had advised David Worrall, LMV's vice president of HR, of her concerns about "the hostile bully environment we work in every day." On October 16, 2017, she told Worrall, "This is really out of control and I need assistance." In an email to Clemens on November 7, 2017, Weaver stated, "Racism at LMV is heavily present as has been for years.... This mindset is what we deal with every day and it's all around us."

On November 14, 2017, Hrasky fired Weaver. On November 21, 2017, Weaver sent a certified letter to Hrasky asking for a letter of dismissal under the service letter statute, § 290.140. Clemens testified that he drafted the letter and emailed it to Hrasky for signing on January 25, 2018, then gave the signed letter to "our administrative assistants" to mail on January 26, 2018. Weaver testified that she never received the letter. On February 8, 2018, Weaver filed her charge of discrimination against LMV with the Missouri Commission on Human Rights (MCHR). On October 30, 2018, after receiving a right-to-sue letter, she filed a four-count petition, naming as defendants LMV and Clemens and claiming race discrimination, sex discrimination, retaliation, and violation of the service letter statute; she attached to the petition her February 8, 2018 charge of discrimination with the MCHR. Weaver dismissed her claims against Clemens and her claim of sex discrimination at the close of evidence in trial.

Weaver's petition alleged the following in support of her claim of race discrimination:

1. As an African-American female, she was a member of a protected class;

2. She was paid less than other senior HR employees because of her race;

3. Her supervisor did not give her credit for her ideas or allow her to implement them;

4. She was given less preferential treatment than similar HR employees because of her race;

5. Racist emblems, including the Confederate flag and KKK symbols, were on-site at LMV, and discrimination was occurring within the LMV plant;

6. She was downgraded in her annual evaluation after she complained of discrimination at LMV, when she had received excellent evaluations previously; and

7. Her MCHR Charge of Discrimination, referred to in Paragraph 7 of her petition and attached as "Exhibit A" thereto, alleged the above facts and marked the "date of discrimination" box to indicate it was a "continuing action."

Weaver first described her claim as one of a "hostile work environment" in response to LMV's pre-trial motion for summary judgment. LMV argued that her claims were time-barred, and Weaver argued that they were timely under the continuing violation theory of accrual. The trial court⁶ agreed with Weaver, denying LMV's summary judgment motion.

The trial court overruled LMV's objections at trial about the use of the "contributing factor" standard in the court's verdict-directing instruction on Weaver's hostile work environment claim. The...