Rosario-Mendez v. Hewlett Packard Caribe Bv

638 F.Supp.2d 205

Iris M. ROSARIO-MÉNDEZ, Plaintiff v. HEWLETT PACKARD CARIBE BV, et al., Defendants.

Civil No. 06-1489 (JAG)(JA).

United States District Court, D. Puerto Rico.

July 30, 2009.

Luisselle Quinones-Maldonado, Heriberto Guivas-Lorenzo, Guivas & Quinones Law Office, Aguada, PR, for Plaintiff.

Carlos R. Ramirez, Fernando A. Baerga-Ibanez, Curbelo, Baerga & Quintana Law Office, San Juan, PR, for Defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER ON MOTION FOR NEW TRIAL

JUSTO ARENAS, United States Chief Magistrate Judge.

This matter is before the court on timely post-trial motions of Hewlett Packard Caribe filed on February 25, 2009, seeking judgment as a matter of law, new trial, seeking to alter judgment, remittitur, and the elimination of the award of punitive damages resulting from a jury verdict in favor of plaintiff in this Title VII case based upon claims of sexual harassment and hostile work environment. (Docket No. 143.) Plaintiff filed a response in opposition to the motion for judgment as a matter of law and motions seeking other remedies on March 19, 2009. (Docket No. 159.) Hewlett Packard filed a reply to the response on April 22, 2009. (Docket No. 176.) Plaintiff then filed a sur-reply to Hewlett Packard's reply on April 23, 2009. (Docket No. 177.)

Having considered the extensive memoranda and argument of Hewlett Packard Caribe BV, and plaintiff, the award of punitive damages is hereby vacated, and the other post-trial motions are denied.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

This case was tried to a jury on January 27, 28, 29, 30, and February 2 and 3, 2009. The jury found that Hewlett Packard subjected plaintiff to a sexually hostile work environment, and that the defendant did not act promptly in reaction to plaintiff's sexual harassment complaint, and did not provide her with an effective remedy to protect her from a hostile work environment. The jury awarded plaintiff $1,500,000.00 to adequately compensate her for the emotional pain and mental suffering caused by Hewlett Packard, and further awarded punitive damages in the amount of $500,000.00 because it found that Hewlett Packard acted with malice or reckless indifference to plaintiff's rights. (Docket No. 127.) The compensatory damages award was doubled in accordance with Puerto Rico Law 17, P.R. Laws Ann. tit. 29, § 155j(1).

After an amended judgment was issued to correct a clerical mistake, (Docket No. 135, dated February 11, 2009) plaintiff moved on February 13, 2009 to amend the judgment and request additur. (Docket No. 142.) On March 4, 2009, I directed the Clerk to amend the judgment. (Docket No. 149.) A second amended judgment was entered on March 23, 2009 awarding plaintiff one dollar in nominal damages on her Title VII claim and allocating $1,499,999 to her Puerto Rico Law 17 claim, which award was then doubled to $2,999,998. This was done because plaintiff's commonwealth and federal claims overlap, and she therefore has the right to choose to be awarded damages based on commonwealth law, which offers a more generous outcome than federal law. Tobin v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 553 F.3d 121, 146 (1st Cir.2009) (citing Doty v. Sewall, 908 F.2d 1053, 1063 (1st Cir.1990)); see Torres v. Caribbean Forms Mfr., 286 F.Supp.2d 209, 218-19 (D.P.R.2003). The punitive damages award remained the same. (Docket No. 162.)

RENEWED MOTION FOR NEW TRIAL

In reviewing the evidence on a motion for new trial, I consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict.

A verdict should only be set aside if the evidence at trial was so strongly and overwhelmingly inconsistent with the verdict that no reasonable jury could have returned it. Crowley v. L.L. Bean, Inc., 303 F.3d 387, 393 (1st Cir.2002). It has also been stated that "[o]nce a jury returns a verdict, a `heavy burden' is placed on one who challenges it." White v. New Hampshire Dep't of Corr., 221 F.3d 254, 259 (1st Cir.2000). A verdict must be upheld unless the evidence presented supports only one conclusion; that the verdict cannot stand. See Walton v. Nalco Chem. Co., 272 F.3d 13, 18 (1st Cir.2001). When reviewing the evidence, all inferences must be drawn in favor of the nonmoving party. Zimmerman v. Direct Fed. Credit Union, 262 F.3d 70, 75 (1st Cir.2001).

A new trial, on the other hand, should be granted and the verdict set aside if the trial judge "is of the opinion that the verdict is against the clear weight of the evidence," and that a miscarriage of justice will occur if the verdict is allowed to stand. Sheils Title Co. v. Commonwealth Land Title Ins. Co., 184 F.3d 10, 19 (1st Cir.1999).

Torres v. KMart Corp., 233 F.Supp.2d 273, 277 (D.P.R.2002).

If from the evidence presented at trial, fair minded persons could draw different inferences, then the matter is for the jury to resolve and judgment as a matter of law is not appropriate. Espada v. Lugo, 312 F.3d 1, 2 (1st Cir.2002). But the non-moving party must have presented "`more than a mere scintilla' of evidence" to survive a motion for judgment as a matter of law and cannot rely on "conjecture or speculation." Katz v. City Metal Co., 87 F.3d [26,] 28 [(1st Cir.1996)] (quoting Richmond Steel, Inc. v. P.R. Am. Ins. Co., 954 F.2d [19,] 22 [(1st Cir.1992)]).

Estate of Radamés Tejada v. Flores, 596 F.Supp.2d 205, 217 (D.P.R.2009) (quoting Gónzalez-Pérez v. Gómez-Águila, 312 F.Supp.2d 161, 164 (D.P.R.2004)); see Vega Santana v. Trujilo Panisse, 547 F.Supp.2d 129, 133 (D.P.R.2008).

IRIS M. ROSARIO-MéNDEZ

Plaintiff Iris M. Rosario-Méndez testified that she lives in Aguada, Puerto Rico, is divorced, has two children and works at Hewlett Packard in Aguadilla as an (electronics) operator, where she has worked in bonding, die and packaging, and other departments. She now works in the first shift, which begins at 6:00 A.M. and ends at 2:30 P.M. She has worked at Hewlett Packard for 12 years and 10 months. She started as a part-timer in 1996, and became a permanent employee in March 1997. She has also been a production coordinator, and has received some of the best evaluations possible. Plaintiff began working in the packaging department, and later worked in bonding, in "end-cap" and in "coverlayer" and was certified in each area of work. She has worked in all five shifts and has progressed in her employment.

Ms. Rosario-Méndez was moved to the third shift (10:00 P.M. to 6:10 A.M.) in the end-cap area in September 2004, where she remained until the end of May 2005. The end-cap area is where material was encapsulated from the flex die. Ms. Rosario-Méndez said that from the first day on the third shift she was subjected to obscene vocabulary and vulgar language throughout the shift. There was inappropriate, sexually explicit music which contained the phrase "cuckold, suck my dick" and which fostered a disrespectful atmosphere. Co-workers would grab their private parts and women would be sitting on the laps of men. People would make offensive gestures. The men would grab their penises. One would gesture to another mimicking oral sex. There was pornography on the computers, and the employees would call each other to enjoy e-mails with bra-less women wearing G-strings, including something called the "Power of the Week." Reggaeton was played in a high volume, including a song called "La Popola" by Julio Boglio, an unpleasant song that carries a very explicit (suggestive) message. The music made a few co-workers uncomfortable, but most supported it. As a woman, plaintiff was offended at the lack of respect. All of this occurred from the first day she arrived at the third shift. Ms. Rosario-Méndez felt she had no options because she had to operate her machine and could not leave her work area. She felt very badly and was embarrassed. She became depressed due to the offensive gestures and had continuing nightmares. Sometimes she went home because she did not feel up to being in the area.

Ms. Rosario-Méndez' supervisor was José Matías, who was rarely present. He would show up 10% of the time. She reported the vulgarity and music to this supervisor in September 2004. (In March 2005, she reported the issue in writing to the Hewlett Packard production manager.) Ms. Rosario-Méndez told José Matías of inappropriate comments in the workplace and that she was being made to feel uncomfortable. She asked him to talk to the personnel, but when he asked her to give him names she said that she could not.

Ms. Rosario-Méndez noted that Hewlett Packard had a policy against sexual harassment and that she has been aware of such a policy since she started working there. She may have received a copy of Hewlett Packard's sexual harassment policy and knew that an employee could complain to a supervisor or a person of her trust. She also knew there was an open door policy, that she could speak at any time, and that Hewlett Packard promoted the open door policy. New employees received the training, and once a year there was required training through the computer system. The sexual harassment policy is available 24 hours a day. Iris Rosario-Méndez is aware that there is a process at Hewlett Packard to make complaints and that by complaining to José Matías she followed the policy. She said that he did nothing to address her complaint, although she knows that the Hewlett Packard supervisor is supposed to conduct an investigation under such circumstances. In March 2005, plaintiff repeated the complaint to Human Resources. Before that time, an employee by the name of Miguel Rosario had harassed her at least four times. Aside from being an operator, Miguel Rosario is the right hand man of supervisor José Matías. The first specific incident with Miguel Rosario was a week after plaintiff had arrived at the third shift. He asked her why she had left her mate since with such a horny face, she had to be very hot in bed. Nobody else witnessed this statement, which was made while she was working. Upon hearing this, she felt like crying due to the lack of respect. She felt like...