Schmitz v. U.S. Steel Corp.

852 N.W.2d 669

Darrel SCHMITZ, Respondent,

v.UNITED STATES STEEL CORPORATION, Appellant.

No. A12–0709.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

Aug. 27, 2014.

Syllabus by the Court

1. A retaliatory-discharge claim under the Workers' Compensation Act, Minn.Stat. § 176.82, subd. 1 (2012), that seeks only money damages is legal in nature and therefore carries an attendant right to a jury trial under the Minnesota Constitution.

2. An employer may not assert a Faragher/Ellerth affirmative defense to vicarious liability for a threat-to-discharge claim under Minn.Stat. § 176.82, subd. 1.

Michelle Dye Neumann, Phillip M. Kitzer, Halunen & Associates, Minneapolis, MN, for respondent.

Douglas R. Christensen, Joel O'Malley, Marilyn Clark, Dorsey & Whitney LLP, Minneapolis, MN; and Rodney M. Torbic, United States Steel Corporation, Pittsburgh, PA, for appellant.

Steven Andrew Smith, Cristina Parra, Nichols Kaster, PLLP, Minneapolis, MN, for amicus curiae National Employment Lawyers Association.

OPINION

PAGE, Justice.

Respondent Darrel Schmitz commenced an action against his former employer, appellant United States Steel Corporation (U.S. Steel), alleging, among other things, retaliatory-discharge and threat-to-discharge claims under the Workers' Compensation Act (WCA), Minn.Stat. §§ 176.001–.862 (2012). After various proceedings below, we granted U.S. Steel's petition for review on two issues. For the reasons discussed below, we affirm the court of appeals and hold that: (1) Schmitz has the right to a jury trial on his retaliatory-dischargeeee claim under Minn.Stat. § 176.82, subd. 1; and (2) U.S. Steel may not assert a Faragher/Ellerth affirmative defense ¹ to Schmitz's threat-to-discharge claim under Minn.Stat. § 176.82, subd. 1.

In October 2006, Schmitz was employed as a maintenance mechanic for U.S. Steel in Keewatin, Minnesota. On October 23, 2006, Schmitz injured his back while replacing a steel liner. The injury occurred when he accessed some equipment and “felt a pop” in his back, which caused him to fall to his knees. Schmitz immediately reported the incident to his supervisor, foreman M.B. Schmitz testified that he did not fill out an accident report that day, that it is the foreman's job to fill out accident reports, and that filing an accident report is the first step toward making a claim for workers' compensation benefits at U.S. Steel.

The next day, Schmitz called M.B. from home to tell him that his side and back felt strange. M.B. reported the call to his supervisor, L.S., and the two of them subsequently spoke to Schmitz. Schmitz testified that L.S. warned Schmitz against filing an accident report:

[L.S.] told me that the company would—was taking a big, dim view if I would fill out an accident report and they wouldn't like it at all. And I said, “What are they going to do, fire me?” He said, “Well, without having to perjure [myself],” he said, “Yes.”

L.S.'s testimony contradicted Schmitz's. L.S. claimed that he simply asked Schmitz if he was hurt at work, and Schmitz responded that he was not saying he was injured at work, just that his back did not feel the same. Two days later, after being examined by his doctor, Schmitz returned to work without any physical restrictions.

In December 2006, Schmitz injured his back at home. Because of his December 2006 injury, Schmitz was not cleared to return to work until October 2007.² At that time, Schmitz had certain work restrictions that prevented him from performing the functions of a maintenance mechanic, and U.S. Steel claimed that it did not have any job openings that could accommodate those restrictions. Schmitz never returned to work at U.S. Steel.

In May 2008, Schmitz filed a complaint against U.S. Steel in district court. In the complaint, Schmitz asserted that U.S. Steel discharged him for seeking workers' compensation benefits, in violation of Minn.Stat. § 176.82, subd. 1, and refused to offer Schmitz continued employment, in violation of Minn.Stat. § 176.82, subd. 2. Schmitz also asserted a disability-discrimination claim under the Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA), Minn.Stat. §§ 363A.01–.43 (2012). The district court granted summary judgment to U.S. Steel on each of the claims.

Schmitz appealed for the first time, and the court of appeals affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment on Schmitz's claims under the MHRA, but reversed and remanded on Schmitz's section 176.82 claims. Schmitz v. U.S. Steel Corp., No. A10–0633, 2010 WL 4941668, at *1 (Minn.App. Dec. 7, 2010).

On remand, the district court granted Schmitz's motion to amend the complaint to add a claim for threatening to discharge him for seeking workers' compensation benefits in violation of Minn.Stat. § 176.82, subd. 1. The court also granted U.S. Steel's pretrial motion to quash Schmitz's demand for a jury trial on the retaliatory-discharge and refusal-to-offer-continued-employment claims. In quashing the demand, the district court concluded that Minn.Stat. § 176.82 does not provide such a right.

Following a bench trial, the district court: (1) entered judgment for Schmitz on his threat-to-discharge claim, awarding $15,000 in emotional-distress damages; (2) rejected Schmitz's retaliatory-discharge and refusal-to-offer-continued-employment claims; (3) denied U.S. Steel's posttrial motion seeking a finding that U.S. Steel satisfied the Faragher/Ellerth affirmative defense to supervisory misconduct; and (4) granted Schmitz's motion for attorney fees in part, awarding $203,112.

On appeal, the court of appeals again affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded. Schmitz v. U.S. Steel Corp. (Schmitz II), 831 N.W.2d 656, 662 (Minn.App.2013). The court of appeals affirmed the judgment for U.S. Steel on Schmitz's refusal-to-offer-continued-employment claim and concluded that Schmitz is not entitled to a jury trial on that claim because it is equitable in nature. Id. at 679. However, the court of appeals reversed and remanded the denial of a jury trial on Schmitz's retaliatory-discharge claim. It concluded that a retaliatory-discharge claim under Minn.Stat. § 176.82, subd. 1, that seeks only money damages is legal rather than equitable in nature and, therefore, Schmitz is guaranteed the right to a jury trial under the Minnesota Constitution. Schmitz II, 831 N.W.2d at 678. With respect to U.S. Steel's contention that it was entitled to assert a Faragher/Ellerth affirmative defense to Schmitz's section 176.82 threat-to-discharge claim, the court of appeals ruled that there was no legal basis for permitting such a defense. Schmitz II, 831 N.W.2d at 673.

I.

We turn first to the question of whether Schmitz has the right to a jury trial on his retaliatory-discharge claim under Minn. Stat § 176.82, subd. 1.³Minnesota Statutes § 176.82, subd. 1, provides a cause of action for retaliatory discharge for seeking workers' compensation benefits:

Any person discharging or threatening to discharge an employee for seeking workers' compensation benefits or in any manner intentionally obstructing an employee seeking workers' compensation benefits is liable in a civil action for damages incurred by the employee including any diminution in workers' compensation benefits caused by a violation of this section including costs and reasonable attorney fees, and for punitive damages not to exceed three times the amount of any compensation benefit to which the employee is entitled.

Minn.Stat. § 176.82, subd. 1. “The right to a jury trial must be found either in the Minnesota Constitution or provided specifically by statute.” Ewert v. City of Winthrop, 278 N.W.2d 545, 550 (Minn.1979). Section 176.82 does not expressly provide such a right. Therefore, the right to a jury trial in this case, if it exists, must arise from the Minnesota Constitution. Whether the Minnesota Constitution provides the right to a jury trial is a question of law that we review de novo. United Prairie Bank–Mountain Lake v. Haugen Nutrition & Equip., LLC, 813 N.W.2d 49, 53 (Minn.2012).

Article I, Section 4, of the Minnesota Constitution provides that: “The right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate, and shall extend to all cases at law without regard to the amount in controversy.” Minn. Const. art. I, § 4. “This provision is intended to continue, unimpaired and inviolate, the right to trial by jury as it existed in the Territory of Minnesota when our constitution was adopted in 1857.” Abraham v. Cnty. of Hennepin, 639 N.W.2d 342, 348 (Minn.2002). “A party is therefore constitutionally entitled to a trial by jury ‘if a party raising that same theory for relief at the time the Minnesota Constitution was adopted also would have been entitled to a jury trial.’ ” United Prairie Bank, 813 N.W.2d at 53 (quoting Olson v. Synergistic Techs. Bus. Sys., Inc., 628 N.W.2d 142, 149 (Minn.2001)).

We have explained, however, that “Article I, Section 4 does not freeze the right to a jury trial to only those causes of action that existed in 1857.” United Prairie Bank, 813 N.W.2d at 53. To determine the right to a jury trial, we analyze “current causes of action and pleading practices in the context of the theories of relief ... and the jurisprudence” at the time of the enactment of Minnesota's Constitution. Id. at 53–54. We focus not on whether the exact cause of action existed, but on the type of action—whether the claim is an action at law, for which the Constitution guarantees a right to a jury trial, or an action in equity, for which there is no constitutional guarantee to a jury trial. Id. at 54.

U.S. Steel argues that the court of appeals erred in reversing the district court's decision to quash Schmitz's request for a jury trial on his retaliatory-discharge claim. According to U.S. Steel, the Legislature was entitled to, and did, preclude the right to a jury trial when it created a new set of rights and remedies under the WCA as part of the mutual renunciation of common law rights and defenses by employers and employees in cases involving...