Torres v. Caribbean Forms Mfr.

286 F.Supp.2d 209

Migdalia Rodriguez TORRES Plaintiff v. CARIBBEAN FORMS MANUFACTURER, et al. Defendants

No. CIV.00-2149(SEC).

United States District Court, D. Puerto Rico.

October 2, 2003.

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Carlos Rodriguez-Garcia, Esq., San Juan, PR, for Plaintiff.

Raul E. Bandas-Del-Pilar, Esq., Humberto S. Garcia, Esq., U.S. Attorney's Office, Torre Chardon, John F. Nevarez, San Juan, PR, for Defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER

CASELLAS, District Judge.

The parties in the above-captioned case have filed post-judgment motions requesting that the Court amend or alter the judgment entered following a jury trial. Plaintiffs seek amendment of the judgment to include doubling of the damages under Law No. 69 of July 6, 1985 (Law 69), 29 P.R. Laws Ann. §§ 1321 et seq., and Law No. 100 of June 30, 1959 (Law 100), as amended, P.R. Laws Ann. §§ 146 et seq., front pay, and interests on the damage award (Docket # 106). On the other hand, Defendants have renewed their request for judgment as a matter of law under Fed.R.Civ.P. 50, and have also moved for a new trial (Docket # 108). In the alternative, Defendants seek amendment of the judgment to reduce the damages awarded under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (Title VII), 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e et seq., pursuant to the statutory cap, and eliminate the damages awarded under Laws 69 and 100, and Article 1802 of the Puerto Rico Civil Code (Article 1802), 31 P.R. Laws Ann. § 5141, for several reasons. Defendant has also filed an opposition to Plaintiffs' motion to amend the judgment (Docket # 110). On the other hand, Plaintiffs have failed to file any opposition to Defendants' motion (or a reply to Defendants' opposition to their motion) by the extended deadline of September 18, 2003. Having reviewed the parties' arguments, as well as the relevant case law, the parties' motions will be GRANTED in part and DENIED in part, as further explained below.

Title VII Claim

Defendant first moves for judgment as a matter of law on the Title VII claim for discrimination based on gender, arguing that Plaintiff failed to meet the prima facie standard set out in McDonnell Douglas Corporation v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973). On the other hand, Plaintiff pointed out during arguments on the Rule 50 motion that direct evidence of discrimination was presented at trial and, as such, the McDonnell Douglas prima facie standard is inapplicable to the case at bar.

Under Fed.R.Civ.P. 50, the Court may set aside a jury's verdict and issue a different judgment "only in those instances where, after having examined the evidence as well as all permissible inferences drawn therefrom in the light most favorable to non-movant, the court finds that a reasonable jury could not render a verdict in that party's favor." Irvine v. Murad Skin Research Laboratories, Inc., 194 F.3d 313, 316 (1st Cir.1999). In doing this analysis, the Court "may not take into consideration the credibility of witnesses, resolve conflicts in testimony, or in any other manner weigh the evidence." Alvarez-Fonseca v. Pepsi Cola of Puerto Rico Bottling Company, 152 F.3d 17, 23 (1st Cir.1998). For a non-movant party to survive a Rule 50 motion, it must have introduced during trial sufficiently adequate evidence so the jury could have concluded the plausibility of the particular fact in issue. "Thus, in order to support a jury finding on such an issue, the evidence presented must make the existence of the fact to be inferred more probable than its nonexistence." Id. at 24.

A plaintiff alleging disparate treatment under a statute like the ADEA usually proceeds by means of the familiar framework engendered in McDonnell Douglas, 411 U.S. at 802-05, 93 S.Ct. 1817. Under said framework, the burden of persuasion remains with the plaintiff throughout the case. See Fernandes v. Costa Bros. Masonry, 199 F.3d 572, 581 (1st Cir.1999). In some situations, however, a plaintiff may be entitled to use an approach that relieves her of this unremitting burden of persuasion. Febres v. Challenger Caribbean Corp., 214 F.3d 57, 59-61 (1st Cir.2000). The key that unlocks this door is the existence of direct evidence that a proscribed factor (such as age, gender, race, or national origin) played a motivating part in the disputed employment decision. See Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, 490 U.S. 228, 276-77, 109 S.Ct. 1775 104 L.Ed.2d 268 (1989) (O'Connor, J., concurring); Fernandes, 199 F.3d at 580. The McDonnell Douglas test, then, only applies in cases where there is no evidence of direct discrimination. Smith v. F.W. Morse & Co., 76 F.3d 413 (1st Cir.1996).

Plaintiff argued that this is a case of direct evidence, and that McDonnell Douglas is, therefore, inapplicable. In particular, Plaintiff presented evidence that Defendant Carlos Restrepo, Plaintiff Migdalia Rodríguez Torres's supervisor, and a person directly involved in the decision process regarding Plaintiff's employment, made several derogatory comments referring to Plaintiff's age and gender. Plaintiff presented proof that Defendant Restrepo called Defendant an old crazy woman, and told her that he believed that women think with their feet. Defendant Restrepo also allegedly told Plaintiff that women are good for nothing and that that is why they wanted to only have men working for them.

Defendants contend that these comments, even if believed by the jury, are only stray remarks which do not constitute direct evidence of discrimination under the framework set forth above. We disagree. In Febres, 214 F.3d at 59-61, the First Circuit Court of Appeals specifically addressed the question of what constitutes direct evidence of discrimination. The court explained that "evidence is `direct' (and thus justifies a mixed-motive jury instruction) when it consists of statements by a decisionmaker that directly reflect the alleged animus and bear squarely on the contested employment decision." Id. at 60-61 citing Taylor v. Virginia Union Univ., 193 F.3d 219, 232 (4th Cir.1999) (en banc); Lambert v. Ackerley, 180 F.3d 997, 1008-09 (9th Cir.1999) (en banc); Thomas v. NFL Players Ass'n, 131 F.3d 198, 204 (D.C.Cir.1997). On that occasion, a defendant's admission that age was one of three criteria used, at least in some cases, to determine which employees would be retained and which would not constituted direct evidence warranting a mixed-motive instruction. The situation in the present case is strikingly similar. As mentioned above, Defendant Restrepo, a decisionmaker regarding Plaintiff's employment, stated to Plaintiff herself that he thought women were not capable of anything and that that was why he wanted to only have men working with him. We believe that these comments are exactly the type of statements that directly reflect a discriminatory animus on the part of a decisionmaker, and that constitutes direct evidence. We find that the present case is indistinguishable from Febres.

In support of their position, however, Defendants cite two cases which were resolved by the First Circuit after Febres: Baralt v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., 251 F.3d 10 (1st Cir.2001) and Williams v. Raytheon, Co., 220 F.3d 16 (1st Cir.2000). However, both these cases dealt with situations in which the plaintiffs were attempting to prove their discrimination cases via the circumstantial evidence under the McDonnell Douglas standard. The court did not explicitly consider the issue of what constitutes direct evidence of discrimination in either case, and it is not even clear whether plaintiffs in those cases even alleged that their cases were based on direct evidence of discrimination. As such, both Baralt and Williams are inapposite to the present case.

Furthermore, even though in Williams the court made reference to the fact that some of Defendants' statements were insufficient to establish discriminatory intent, the situation in that case was quite different from the one now before us. In that occasion, the defendant had stated that she believed that the company at issue was run by old white men, and that she intended to try and bring on more women and young folk. This statement, by itself, is not as derogatory as the statements allegedly made by Defendant Restrepo. Furthermore, we find that the direct evidence presented by Plaintiff in the case before us was more indicative of discriminatory animus directly related to the relationship between Plaintiff's supervisor and Plaintiff. For these reasons, we understand that Febres is more comparable to the present situation than Williams. The jury in this case was specifically instructed that they could find discriminatory intent from either direct or indirect evidence of discrimination. See Docket # 99 at 10. We will not second-guess the jury's decision when, as is the case here, a reasonable jury could have found that Plaintiff proved her case through direct evidence of discrimination. When direct evidence of discrimination is provided, the case may be submitted to a finder of fact without further ado. Alvarez-Fonseca v. Pepsi Cola of P.R., 152 F.3d 17, 24 (1st Cir.1998). Accordingly, Defendants' motion for judgment as a matter of law dismissing the Title VII claim is DENIED.

Article 1802 Claim

Defendant also argues that Plaintiffs' claim under Article 1802 of the Puerto Rico Civil Code, 31 P.R. Laws Ann. § 5141, is time-barred. In Padilla Cintron v. Rossello, 247 F. sUpp.2d 48, 55-56 (D.P.R.2003), this Court held that the filing of an administrative claim with the Department of Labor or the EEOC tolls the applicable statute of limitations and suspends the running of the prescription term for claims brought under Title VII and Law 100. However, the effect of such an administrative filing is different with respect to claims brought under Article 1802. Id. Instead, while the administrative claim tolls the applicable statute of limitations, it does not prevent the prescriptive term from running anew from the...