For her part, Ms. Coleman testified that Mr. Murray did not discuss with her the complaints about Mr. Newborn until the day she was terminated, and that she never received any kind of warning, written or verbal. She also contended at trial that Mr. Newborn never left the airport during his shift and that the person B-G Management eyewitnesses had seen leaving the airport was not Mr. Newborn, but someone who looked very much like him. In addition, she presented evidence that B-G Maintenance had not discharged male supervisors whose subordinate employees had left the airport during their shifts, and that none of Mr. Newborn's other supervisors, male or female, had been terminated. The jury also returned a verdict in Ms. Coleman's favor on her contract claim. We review jury instructions de novo, and must view the instructions in their entirety, deciding not whether the instruction was completely faultless, but whether the jury was misled in any way.
Reversal is warranted when a deficient jury instruction is prejudicial.
In order for Plaintiff, Ms. Stephanie Coleman, to establish her discrimination claim against B-G Maintenance Management of Colorado, Inc., she has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant's actions were motivated by the Plaintiff's gender or gender along with her personal relationship with Mr. Newborn. In order for the Plaintiff, Ms. Stephanie Coleman, to recover on her discrimination claim against Defendant B-G Maintenance Management of Colorado, Inc., the plaintiff must prove that the defendant intentionally discriminated against plaintiff, that is, plaintiff's gender or her gender along with her personal relationship must be proven to have been a motivating factor in defendant's decision to terminate plaintiff. The mere fact that Ms. Coleman is a woman and had a personal relationship with Mr. Newborn at the time she was terminated is not sufficient, in and of itself, to establish her claim under the law. In showing that Plaintiff's gender or gender along with her personal relationship were motivating factors, plaintiff is not required to prove that her gender or gender and personal relationship were the sole motivations or even the primary motivation for the defendant's decisions. The Plaintiff need only prove that her gender or her gender and personal relationship played a part in the defendant's decision even though other factors may also have motivated the Defendant.