Source: http://openjurist.org/92/f3d/232
Timestamp: 2015-11-27 23:05:39
Document Index: 593785076

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1981', '§ 1981', '§ 1981', '§ 1981', '§ 1981', '§ 1981', '§ 1981', '§ 1981']

92 F3d 232 Sasaki v. Class | OpenJurist
92 F. 3d 232 - Sasaki v. Class HomeFederal Reporter, Third Series 92 F.3d
92 F3d 232 Sasaki v. Class 92 F.3d 232
71 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 709,69 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 44,353, 65 USLW 2111
Mee Sook SASAKI, Plaintiff-Appellee,v.Robert CLASS; JLW Produce, Incorporated, Defendants-Appellants,Nationsbank; Provident Bank of Maryland; MarsSupermarkets, Incorporated; Super Fresh Food Markets ofMaryland, Incorporated; Magruder's of Maryland,Incorporated; Grand Union Company, t/a Basics FoodWarehouse, Garnishees.Mee Sook SASAKI, Plaintiff-Appellant,v.Robert CLASS; JLW Produce, Incorporated, Defendants-Appellees,Nationsbank; Provident Bank of Maryland; MarsSupermarkets, Incorporated; Super Fresh Food Markets ofMaryland, Incorporated; Magruder's of Maryland,Incorporated; Grand Union Company, t/a Basics FoodWarehouse, Garnishees.
Nos. 95-2077, 95-2191.
Argued May 7, 1996.Decided Aug. 12, 1996.
ARGUED: Morton A. Sacks, McGuire, Woods, Battle & Boothe, L.L.P., Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellants. George Edwin Golomb, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Jeffrey G. Cook, Andrea Pierce Yalof, McGuire, Woods, Battle & Boothe, L.L.P., Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellants.
No. 95-2077 affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded; No. 95-2191 vacated and remanded by published opinion. Judge MOTZ wrote the opinion, in which Judge MURNAGHAN joined. Judge WIDENER wrote a concurring and dissenting opinion.
These cross-appeals arise from a jury verdict in favor of a plaintiff on her claims against her former employer for sexual harassment and assault and battery. Because in closing argument plaintiff's counsel improperly referred to the federal statutory "cap" on non-economic damages that could be awarded, and because the jury's damages award indicates that this improper reference substantially influenced the jury's calculations, we reverse and remand for a new trial on damages. We affirm the jury's verdict as to liability.I.
Mee Sook Sasaki brought this suit against her employer, JLW Produce, and its president, Robert "Bobby" Class, (collectively, the "Company") pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1981a, alleging that Class had sexually harassed her for several years. Sasaki also alleged that Class had repeatedly assaulted and battered her in violation of Maryland law.
Sasaki began working for JLW Produce in 1986. At the time she was single and in her twenties. She entered into a brief relationship (about three months) with Class, also in his twenties. Class ran JLW Produce with the help of his father, who owned a larger wholesale produce company. Sasaki testified that after she ended their relationship, Class's attitude toward her at work changed. Although much of the testimony in the case was hotly disputed, there was abundant evidence that over the ensuing years, even though both parties had subsequently married, Class--at the workplace and during working hours--on numerous occasions made sexual comments to or about Sasaki, touched and rubbed her body, propositioned her, and physically molested her. Sasaki asserted that his behavior ultimately led her to quit her job in February, 1994. Class denied Sasaki's charges, asserting that Sasaki was the sexually aggressive party and that she had quit after a dispute involving the cashing of his paycheck.
The jury apparently credited Sasaki's version of the events and returned a verdict in her favor, awarding her $61,250 on the sexual harassment claim, $150,000 on the state law claims, and $65,000 in punitive damages--for total damages of $276,250. Sasaki then requested that the court grant her attorney's fees and costs. The court declined on the ground that the damages award in Sasaki's favor was "generous," and that adding an award for attorney's fees would be "unjust."
The Company appeals on numerous grounds. Sasaki cross-appeals, contending that the court abused its discretion in denying her attorney's fees.
We address first the Company's strongest challenge. The Company contends that the district court erred in permitting Sasaki's attorney to mention in closing argument the damages "cap" contained in 42 U.S.C. § 1981a.
As part of the Civil Rights Act of 1991, Congress imposed caps on the amount of "compensatory damages" plaintiffs may recover for non-economic damages, such as emotional pain and mental anguish, in sexual harassment claims. 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(b)(3). These caps vary according to the size of the employer. In this case, because JLW Produce has seventy-five employees, the statute limits Sasaki to recovering $50,000 in non-economic damages from the Company. See 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(b)(3)(A). The statute further directs that "[i]f a party seeks compensatory or punitive damages under this section[,] ... the court shall not inform the jury of the limitations [on damages] described in subsection (b)(3) of this section." 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(c)(2).
During closing argument, Sasaki's counsel discussed the damages she sought, as follows:
[PLAINTIFF'S COUNSEL]: Let's talk about compensation.... On the sexual harassment claim, you can compensate her for her back pay she lost after she quit. You will get a little form, this comes to precisely $10,750.00. You can also compensate her for the interest on the back pay.... This comes to an additional $1,075.00, so this brings the total for back pay and interest to $11,825.00.
Now, for sexual harassment Congress realized that when you have sexual harassment there is a lot of emotional pain.... So you can award damage for that, financial damage for emotional pain, suffering, inconvenience, mental anguish.... You can award her up to $50,000 in compensatory damages for sexual harassment as to all those things. That is in addition to the $11,825.00.
[DEFENDANTS' COUNSEL]: Objection to that.
[PLAINTIFF'S COUNSEL]: Okay. So under Count One for sexual harassment you can award a total of $61,825.00 against Robert Class and JLW Produce.... [The Civil Rights Act of 1991] provided for compensatory damage in addition to the back pay ... and I suggest to you respectfully that Robert Class caused Mrs. Sasaki enough mental anguish ... to warrant the full compensatory damages of $61,825.00 under Count One....
Now, in her claims for assault and battery you can and should award her compensation for all assaults and batteries taking place beginning October 1993 through February 4, 1995(sic).
And the law is generous here. You can award her up to $500,000.00 for each battery.... I am willing ... to leave it to your judgment, you are mature people, but you can award her up to $500,000.00 every time there was an offensive touching.
Sasaki offers three arguments in response to the Company's assertion that her counsel's references to the cap in his closing argument were improper.
First, she claims that because § 1981a(c)(2) states only that the "court shall not inform the jury" of the damage cap, the statute does not prevent attorneys from doing so. The statute does literally prohibit only the "court" from informing the jury of the caps; however, Congress clearly intended this restriction to prohibit anyone from bringing the caps to the jury's attention. Although attorneys may comment at trial on the law as it applies to the case at hand, ultimate responsibility for instructing the jury as to the applicable law lies with the court. See Adalman v. Baker, Watts & Co., 807 F.2d 359, 366 (4th Cir.1986) ("it is the responsibility--and the duty--of the court to state to the jury the meaning and application of the appropriate law"). Given that this ultimate responsibility lies with the court, the statute's explicit preclusion of the court from mentioning the caps was plainly designed to remove them altogether from the jury's consideration.
The limited legislative history of § 1981a(c)(2) supports the conclusion that Congress intended that juries not be informed--by anyone--of the damage caps. During debate on the bill, Senator Danforth, one of its chief proponents, explained in an interpretive memorandum: "The Bill specifically provides that the jury shall not be informed of the existence or amount of the caps on damage awards. Thus, no pressure, upward or downward, will be exerted on the amount of jury awards by the existence of the statutory limitations." 137 Cong. Rec. S15,484 (daily ed. Oct. 30, 1991). Obviously, such pressure would not be removed if the statute were interpreted to restrict only the judge and not attorneys from informing the jury of the damage caps.
Moreover, a restriction that applied only to the court, and not counsel, would make no sense. Under Sasaki's interpretation of the statute, attorneys could debate the appropriate cap limits in their closing arguments, while the court would be prohibited from correctly informing the jury as to the applicable law. Accordingly, to avoid such a result, and consistent with Congress's intent to remove the caps from the jury's consideration, the restriction on informing the jury of the caps must apply to attorneys as well as to the court. Cf. Tamplin v. Star Lumber & Supply Co., 251 Kan. 300, 836 P.2d 1102, 1110 (1992) (Addressing a similarly phrased Kansas statute, the Kansas Supreme Court found that although the statute specifically restricted the court from informing the jury, "the legislative intent would be frustrated if counsel were allowed to inform the jury of the cap while the trial court could not.").
Nor is Sasaki's second argument any more persuasive. She contends that the Company "opened the door" to her counsel's statement by portraying her as a "greedy person," seeking "millions of dollars" in damages. Sasaki argues that she was entitled to mention the cap in order to "meet [the] distorted image of greed" that arose from the Company's "contention" that she was seeking millions of dollars in damages. An obvious problem with Sasaki's argument is that she was, in fact, seeking millions of dollars in her complaint. This substantially weakens her claim that she was entitled to introduce the cap to "meet" the Company's "contention" that she was seeking millions in damages.
More significantly, Sasaki's mention of the cap did not work to "meet" or "offset" the inference that she was greedy. Instead, her counsel mentioned the $50,000 cap contained in the federal statute and then explicitly advised the jury that it could still award her millions of dollars in damages on her state law claims. As such, the mention of the cap did nothing to dispel the Company's characterization of Sasaki as greedily seeking millions in damages--it merely informed the jury (improperly) of the manner in which it could structure its verdict to avoid the cap and still award her millions of dollars.
Finally, Sasaki argues that even if the reference to the cap was error, the error did not harm or prejudice the Company and so does not require reversal. The § 1981a caps were enacted in apparent response to a concern about runaway verdicts, in which juries purportedly awarded plaintiffs excessive damages. As previously noted, the statute prohibits the court from informing the jury of the caps to ensure that the jury does not feel pressure to structure or adjust verdicts "upward or downward" to account for the caps. Restrictions on informing the jury of caps are enacted because "[l]egislators likely fear that juries would award the maximum or would otherwise adjust their awards if told of the statutory limit." See Colleen P. Murphy, Determining Compensation: The Tension Between Legislative Power and Jury Authority, 74 Tex. L.Rev. 345, 347 n. 8 (