Opinion ID: 533563
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Jury's Role

Text: 83 The University also complains that the district court's instructions encouraged the jurors to substitute their own judgment about the merit of Brown's tenure candidacy, in contravention of Kumar, instead of merely deciding whether the University impermissibly discriminated against Brown. The University complains both that the jury charge implied that the jury was to determine whether Brown deserved tenure, and that the court refused to give a requested instruction which would have made clear for the jury its role in reviewing the evidence. We see no merit to either of these arguments. 84 First, the University complains about a portion of the jury instruction which included the following: 85 Whether the plaintiff deserves tenure or not is not the test here, either. I would suppose that deserving people are sometimes awarded tenure and sometimes not. Certainly, before you get--that is not the full test; that is certainly one thing you have to consider. Obviously, if she didn't deserve tenure on any kind of objective basis, the university was quite right in turning her down. If you find that she did deserve tenure, she was qualified on an equal basis, then you have the question of whether she was turned down for one or two of these illegal reasons that I have mentioned. That is the key to the case. 86 (Emphasis added.) We agree that the court would have erred had it told the jury that it should find for Brown if it found that she deserved tenure. But this instruction did no such thing. On the contrary, it specifically states that whether the plaintiff deserves tenure or not is not the test. The emphasized portion reinforces this by informing the jury that it is not enough to find that she deserved tenure, but rather the jury must find that she was denied tenure because of her sex and not simply because the University made a mistake. We think this instruction correctly stated the law. 87 The University also complains that the court erred by refusing to give a requested instruction. The omitted instruction was: 88 In determining whether the reasons for the tenure decision are obviously weak or implausible, you should not attempt to determine whether the opinions of scholars are correct or incorrect. A university has the discretion to evaluate and weigh the opinions of scholars as it sees fit. As long as Boston University's evaluation of a candidate's scholarship is supported by some of the scholarly opinion submitted to it, the University's evaluation of the candidate's scholarship will not support a claim of discrimination. 89 We think the court could properly determine that the requested instruction, particularly the final sentence, went too far. It would virtually insulate the University from review of any tenure decision, including those based on impermissible discrimination. The district court gave several instructions, both during the trial and in the charge, that sufficiently advised the jury that it was not to substitute its own judgment on the merits of Brown's tenure candidacy for that of the University. As long as the judge's instruction properly apprises the jury of the applicable law, failure to give the exact instruction requested does not prejudice the objecting party. McKinnon v. Skil Corp., 638 F.2d 270, 274 (1st Cir.1981) (quoted in Service Merchandise Company, Inc., 722 F.2d at 950). This is, of course, especially so when the requested instruction is itself incorrect.