Opinion ID: 516971
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: plaintiffs capesius, gartner, and wojnar

Text: 59 The trial judge correctly noted that Capesius and Wojnar left OMI in mid-June 1984 at their own request, while Mathis affirmatively told Gartner that Gartner's transfer would be forthcoming. Nevertheless, both Capesius and Wojnar testified that they spoke with their supervisors (plaintiffs Cappitelli and Di Maggio, whose transfers were race-motivated) who warned them that if they did not request a transfer out of OMI in the near future, they could be transferred without notice to any police department assignment. Based on these warnings and the events preceding the warnings, the court concluded that it does not do violence to the evidence to say that it still rationally supports the conclusion Capesius and Wojnar (as well as Gartner) would in fact have been transferred out of OMI. 60 The court nevertheless entered JNOV against these plaintiffs because of its view that (1) though a number of transfers made at Mathis's instance were race-motivated, a substantial number were not, and (2) [e]ach of the plaintiffs under consideration here, by his conduct, rendered it impossible to say what would have caused his involuntary transfer had one been ordered. After reviewing the entire record, we are convinced that in reaching this conclusion, the judge obviously and improperly substituted his view of the evidence for that of the jury. While the evidence might conceivably support the reasonable inference that some transfers were not race-motivated, and even that these plaintiffs were among that group, the evidence also supports reasonable inferences that cut the other way. 13 Indeed, the all-inclusiveness of Mathis's memos to Ware, as well as the systematic nature of the transfers, weighs in favor of the conclusion that race played a part in all the transfers. Further, evidence that other plaintiffs were the subject of race discrimination during this relatively brief period of time (two and one-half months) is probative on Mathis's intent as to these plaintiffs. Hunter v. Allis-Chalmers Corp., 797 F.2d 1417, 1423-24 (7th Cir.1986). Similarly, Mathis's own testimony supports the inference that the entire series of transfers during the summer of 1984 was part of his overall plan to change the makeup of OMI personnel (and thus discriminatory motivation would equally affect each plaintiff's transfer decision). 14 61 Considering the entire body of evidence--including the supervisors' warnings to these plaintiffs, the supervisors' involuntary transfers, Mathis's memos to Ware (which named all the plaintiffs), the pattern of involuntary transfers of white males, the speed of the reduction in white males, and Mathis's clear race consciousness--a reasonable inference exists that these three plaintiffs' transfers were the proximate result of Mathis's race-based intent. 15 Although there was little evidence of individual instances of behavior manifesting discriminatory motivation as to each particular plaintiff, we are convinced that the court's failure to weigh and view the evidence evenhandedly and in its totality deprived the plaintiffs of all the reasonable inferences which could be drawn from the evidence, see Graefenhain v. Pabst Brewing Company, 827 F.2d 13, 19 (7th Cir.1987), including the inference that impermissible motivation played a part in the entire pattern of transfers. Thus, we conclude that the trial judge improperly substituted his choice over the jury's rationale between two possible paths of inference reasonably supported in the evidence. 62