Opinion ID: 655328
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Mozee, Luddington And This Case.

Text: 16 The historical reason for applying statutes prospectively is to advance [t]he principle that the legal effect of conduct should ordinarily be assessed under the law that existed when the conduct took place.... Kaiser, 494 U.S. at 855, 110 S.Ct. at 1586. Therefore, courts should look to the time of the conduct giving rise to the claim to determine the statute's applicability. Simply put, if the conduct took place before the statute's enactment, it is not covered; if after, it is covered. In Luddington we followed this principle, holding that the [Civil Rights Act of 1991] is applicable only to conduct engaged in after the effective dates ... at least if the suit had been brought before the effective date. Luddington, 966 F.2d at 229-30 (emphasis added). 17 Mojica filed her lawsuit on July 6, 1990. The lawsuit necessarily followed in time the conduct upon which it was based; indeed, all of the alleged failures to promote occurred in 1989 and 1990. The new Act became law in November of 1991. That Mojica later amended her complaint to assert the new law does not change the fact that the conduct occurred (and the lawsuit was filed) before the effective dates. Under Mozee and Luddington, because the conduct giving rise to the claim occurred before the new Act became effective, Gannett is not liable under the new law. Gannett is potentially liable only under the civil rights laws in effect at the time it failed to promote Mojica. 18 In his dissent from the decision to rehear en banc, Judge Cummings took the position that the presumption against retroactivity established in Mozee and Luddington did not apply to this case. First, he made a distinction between our previous cases and this one: Mozee and Luddington were pending on appeal but this case was pending before the trial court when the new Act passed into law. Next, he discerned that Congress intended the new Act to apply to trials taking place after the law's passage, regardless of when the conduct giving rise to the claim took place. [T]he Act is not addressed to employer's conduct, but rather to the conduct of federal judges administering trials under previously enacted civil rights laws. Mojica, 986 F.2d at 1162. 19 But this reasoning assumes that the trial, instead of the time of the alleged discriminatory conduct, is the temporal event which controls the application of the law. This assumption contradicts the holdings of Mozee and Luddington that the time of the conduct controls liability. It also ignores the reasoning behind those cases--that it would be unfair to make persons accountable for acts that did not violate statutory laws when they were performed. Mozee, 963 F.2d at 939; accord Luddington, 966 F.2d at 228. Under Judge Cummings' approach, Gannett could be liable for an alleged discriminatory failure to promote under section 1981, even though the law (section 1981) in effect at the time of the conduct did not prohibit such alleged discrimination. See Patterson v. McLean Credit Union, 491 U.S. 164, 109 S.Ct. 2363, 105 L.Ed.2d 132 (1989) (former section 1981 excluded claims based on failure to promote or transfer an employee, unless the promotion rises to a level of an opportunity for a new and distinct relationship between the employee and employer....). 6 20 In theory, a statute may include certain procedural or damage provisions which do not impact substantive rights, and therefore should apply to trials taking place after enactment. See Mozee, 963 F.2d at 939 (it is arguable that courts should apply the procedural and damage provisions in effect at the time of the trial.); Luddington, 966 F.2d at 228 ([p]rocedural innovations not likely to bias a decision systematically in favor of one litigant rather than his opponent can, without serious affront to the values crystallized in the phrase 'rule of law,' be applied to cases pending when the innovations were adopted....). Indeed, courts are responsible to faithfully apply laws as Congress drafted them; if Congress intended certain non-substantive provisions of a law to apply to pending trials, then courts should so apply them. See Ex parte Collett, 337 U.S. 55, 71, 69 S.Ct. 944, 952-53, 93 L.Ed. 1207 (1949) (new rule defining forum non conveniens ); Bonet v. Texas Co., 308 U.S. 463, 467, 60 S.Ct. 349, 351-52, 84 L.Ed. 401 (1940) (new method of enforcing awards). But this case implicates only two provisions relating to procedure and damages, neither of which should have been applied at the trial. First, the district court allowed the Title VII claims to be tried to the jury, which was not allowed under the former Title VII but is permitted under the new Act. Second, the jury awarded compensatory and punitive damages, which were not recoverable under the previous Title VII. 21 To allow a jury trial for a case governed substantively by the former Title VII is to ignore the equitable nature of that provision. The amended Title VII allows for jury trials, but that is because of the legal remedies--including compensatory and punitive damages--available under the new law. 7 The previous Title VII allows only equitable remedies, and as long as that substantive law governs a case, the plaintiff has no right to trial by jury. See Williamson v. Handy Button Mach. Co., 817 F.2d 1290, 1293 (7th Cir.1987). Nor does the right to compensatory and punitive damages conferred by the new Title VII apply retroactively. As we stated in Luddington, [t]he amount of care that individuals and firms take to avoid subjecting themselves to liability whether civil or criminal is a function of the severity of the sanction, and when the severity is increased they are entitled to an opportunity to readjust their level of care in light of the new environment created by the change. Luddington, 966 F.2d at 229. 22 In sum, the district court erred by applying the new Act to this case. Because Gannett's alleged failure to promote Mojica--the conduct giving rise to her claim--took place before the enactment of the new Act, the former civil rights laws govern her case. To the extent some provisions of the new Act may apply to pending trials, no such provisions are implicated in this appeal. 8 C. Consequences of Misapplication. 23 At trial Mojica alleged that Gannett violated federal laws by paying her less than other disc jockeys, by sexually harassing her, and by refusing to promote her because of her sex, her national origin, and in retaliation for complaining about discrimination. The jury found in Mojica's favor only on the national origin discrimination claim. Mojica does not appeal the jury's findings as to the other claims. The question before us, then, is whether the improper application of the new Act requires reversal of the jury's finding of national origin discrimination. 24 Mojica actually made two national origin discrimination claims: one under Title VII and one under section 1981. The court provided the jury with a combined instruction on that claim, and the jury returned one verdict: that Gannett engaged in national origin discrimination. The jury did not distinguish the statutory basis of the verdict. Therefore it is impossible to know to what extent the jury assessed liability under Title VII as opposed to section 1981. 25 There are two problems with the jury's combined verdict. First, the jury should not have been allowed to consider the section 1981 claim. In Patterson, 491 U.S. at 184-86, 109 S.Ct. at 2377, the Supreme Court held that the former section 1981--the law that governs this case--excluded claims based on the failure to promote or transfer an employee, unless the promotion rises to the level of an opportunity for a new and distinct relation between the employee and employer.... The amended section 1981 eliminated this requirement, effectively overruling Patterson. See Harriston v. Chicago Tribune, 992 F.2d 697, 702 n. 3 (7th Cir.1993). But Mojica's case should have been governed by the former law. Mojica presents no facts showing that the promotions to the more lucrative time shifts would have involved new and distinct relations with Gannett. See id. at 702. By allowing Mojica to proceed under the new Act, the district court essentially allowed her to proceed with a new claim which did not exist at the time the challenged conduct occurred. 26 The second problem with the jury's verdict is that under the former law, the jury should not have been allowed to consider Mojica's Title VII claims. True, under the former law the jury was allowed to make factual findings if Title VII claims were tried with section 1981 claims. See Handy Button, 817 F.2d at 1293. But we have already held that the jury should not have considered the section 1981 claims in the first place. Therefore the jury's finding has no force. Even if we were to defer to the jury's factual finding of national origin discrimination, it would be impossible to reconcile the jury's damage award with the former Title VII. Indeed, the jury awarded $35,000 in compensatory damages. The former Title VII allows recovery only for back pay and provides other equitable remedies. There is no way to determine at this point what portion of the jury's $35,000 damage award was meant to compensate for back pay. 27 The verdict is beyond rescue. This case must be remanded so that the district court can consider the Title VII discrimination claim. We decline to remand the section 1981 claim. Mojica offers no facts indicating that the promotions involved the opportunity to enter into a new and distinct contractual relationship. 28 D. Other Arguments. 29
30 Under any version of the civil rights laws the plaintiff must prove discrimination. If Mojica did not prove discrimination at the first trial, the district court's failure to apply the proper civil rights laws would not matter. There would be no reason to remand to give Mojica a second chance to prove discrimination. Gannett argues that the evidence was insufficient to support the jury's finding of discrimination. If there was no evidence of discrimination presented at the trial, there is no reason to remand; this case would be over. Therefore, it is necessary to address Gannett's insufficiency argument. 31 In any discrimination case, the plaintiff bears the ultimate burden to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that his employment was adversely affected by his protected class status. Kizer v. Children's Learning Center, 962 F.2d 608, 611 (7th Cir.1992); Oxman v. WLS-TV, 846 F.2d 448, 452 (7th Cir.1988). The plaintiff can meet this burden either by presenting direct evidence of discrimination, Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Thurston, 469 U.S. 111, 105 S.Ct. 613, 83 L.Ed.2d 523 (1985), or by successfully navigating the course of shifting burdens authorized in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973). See also St. Mary's Honor Center v. Hicks, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 2742, 125 L.Ed.2d 407 (1993). But once the plaintiff prevails before a jury, the method of proof becomes extraneous. United States Postal Serv. v. Aikens, 460 U.S. 711, 715-17, 103 S.Ct. 1478, 1481-83, 75 L.Ed.2d 403 (1983); Mathewson v. National Automatic Tool Co., Inc., 807 F.2d 87, 90 (7th Cir.1986). A district court passing on a motion for j.n.o.v. simply asks whether the substantial evidence supports the jury's finding of discrimination. Id. We review de novo the district court's decision. Id. 32 Mojica presented evidence of discrimination at the original trial by testifying that Marv Dyson, the station general manager, told her in 1986 that she would not be promoted into a more lucrative shift because she was not a black male. She also testified that when she told her other superiors of Dyson's comment, they reacted as if Dyson had foolishly revealed a guarded company secret. One even responded: He said that to you? He is not supposed to say that. You could charge him with discrimination. Gannett never objected to this testimony. Mojica also introduced evidence that she was a popular disc jockey and that the station had failed to pay another Hispanic woman disc jockey the amount that they had promised her. The district court found that the evidence was sufficient to support the finding of discrimination. 33 To determine if there was substantial evidence, we must ascertain whether the evidence presented, combined with all reasonable inferences that may be drawn from it, is sufficient to support the verdict when viewed in the light most favorable to the party winning the verdict. Mathewson, 807 F.2d at 90. We do not make credibility determinations; we leave that to the jury. Id. The jury could have believed Mojica's testimony about Marv Dyson's statement. If they believed that testimony, as well as Mojica's other testimony about how the other station supervisors reacted to the statement, the jury could have reasonably inferred that the radio station had a policy against hiring Hispanic females into prime-time disc jockey positions. Gannett never made a bona fide occupational qualification defense; it never argued that being a black male was a necessary qualification for a prime time disc jockey at a radio station with programming aimed at a black audience. Gannett argues simply that Marv Dyson never made the statement. But the jury could have believed Mojica. Because we conclude that the verdict is supported, we need not comment on any of the other evidence Mojica relied on to prove discrimination. 34
35 Mojica cross-appeals, arguing that the district court incorrectly overturned the jury's punitive damages award. The district court determined that there was insufficient evidence of malice to support the award of punitive damages. We agree. But in accordance with our decision on retroactivity, we affirm the district court's decision to strike punitive damages because under the former Title VII--which applies to this case--Mojica is not entitled to punitive damages.III. Conclusion 36 The district court erred by applying the Civil Rights Act of 1991 retroactively to this case. We reverse the jury's verdict and remand for a bench trial solely on the issue of whether Gannett committed national origin discrimination under the former Title VII. If so, the district court should award appropriate damages. 37 REVERSED AND REMANDED. 38