Opinion ID: 178664
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Comments by Bierman and Lence

Text: In light of the district court's grant of summary judgment in its favor on Thompson's hostile work environment claim, Memorial argues that the jury should not have heard certain comments made by Bierman and Lence. The jury heard comments Bierman made to Thompson, including that he could not do what others could do because he was black. The jury also heard that Lence made racially insensitive remarks and did not take action when other employees used racial slurs in his presence. We review the district court's decision to admit this evidence for an abuse of discretion. See Griffin v. Foley, 542 F.3d 209, 217 (7th Cir.2008). We turn to Bierman's comments first. Memorial filed a motion in limine to exclude Bierman's comments, arguing that she had not made the decision to place Thompson on probation and that any racial animus she held was therefore not relevant. The district court denied the motion but made it clear that Memorial's counsel could prepare a limiting instruction that it would give to the jury to ensure the jury did not consider Bierman's remarks for an improper purpose or as relevant to any claim that had been dismissed. Counsel stated it would provide a limiting instruction, but it never did. We have said that when an employee is not a decision maker, her animus is relevant only if she exerted such significant influence over the decision that her animus can be imputed to the decision maker. Kodish v. Oakbrook Terrace Fire Prot. Dist., 604 F.3d 490, 508 (7th Cir.2010). Whether that influence must be a singular influence is unclear in our circuit. See Kodish, 604 F.3d 490, 508 (7th Cir.2010) (discussing different standards employed); Staub v. Proctor Hosp., 560 F.3d 647, 659 (7th Cir.2009) (holding singular influence necessary), cert. granted, ___ U.S. ___, 130 S.Ct. 2089, 176 L.Ed.2d 720 (2010). Our case law in this area has not been entirely consistent, and the resolution of the Supreme Court's recent grant of certiorari in Staub will help clarify this area of the law. To the extent a singular influence is necessary, we have described it as one in which a subordinate employee possesses so much influence and power over the nominal decision maker that the employee, for all intents and purposes is in fact, the true functional decision maker. Kodish, 604 F.3d at 508. In Kodish, for example, all of the board's information passed through a chief, the board did not conduct its own investigation or gather any of its own information, and, although it might have reviewed some employment evaluations, two of the four were written by the chief. Id. at 509. We concluded that it was a plausible inference, if not the sole inference, that the chief had exerted a singular influence over the board. Particularly relevant here, we have noted that singular influence may be exercised by, among other things, supplying misinformation or failing to provide relevant information to the person making the employment decision. Brewer v. Bd. of Trs. of Univ. of Ill., 479 F.3d 908, 917 (7th Cir. 2007). That said, where a decision maker is not wholly dependent on a single source of information, but instead conducts its own investigation into the facts relevant to the decision, the employer is not liable for an employee's submission of misinformation to the decision maker. Id. at 918. So we have rejected the so-called cat's paw theory when there is neither singular influence nor proof that the decision maker's review was `anything but independent...'. Staub, 560 F.3d at 657 (quoting Metzger v. Ill. State Police, 519 F.3d 677, 682 (7th Cir.2008)). We discussed our suggested approach to the potential admission of cat's paw evidence in Staub and wrote that a judge should make the threshold determination of whether a reasonable jury could find singular influence. 560 F.3d at 658. Then, and only then, should the judge [a]llow[] the jury to entertain a cat's paw theory and decide whether there was singular influence. Id. That is the procedure the trial court followed here. The court read and heard argument as to each party's position after Memorial filed its motion in limine, and the court determined there was enough evidence to proceed to a jury on this point. At trial, Memorial did not request any jury instructions that concerned the decision maker or the cat's paw theory. There was an instruction given without objection from Memorial that Memorial Hospital of Carbondale is a hospital corporation and can only act through its officers and employees. Bierman is unquestionably a Memorial employee, and the record does not reflect that Memorial requested any instructions in an attempt to clarify the relevance of decision makers. Cf. Staub, 560 F.3d at 657-58 (discussing instruction given to jury that set forth the cat's paw theory). [1] Thompson actually requested an instruction on decision maker status, but it was rejected. So despite the fact that Thompson raised the issue by presenting such an instruction, Memorial did not seek one itself. Cf. Fox v. Hayes, 600 F.3d 819, 838 (7th Cir. 2010) (finding defendants failed to preserve objection to failure to give instruction where defendants did not request one). In any event, it is clear that a jury could have found that Bierman gave Dr. Doolittle critical misinformation. A jury also could have concluded that Dr. Doolittle's review was not anything but independent and that Bierman exerted a singular influence over the probation decision. Tim Brumley, the supervisor on duty when Thompson failed to follow the protocol, told Bierman that Thompson was not the only paramedic to fail to follow the protocol. Although Bierman knew that information was important to the discipline decision and Dr. Doolittle specifically asked her whether any other paramedics had failed to comply with it, she falsely told him no one else had. Only Bierman spoke with Brumley; Dr. Doolittle did not. Dr. Doolittle did not review the reports of the paramedics' runs; only Bierman did. She told him that they showed no other failures of the diabetic protocol, but the jury heard from another paramedic who said she had not followed protocol, which would have been reflected in the run reports. Dr. Doolittle also did not review the paramedics' tests. Only Bierman did, and Thompson's poor score on one became one of the reasons for his probation even though Thompson said all the other paramedics also did poorly, and Memorial did not produce any evidence to the contrary. Reinforcing all this, Dr. Doolittle testified at trial that he absolutely relied on Bierman for much of the information that led to the probation decision. When the time came to discipline Thompson, Bierman drafted the Report of Disciplinary Action on October 6, signed it, and placed Dr. Doolittle's initials on it. In addition to drafting the report, Thompson testified that during the October 6 meeting, Bierman, as always, was basically controlling the meeting and did most of the talking during it. He said Dr. Doolittle was sitting there during the meeting and seems not to know what's going on most of the time. I mean, not to sound terrible, but he seems to let her run the show. On October 8, Thompson brought a witness with him to his scheduled meeting with Bierman and Dr. Doolittle, and the jury heard that when Bierman saw that Thompson had brought a witness, she said this meeting is over. And with that statement it was, even though Dr. Doolittle had been asking questions. So the jury could have drawn the inference that Bierman exerted a singular influence over the decision to reduce Thompson to probationary status. Her racial animus was therefore admissible, and we do not find the comments too temporally attenuated for the jury to consider them. With respect to Lence's comments, Memorial argues that any improper motive Lence had in compiling run reports that showed Thompson was performing unsatisfactorily was not relevant because Lence compiled them after Thompson had been placed on probation. But at trial, Memorial was the one to introduce the reports, and the district court allowed Thompson to introduce statements Lence had made to bear on the credibility of the reports Lence had compiled. The jury heard testimony that Lence had prepared some of the reports, and that some were not satisfactory. Thompson, on the other hand, maintained that the unsatisfactory reports were unmerited. The district court specifically instructed the jury that the evidence was being admitted for the limited purpose of assisting you in determining the credibility of the statements alleged to have been made by Gerald Lence, specifically there are now in the record these run reports that we heard about yesterday where he assessed the performance of the plaintiff in this case. I'm admitting this evidence that you just heard for the limited purpose of determining whether those reports are credible. We find no abuse of discretion in this ruling. See Fed.R.Evid. 806 (stating that when hearsay statement admitted into evidence, credibility of declarant may be attacked).