Opinion ID: 707599
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Privacy Claim

Text: 52 American contends on appeal that the applicable one-year statute of limitations, P.R.Laws Ann. tit. 31, Sec. 5298(2) (1991), required Kerr to establish the alleged privacy violation on evidence of conduct occurring after December 28, 1991, one year before the present action was brought. Although American alluded to this issue in its answer and in its proposed jury instructions, it failed to raise contemporaneous objection to the evidence introduced at trial relating to conduct antedating the one-year limitation period. Not until after Kerr rested her case in chief did American deliver its one-two punch, by moving for judgment as a matter of law, see Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(a), asserting, in part, and for the first time, that there was insufficient evidence of a privacy violation within the one-year limitations period. 53 The district court denied the motion, ruling that the one-year limitations period on the privacy claim had been tolled, on May 11, 1992, by the filing of an administrative charge with the Puerto Rico Antidiscrimination Unit, thereby rendering actionable all conduct after May 11, 1991. Later, in an effort to minimize confusion, the district court instructed the jury to consider only evidence of conduct occurring on and after July 15, 1991, explaining that evidence of earlier events could be considered as background evidence only ... [and] cannot be the object of recovery. 54 After the jury returned its verdict for Kerr on the privacy claim, and the district court entered judgment, American renewed its Rule 50 motion, which neither challenged the one-year limitations period nor the district court instruction on the purposes for which the jury could consider Kerr's evidence relating to the privacy violations. American only now contends that the jury instruction was erroneous and, therefore, that it is entitled to a new trial on the privacy claim. Its belated claim fails. 55 The record clearly discloses that American did not raise a proper objection to the jury charge as required by Fed.R.Civ.P. 51. No party may assign as error the giving or the failure to give an instruction unless that party objects thereto before the jury retires to consider its verdict, stating distinctly the matter objected to and the grounds of the objection. Fed.R.Civ.P. 51. Our cases state that objections to jury instructions are to be made after the charge has been delivered to the jury. Poulin v. Greer, 18 F.3d 979, 982 (1st Cir.1994); McGrath v. Spirito, 733 F.2d 967, 968 (1st Cir.1984). 56 After the jury charge was given below, the following colloquy occurred: 57 [The Court]: Please. And to the charge, we'll discuss that up here. 58 [Plaintiff's counsel]: No problem with the charge. 59 [Defendant's counsel]: I have no problem with the charge.[The Court]: Without prejudice of your disagreement over the cutoff date, as [a] matter of law, you have no problem with the charge? 60 [Defendant's counsel]: That's correct. 61 We have stated repeatedly that  '[a] trial court's statement after the charge that objections made prior to it will be saved does not absolve an attorney from following the strictures of the rule. Objections cannot be carried forward. The rule is binding on both the court and attorneys and neither can circumvent it.'  Poulin, 18 F.3d at 982 (finding that post-charge sidebar conference during which court began by stating to counsel--Okay. First, in addition to any objections previously made, do you have an objection you wish to make as to the general content of the instructions at this time?--failed to preserve for appeal a claim previously raised, where trial counsel failed to reiterate objection after the jury charge) (quoting McGrath, 733 F.2d at 969); see also Elgabri v. Lekas, 964 F.2d 1255, 1259 (1st Cir.1992) (It is the obligation of trial counsel, as well as the trial court, to comply with the strict requirements of the Rule.). American failed to object to the instruction at the appropriate time. 62 Where no proper objection has been raised under Rule 51, we review only for plain error, to prevent a  'clear miscarriage of justice.'  Poulin, 18 F.3d at 982 (citation omitted). Viewing the trial evidence in the light most favorable to the privacy claim verdict, see supra note 1, we cannot conclude with any confidence that American would have prevailed on the privacy claim even if the district court had instructed the jury that December 28, 1991, was the cut-off date for evidence on liability. Rather, substantial evidence was introduced at trial--relating to conduct occurring within the limitations period now championed by American itself--supporting a liability finding on the privacy claim. 63 The asserted rights to privacy and human dignity, on which the privacy claim is based, arise under the Puerto Rico Constitution. See Arroyo v. Rattan Specialties, 117 P.R.R. 43, 69-74 (1986) (requiring employee to submit to polygraph test, or else lose job, violates privacy right). Arroyo illustrates the breadth of these constitutionally protected rights, and the great importance attached to them by the Puerto Rico Supreme Court: Interference with private life shall only be tolerated when compelling factors of public health and safety or when the affected person's right to life and happiness require it. Id. at 70 (quoting Garcia Santiago v. Acosta, 104 D.P.R. 321, 324 (1975)). The district court instructed the jury that abusive attacks to honor, reputation, and private and family life are unlawful in the workplace. Given the posture of the case, we cannot say that the evidence Kerr marshalled at trial was clearly insufficient to permit a rational jury finding that appellants had violated her privacy rights under the Puerto Rico Constitution. 64 The jury was entitled to credit Kerr's testimony that a number of relevant incidents occurred in the latter part of 1991 ... through 1992. These incidents could have been considered by the jury even under the abbreviated limitations period belatedly urged by American on appeal. Kerr said she felt demeaned as a person when Carrasquillo expressed surprise that a woman could drive around Puerto Rico without getting lost, and when he questioned whether women could safely ride motorcycles. He joked disparagingly about Kerr's weight, in front of customers and co-workers, and even invited them to comment on her physical appearance. On another occasion during this period, Carrasquillo approached her in the workplace and said she was a mami, an inappropriate epithet adverting to Kerr's physical attributes. The jury was entitled to find as well that Carrasquillo intruded upon Kerr's private life by placing great importance upon an invitation she had extended to a fellow employee to stay at her house during a visit to Puerto Rico. Carrasquillo admitted at trial that he had inquired, in early 1992, concerning Kerr's earlier romantic relationship with a co-worker who later married another woman in the division. 65 Some of this evidence obviously bears on the gender discrimination claim as well. Nevertheless, the privacy protections afforded under the Puerto Rico Constitution are broadly defined and we are not persuaded that the evidence recounted above could not bear upon both types of claims in this particular case, especially since Kerr tried the case to the jury on the theory that Carrasquillo's interest in her sex life was the impetus for both her gender discrimination and privacy claims. Thus, without presuming that the jury relied on any evidence of conduct antedating July 15, 1991, which would have violated the unchallenged jury instructions, Scarfo v. Cabletron Sys., Inc., 54 F.3d 931, 953 (1st Cir.1995), we cannot say that the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, was plainly insufficient to enable a rational jury to find that Carrasquillo repeatedly displayed an intrusive preoccupation with Kerr's personal and private life, in violation of commonwealth law. In all events, we can discern no clear miscarriage of justice. See Poulin, 18 F.3d at 982. 5