Opinion ID: 159432
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Miscellaneous Evidentiary Issues

Text: 38 We need not address Sprint's claims of evidentiary error at length given our disposition of the case. However, for benefit of the district court and the parties on remand, we make the following observations. First, only the Title VII claim against Sprint and the 1981 claims against Sprint and Crowder are at issue on retrial. Any evidence which was permitted based on the retaliatory hostile environment or constructive discharge claims is no longer relevant. 39 Second, anecdotal evidence of discrimination should only be admitted if the prior incidences of alleged discrimination can somehow be tied to the employment actions disputed in the case at hand. Simms v. State of Oklahoma, 165 F.3d 1321, 1330 (10th Cir. 1999). Plaintiff can meet this requirement by showing that the same supervisors were involved in prior discriminatory employment actions. Id. Third, the district court should carefully scrutinize the time frame in which other alleged acts of discrimination occurred. Discriminatory incidents which occured either several years before the contested action or anytime after are not sufficiently connected to the employment action in question to demonstrate pretext. Id. at 1331 (holding that discriminatory event which took place three years before was too remote); see also Cooley v. Carmike Cinemas, Inc., 25 F.3d 1325, 1330 (6th Cir. 1994) (holding that district court should evaluate whether other acts were proximate to relevant action). Finally, stray racial comments should typically not be admitted unless the plaintiff can link them to personnel decisions or the individuals making those decisions. See Figures v. Board of Pub. Utilities, 967 F.2d 357, 361 (10th Cir. 1992); see also Rea v. Martin Marietta Corp., 29 F.3d 1450, 1457 (10th Cir. 1994) (requiring causal nexus between isolated comments and challenged action). 40 In all probability, the trial court will once again be called upon to determine the admissibility of the so-called Nigger Application for Employment which was discovered on the desks of one or more Sprint employees. I R. at 29G. Although the court did not allow this document to go to the jury, it allowed counsel to discuss it with witnesses as a one page racially defamatory document. IV R. at 745-46. Shrouding this document in mystery by continually referring to it as a racially defamatory document while simultaneously refusing to admit it in evidence could only serve to heighten the jury's view of the document's importance. On remand, the court should require Ms. Heno to lay a sufficient foundation for establishing a causal nexus between Sprint, particularly through Mr. Crowder, and this document. Given the highly prejudicial nature of the document, such a foundation should be substantial. See Robinson v. Runyon, 149 F.3d 507, 511 (6th Cir. 1998) (holding that Nigger Employment Application should have been admitted based on evidence that document was widely circulated throughout office on several occasions and supervisors were seen reading the document and laughing). If such a foundation is laid, and the district court decides that the probative value of the document is not substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, Fed. R. Evid. 403, the document should be admitted in its entirety. 41 Sprint also challenges the admission of testimony by Dr. Johnson that Ms. Heno's ovarian cysts were caused by job-related stress. Dr. Johnson had not been designated as an expert witness, although no objection was made on this basis at the time of his testimony. When an objection was later raised, the district court realized the error, and this issue should not arise on retrial. Plaintiff's Cross-Appeal 42 Although this case must be remanded for a new trial, there is no need for the trial court to rehear the claims on which it granted judgment as a matter of law.