Opinion ID: 199137
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Damages Awarded to Plaintiff's Husband

Text: 57 Defendant's last challenge to the jury verdict is its most forceful one. Pueblo contends that the damages awarded to plaintiff's husband, Osvaldo Romn, were unsupported by and in fact contrary to Mr. Romn's trial testimony. 58 We will overturn a jury verdict only if the verdict was so clearly against the weight of the evidence as to amount to a manifest miscarriage of justice. PH Group Ltd. v. Birch, 985 F.2d 649, 653 (1st Cir. 1993). Although this a strict standard, our review of the record compels the conclusion that the damages awarded to Romn were not reasonably based on the evidence presented at trial. Romn's trial testimony, which was the only evidence admitted in support of his damages claim, unambiguously attributed the injury suffered by his and Marcano's marriage to her termination rather than to defendant's failures to accommodate her. He described their marriage prior to January of 1997 as a peaceful, normal marriage and testified that plaintiff was an easy going person who got along with everyone, including with him and their two children. He further testified that Marcano's personality changed and their relationship deteriorated drastically following her dismissal in 1997. Conspicuously absent from Romn's testimony is any reference whatsoever to injuries resulting from incidents other than plaintiff's termination. However, as discussed above, plaintiff's unlawful termination claim was properly dismissed by the district court and therefore cannot form the basis of a derivative award to Romn. 7 Consequently, we have no choice but to vacate the jury's award of $50,000 to Romn.