Opinion ID: 755554
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Failure To Make a Timely Challenge as to Willfulness

Text: 57 Finally, defendants contend that there was no evidence to support the jury's finding that their ADEA violation was willful, i.e., that they knew or showed reckless disregard for the matter of whether [their] conduct was prohibited by the statute, Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Thurston, 469 U.S. 111, 126, 105 S.Ct. 613, 83 L.Ed.2d 523 (1985) (internal quotation marks omitted). This contention, however, was not properly preserved at trial. 58 It is well established that a party is not entitled to challenge on appeal the sufficiency of the evidence to support the jury's verdict on a given issue unless it has timely moved in the district court for judgment as a matter of law on that issue. See, e.g., Galdieri-Ambrosini v. National Realty Development Corp., 136 F.3d at 287. Such a motion must be made before submission of the case to the jury. Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(a)(2). Since the purpose of requiring that the motion be made before submission of the case to the jury is to give the claimant a fair opportunity to cure the defects in proof, Piesco v. Koch, 12 F.3d 332, 340 (2d Cir.1993) (internal quotation marks omitted); see, e.g., Baskin v. Hawley, 807 F.2d 1120, 1134 (2d Cir.1986); Fed.R.Civ.P. 50 Advisory Committee Note (1991), the motion must at least identify the specific element that the defendant contends is insufficiently supported. Galdieri-Ambrosini v. National Realty & Development Corp., 136 F.3d at 286. For the same reason, although a motion for JMOL may be renew[ed] after the jury returns its verdict, see Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(a)(2), it may be renewed only on grounds that were specifically articulated before submission of the case to the jury, see, e.g., Galdieri-Ambrosini v. National Realty Development Corp., 136 F.3d at 286; McCardle v. Haddad, 131 F.3d 43, 51 (2d Cir.1997). 59 As to any issue on which no proper Rule 50(b) motion was made, JMOL may not properly be granted by the district court, or upheld on appeal, or ordered by the appellate court unless that action is required in order to prevent manifest injustice. See, e.g., Galdieri-Ambrosini v. National Realty Development Corp., 136 F.3d at 287; Cruz v. Local Union No. 3, 34 F.3d at 1155; Lambert v. Genesee Hospital, 10 F.3d 46, 53-54 (2d Cir.1993), cert. denied, 511 U.S. 1052, 114 S.Ct. 1612, 128 L.Ed.2d 339 (1994); Samuels v. Air Transport Local 504, 992 F.2d 12, 14 (2d Cir.1993). 60 In the present case, defendants' JMOL motions during the first trial challenged the evidence of discrimination and constructive discharge, and raised certain other issues not pertinent here; but they did not mention any lack of proof as to willfulness. Although their posttrial motion challenged the evidence as to willfulness, that challenge was not authorized by Rule 50(b) because no JMOL motion had been made on that issue before submission of the case to the jury. Accordingly, the willfulness issue has not been properly preserved. 61 Nor do we see that relieving defendants of their procedural default is needed to avoid injustice. The jury permissibly found that Fleet Street intentionally discharged Kirsch because of his age and that defendants sought to conceal their age-based motivation by proffering a pretextual rationale of corporate financial exigency. Defendants have not suggested that they had any good faith basis for believing their conduct did not fall within the scope of the ADEA, and had defendants raised the issue at trial, it may be that Kirsch would have been able to present additional evidence to show that defendants knew, or recklessly disregarded the matter of whether, their conduct was prohibited by the ADEA. We decline to entertain defendants' present challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence of willfulness.