Opinion ID: 762539
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: 48 Thalbo also contends that DiMilta should not be awarded backpay because the credible evidence presented at the hearing established that she retired from her position at ... Stewart, arguing, inter alia, that her testimony that she had been laid off at Stewart was untruthful and that her administrative hearing testimony explaining her deposition statements that she had retired was incredible. (Thalbo appellate brief at 26, 27 (emphases in original).) Giving due regard to the substantive law, the administrative record, and the proper standard of review, we reject these contentions. 49 A victim of a discriminatory labor practice who seeks backpay has an obligation to have mitigated her damages due to lost wages, see Sure-Tan, Inc. v. NLRB, 467 U.S. at 901, 104 S.Ct. 2803, for  'a discriminatee is not entitled to back pay to the extent that he fails to remain in the labor market,'  Kirsch v. Fleet Street, Ltd., 148 F.3d at 168 (Age Discrimination in Employment Act case) (quoting NLRB v. Mastro Plastics Corp., 354 F.2d 170, 174 n. 3 (2d Cir.1965), cert. denied, 384 U.S. 972, 86 S.Ct. 1862, 16 L.Ed.2d 682 (1966)). See, e.g., Phelps Dodge Corp. v. NLRB, 313 U.S. 177, 198, 199-200, 61 S.Ct. 845, 85 L.Ed. 1271 (1941) (employee must not have willfully incurred a loss of earnings such as by engaging in a clearly unjustifiable refusal to take desirable new employment). In order to mitigate, it is sufficient that the employee make honest good faith effort[s] and use reasonable diligence to find comparable work. Heinrich Motors, Inc. v. NLRB, 403 F.2d 145, 149 (2d Cir.1968) (internal quotation marks omitted). A backpay claimant's duty to mitigate her damages by using 'reasonable diligence in finding other suitable employment' .... is not onerous, and does not require [her] to be successful in mitigation. Dailey v. Societe Generale, 108 F.3d 451, 455-56 (2d Cir.1997) (Title VII case) (quoting Ford Motor Co. v. EEOC, 458 U.S. 219, 231, 102 S.Ct. 3057, 73 L.Ed.2d 721 (1982)) (other internal quotation marks omitted); accord Coronet Foods, Inc. v. NLRB, 158 F.3d 782, 800 (4th Cir.1998). The employer has the ultimate burden of proving that the discriminatee failed to mitigate damages. See, e.g., Heinrich Motors, Inc. v. NLRB, 403 F.2d at 148; NLRB v. Mastro Plastics Corp., 354 F.2d at 175, 178-79. 50 On appellate review, the Board's findings of fact will not be overturned if they are supported by substantial evidence on the record considered as a whole, taking into account whatever in the record fairly detracts from its weight, but giving due regard to the Board's expertise. NLRB v. American Geri-Care, Inc., 697 F.2d 56, 59-60 (2d Cir.1982) (internal quotation marks omitted), cert. denied, 461 U.S. 906, 103 S.Ct. 1876, 76 L.Ed.2d 807 (1983). Substantial evidence means more than a mere scintilla. It means such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion. Consolidated Edison Co. v. NLRB, 305 U.S. 197, 229, 59 S.Ct. 206, 83 L.Ed. 126 (1938). It is not within our province to reverse the Board's findings simply because our evaluation of the evidence may differ from that of the Board. 51 Under this standard, reversal based upon a factual question will only be warranted if, after looking at the record as a whole, we are left with the impression that no rational trier of fact could reach the conclusion drawn by the Board. NLRB v. Katz's Delicatessen, 80 F.3d 755, 763 (2d Cir.1996) (internal quotation marks omitted). When the Board's findings are based on the ALJ's assessment of the credibility of the witnesses, they will not be overturned unless the testimony is  'hopelessly incredible'  or the findings  'flatly contradict' either the 'law of nature' or 'undisputed documentary testimony.'  NLRB v. J. Coty Messenger Service, Inc., 763 F.2d 92, 96 (2d Cir.1985) (quoting NLRB v. American Geri-Care, Inc., 697 F.2d at 60); see, e.g., NLRB v. Gordon, 792 F.2d 29, 32 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 931, 107 S.Ct. 402, 93 L.Ed.2d 355 (1986). 52 Thalbo's contention that DiMilta was not in fact laid off at Stewart need not detain us long. Thalbo called as a witness Armond DiPoalo, manager of the Stewart club, who testified that DiMilta had worked on an on-call basis as a flex employee. Although DiPoalo testified that DiMilta had not been laid off, he also testified that after September 1992 the bar manager in charge of scheduling flex employees stopped calling DiMilta for work, that DiPoalo did not know why DiMilta was no longer called for work, that he had never discussed that matter with the bar manager in charge of the work schedule, and that DiMilta never told DiPoalo that she was quitting. DiMilta testified that she had not voluntarily stopped working at Stewart; she had stopped only when a manager informed her that she was being laid off. Thereafter, she collected unemployment insurance. This constituted substantial evidence that DiMilta had in fact been laid off at Stewart, and it was well within the Board's province to reject DiPoalo's testimony that she had not been laid off. 53 The record at the administrative hearing also contains substantial evidence to support the Board's findings that in fact DiMilta made reasonably diligent efforts to find work after being laid off at Stewart. DiMilta testified that at all times after the Company refused to reinstate her she had searched diligently for another job, and her testimony was supported by detailed records she had kept as to her search. The Board had instructed DiMilta to keep records of her job search efforts, and she did so by noting the names of employers she had contacted on state forms used in connection with applications for unemployment insurance. The documents introduced at the administrative hearing included some 82 pages containing the names of employers DiMilta had contacted from September 1992 to July 1995. They indicated that DiMilta usually contacted at least five employers a week during that period. 54 Thalbo has not called to our attention any evidence in the record that cast doubt on the accuracy or veracity of DiMilta's records. Its contention that DiMilta had not made the requisite efforts to find work was based solely on her deposition testimony in the Title VII lawsuit, stating that after leaving Stewart she had retired. The Board credited DiMilta's explanations as to why that deposition testimony was not true. DiMilta explained at the administrative hearings that her statement in the lawsuit deposition that she had retired in 1992 was flippant and not accurate, and had resulted from her nervousness at the prospect of being forced to detail Rothermel's sexual misconduct. She also testified that she had not given her Title VII attorney her job-search documents (which were not introduced or even mentioned in her Title VII trial) because he had advised her that her post-Stewart job efforts were not relevant to her Title VII claims (an assessment that was hardly unreasonable, given that the sexual harassment had had no effect on the continuation or resumption of her employment). The Board was entitled to credit DiMilta's testimony at the administrative hearing that she had not in fact removed herself from the job market, especially since her testimony as to her extensive job search efforts was thoroughly documented. While the Board could have rejected DiMilta's explanations for her deposition statements, her testimony at the administrative hearing was not hopelessly incredible and did not contradict either the law of nature or the documentary evidence. 55 Accordingly, the Board's credibility determination may not be overturned, and we conclude that there was substantial evidence in the record to support a finding that DiMilta made reasonably diligent efforts to find work after being laid off at Stewart and to support the ruling that Thalbo did not carry its burden of proving that she did not make such efforts. 56