Opinion ID: 3170688
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: City’s Affirmative Defense

Text: Third, as to whether the City is shielded from liability by an affirmative defense on the basis that Mayor Arnold still would have terminated Willingham even absent Willingham’s October 12 speech, we find this issue not properly 11 Case: 15-11597 Date Filed: 01/20/2016 Page: 12 of 13 before this Court at this time. The City challenges the district court’s summary judgment ruling that the City was not entitled to prevail as a matter of law as to the City’s affirmative defense and that instead a triable fact issue existed on that defense. That challenge fails because “a party may not appeal an order denying summary judgment after there has been a full trial on the merits.” Pensacola Motor Sales Inc. v. E. Shore Toyota, LLC, 684 F.3d 1211, 1219 (11th Cir. 2012). In any event, the district court did not err in that ruling. To the extent the City challenges the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the jury’s verdict, which found that Mayor Arnold would not have made the same termination decision absent Willingham’s speech, this challenge is not properly before us. In the absence of a party’s post-verdict motion under Fed. R. Civ. P. 50(b) challenging the sufficiency of the evidence, “an appellate court is without power to direct the District Court to enter judgment contrary to the one it had permitted to stand.” Unitherm Food Sys., Inc. v. Swift-Eckrich, Inc., 546 U.S. 394, 400-01, 126 S. Ct. 980, 985 (2006) (quotation marks and alterations omitted). In its order on the City’s renewed motions for judgment as a matter of law, the district court noted that “the City [had] not renewed a sufficiency of the evidence argument as to Mr. Willingham’s free speech claim.” Willingham, 97 F. Supp. 3d at 1351 n.7 (quotation marks omitted). 12 Case: 15-11597 Date Filed: 01/20/2016 Page: 13 of 13 Alternatively, we conclude the evidence amply supported the jury’s verdict in every regard and the district court did not err in any of its rulings in this case. AFFIRMED. 13