Opinion ID: 803961
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Damages and the Statute of Limitations

Text: The Port Authority argues, finally, that it was improperly assessed back pay and compensatory damages for harms that were suffered by the plaintiffs prior to August 2, 2000. The district court disagreed because it believed that the “continuing violation” doctrine applied in the context of plaintiffs’ disparate impact allegations so that damages could properly be awarded for failures to promote that occurred outside the limitations period.10 We agree with the Port Authority and hold that the continuing violation doctrine does not apply to plaintiffs’ disparate impact proof. As a result, we further conclude: (1) that the back pay awards to Eng, Lew, Stanley Chin, and Fong must be vacated, as well as the retroactive promotion of Lew and the salary and pension adjustments for Lew, Stanley Chin, and Fong; and (2) that the jury’s compensatory damage awards with regard to all seven prevailing plaintiffs must also be vacated. We remand to the district court for a new trial on damages and for reconsideration of equitable relief to the extent such relief was premised on failures to promote occurring outside the limitations period. 10 The district court reached a similar conclusion with regard to plaintiffs’ pattern-or-practice allegations but, for the reasons already stated, see supra Part I, we have concluded that this theory of liability was not properly submitted to the jury. 37
It has been the law of this Circuit that “[u]nder the continuing violation exception to the Title VII limitations period, if a Title VII plaintiff files an EEOC charge that is timely as to any incident of discrimination in furtherance of an ongoing policy of discrimination, all claims of acts of discrimination under that policy will be timely even if they would be untimely standing alone.” Lambert v. Genesse Hosp., 10 F.3d 46, 53 (2d Cir. 1993), abrogated on other grounds by Kasten v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp., 131 S. Ct. 1325, 1329–30 (2011); see also Patterson v. Cnty. of Oneida, 375 F.3d 206, 220 (2d Cir. 2004); Fitzgerald v. Henderson, 251 F.3d 345, 359 (2d Cir. 2001); Van Zant v. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, 80 F.3d 708, 713 (2d Cir. 1996); Cornwall v. Robinson, 23 F.3d 694, 703–04 (2d Cir. 1994). Applying this principle, the district court in this case concluded that the Port Authority could be liable, and assessed damages, for discriminatory failures to promote outside the statute of limitations because, pursuant to the plaintiffs’ disparate impact theory, those failures to promote were the product of an ongoing discriminatory policy that continued after August 2, 2000, thus triggering the continuing-violation doctrine. See Port Auth. II, 681 F. Supp. 2d at 463.