Opinion ID: 794672
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Mr. Doncet and Mr. Horton

Text: 89 The district court entered judgment in favor of all but two plaintiffs—Mr. Doncet and Mr. Horton. It held that there was no evidence that Riverboat executives were aware that these individuals were involved in a report of a violation of safety regulations prior to their terminations. See R.191 at 21. The plaintiffs signed only the August letter, not the October 10th letter; according to the district court, there is no evidence that Mr. Gourguechon read the August letter or that the August letter qualified for statutory protection under § 2114 as a report. Therefore, according to the district court, Mr. Doncet and Mr. Horton did not meet their burden of proving that they were terminated in retaliation for protected correspondence with the Coast Guard. We review this finding of fact for clear error. 90 Although Mr. Doncet and Mr. Horton did not sign the October 10th report, the facts of the case compel a finding that the defendants believed them to be involved in protected communications with the Coast Guard. On January 13, 1998, five of the ten plaintiffs filed a complaint in the district court. This complaint, to which were attached the four letters sent to the Coast Guard during August, September and October of 1997, was served on the M/V Showboat on January 14, 1998. The defendants admit having seen and read these attached letters at this time. See R.69, Ex.B at 110; Tr.IV at 47. Mr. Doncet and Mr. Horton were terminated shortly thereafter, on January 22 and January 15, 1998, respectively. 91 As we have noted earlier, the district court found that, although the termination letters delivered to seven of the prevailing plaintiffs did not contain explanations for their discharges, like Mr. Gaffney's letter, the timing and circumstances prove that these plaintiffs also were fired because of correspondence with the Coast Guard. Specifically, these plaintiffs were fired in rapid succession and only days after the Coast Guard informed [Riverboat] that it was rescinding the COI limited endorsement. R.191 at 28. The smoking gun—Mr. Gaffney's termination letter—also demonstrated retaliation against all eight plaintiffs, given that Mr. Gaffney had testified that he told the defendants, upon receiving his termination letter, that they could not fire him for the reason stated. The[] rapid firings are at least circumstantial evidence that [all of] the plaintiffs were terminated because of their report to the Coast Guard. Id. at 28-29. 92 We cannot see why these findings do not apply with equal force to the terminations of Mr. Doncet and Mr. Horton. As in the case of the other eight plaintiffs, the defendants were aware of Mr. Doncet and Mr. Horton's involvement in the petition to remove the limited endorsement from the M/V Showboat's COI. Moreover, the terminations of all ten plaintiffs occurred in rapid succession, id. at 28; the terminations of Mr. Doncet and Mr. Horton occurred within eight days after the defendants learned that they had signed the August letter to the Coast Guard. Given this sequence of events, we conclude that there is sufficient evidence linking the report to the Coast Guard to the terminations of Mr. Doncet and Mr. Horton. The district court's contrary conclusion is unsupported by the evidence and, therefore, clearly erroneous. 93 Riverboat maintains that, unlike the eight prevailing plaintiffs, Mr. Doncet and Mr. Horton did not sign the October 10th letter and therefore never submitted a report to the Coast Guard. § 13(a), 98 Stat. at 2863. However, given that the letters were served on the M/V Showboat simultaneously and Mr. Doncet and Mr. Horton were terminated shortly thereafter, nearly concurrently with the terminations of the other eight plaintiffs, the logical inference is that the defendants believed that Mr. Doncet and Mr. Horton were involved in a broader effort to obtain the revocation of the licensing waiver. Although timing is not dispositive, see Culver v. Gorman & Co., 416 F.3d 540, 546 (7th Cir.2005) (We have never said that [temporal proximity] is dispositive in providing or disproving a causal link. (internal quotation marks omitted)), it is a significant factor to be considered, particularly when there is other evidence that supports the inference of a causal link, id. Here, the terminations of Mr. Doncet and Mr. Horton followed closely on the heels of the terminations of the other plaintiffs, which we have held were in retaliation for their protected communication with the Coast Guard. As in justifying the terminations of the other plaintiffs, the defendants offered shifting rationales for terminating Mr. Doncet and Mr. Horton. Compare Gourguechon Test., R.70 at 46 (testifying at NLRB proceedings that Mr. Doncet was fired to get a different group of people, different skills in the engine room), with Gourguechon Test., Tr.IV at 19, 38-41 (testifying at the bench trial that all of the plaintiffs were fired because of their union involvement and concurrent activities). It is also undisputed that the defendants knew that Mr. Doncet and Mr. Horton were involved in the first inquiry to the Coast Guard, a letter which, although classified as a Freedom of Information Act request, also expressed safety concerns with the relaxation of licensing requirements. See R.34, Ex.2 (noting that the relaxation of licensing requirements for the engineers on the M/V Showboat . . . substantially reduces passenger safety by not requiring experienced personnel to crew the vessel). This document—while not formally a report—put the defendants on notice that Mr. Doncet and Mr. Horton were concerned about, and motivated by, the safety implications of hiring engineers with limited licenses. Moreover, the defendants knew that Mr. Gaffney spearheaded the drafting of all four letters attached to the complaint, making reasonable the conclusion that the signatories to these letters were involved in a general, larger effort to petition the Coast Guard for an amended COI. We conclude, on the basis of these pieces of circumstantial evidence, that Mr. Doncet and Mr. Horton's communication with the Coast Guard and their implicit connection to the October report was a motiving factor in their discharges, entitling them to whistleblower protection under § 2114. We therefore reverse the judgment of the district court as it relates to Mr. Doncet and Mr. Horton and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion, including the calculation of proper damages with respect to these two plaintiffs. 94