Opinion ID: 680026
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Verdicts on the Federal Civil Rights Claims

Text: 28 Daniels and Atkinson contend that they were entitled to judgment as a matter of law on Maynard's Section 1983 claim for deprivation of his rights under color of law. Atkinson and Jackson contend they were entitled to judgment as a matter of law on Maynard's Section 1985 claim for conspiracy to deprive him of equal protection of the laws. Daniels, Atkinson, and Jackson appeal the district court's denial of their post-trial motion. 29 We must decide three issues. Does Maynard, who is white, have standing under either Section 1983 or Section 1985 to complain that he suffered from illegal retaliation because he assisted a Black person? Did the district court properly instruct the jury regarding Maynard's burden of proving intentional discrimination? And were the verdicts on these claims supported by sufficient evidence of intentional discrimination? 30 A. Standing. Whether a plaintiff has standing is a question of law reviewed de novo. Ellis v. City of La Mesa, 990 F.2d 1518, 1523 (9th Cir.1993), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 2707, 129 L.Ed.2d 834 (1994). 31 A white plaintiff generally does not have standing under Section 1983 solely for the purpose of vindicating the rights of minorities who have suffered from racial discrimination. In Halet v. Wend Inv. Co., 672 F.2d 1305, 1307 n. 1 (9th Cir.1982), the plaintiff, who was white, alleged that an apartment complex's adults-only rental policy was racially discriminatory because it had a greater effect on minorities. We held that he lacked standing under Section 1983 to assert the rights and interests of third parties. Id. at 1308-09. 3 32 At the same time, we cited Sullivan v. Little Hunting Park, Inc., 396 U.S. 229, 237, 90 S.Ct. 400, 404, 24 L.Ed.2d 386 (1969) for the proposition that in certain circumstances white plaintiffs may bring claims stemming from discrimination suffered by minorities. Halet, 672 F.2d at 1308. In Sullivan, a neighborhood cooperation expelled a white property owner who had attempted to lease his home to a Black man. The Supreme Court held that the white owner had standing to sue under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1982, and observed that at times a white plaintiff is the only effective adversary. 396 U.S. at 237, 90 S.Ct. at 404. The Court emphasized that allowing the punishment to stand against the white owner would perpetuate the harmful effects of the restrictive covenant. Id. 33 Maynard has standing under Section 1983. Unlike the plaintiff in Halet, Maynard is not suing on behalf of anyone else. He asserts his own right to be free from retaliation, alleges injuries that are personal to him, and is the only effective plaintiff who can bring this suit. Cf. Clemes v. Del Norte Cty. Unif. Sch. Dist., 843 F.Supp. 583, 591-92 (N.D.Cal.1994) (Section 1981 and 1982 claims). At least three other circuits have held that white plaintiffs have standing under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1981 when employers retaliate against them for aiding or interacting with minorities. Skinner v. Total Petroleum, Inc., 859 F.2d 1439, 1446-47 (10th Cir.1988) (white employee fired for helping Black employee file an EEOC claim); Winston v. Lear-Siegler, Inc., 558 F.2d 1266, 1268 (6th Cir.1977) (white employee alleged he was fired for protesting the perceived discriminatory termination of a Black employee); DeMatteis v. Eastman Kodak Co., 511 F.2d 306, 312 (2d Cir.1975) (white employee alleged that his employer fired him for selling his house to a Black employee). 34 Maynard also has standing under Section 1985. Plaintiffs have standing under Section 1985 only if they can show they are members of a class that the government has determined require[s] and warrant[s] special federal assistance in protecting their civil rights. Sever v. Alaska Pulp Corp., 978 F.2d 1529, 1536-37 (9th Cir.1992) (internal quotations omitted); McCalden v. California Library Ass'n, 955 F.2d 1214, 1223 (9th Cir.1990), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 2306, 119 L.Ed.2d 227 (1992). Section 706 of Title VII, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e-5, grants special protection to whites who are denied association with members of other groups because of an employer's discriminatory practices. Patee v. Pacific Northwest Bell Telephone Co., 803 F.2d 476, 478-79 (9th Cir.1986); Waters v. Heublein, Inc. 547 F.2d 466, 469-70 (9th Cir.1976), cert. denied, 433 U.S. 915, 97 S.Ct. 2988, 53 L.Ed.2d 1100 (1977). Section 704(a) of Title VII, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e-3(a), grants special protection to all employees--regardless of race--who are subjected to retaliation for assisting in the investigation of discriminatory employment practices. Eichman v. Indiana State University Bd. of Trustees, 597 F.2d 1104, 1107 (7th Cir.1979). Thus, assuming Maynard's allegations are true, he is a member of a class that has standing to bring a Section 1985 claim. 4 35 In a recent case in the Northern District of California, a white, male teacher alleged he had suffered retaliation for acting to protect the rights of Native American and female students. Clemes, 843 F.Supp. at 585-87. The district court determined that the plaintiff had standing under Titles VI and IX, id. at 588-90, but did not have standing under Section 1985 because he was not a member of a protected class. Id. at 592 (citing Canlis v. San Joaquin Sheriff's Posse Comitatus, 641 F.2d 711, 721 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 967, 102 S.Ct. 510, 70 L.Ed.2d 383 (1981)). Insofar as the decision in Clemes suggests that Maynard would not have standing unless he were Black, we decline to follow either the court's reasoning or its interpretation of our Section 1985 precedents. 36 B. Jury Instruction. Maynard bore the burden of proving intentional discrimination. Washington v. Davis, 426 U.S. 229, 238-42, 96 S.Ct. 2040, 2046-49, 48 L.Ed.2d 597 (1976). Whether a jury instruction misstates the elements that must be proved at trial is a question of law that is reviewed de novo. Caballero v. Concord, 956 F.2d 204, 206 (9th Cir.1992). 37 The instructions and special verdict regarding Maynard's Sections 1983 and 1985 claims referred exclusively to equal protection rights, and never mentioned free speech rights. Maynard did not object to these instructions. Although the Section 1983 cause of action in his complaint included First Amendment claims, he has waived these claims by failing to object to their exclusion from the instructions. 38 When instructing the jury on Maynard's Section 1983 claim, the district court quoted the Fourteenth Amendment and explained that the right to equal protection of the laws includes the right not [to] be subjected to retaliation, adverse employment action, and emotional distress because [a] person offers assistance to a [B]lack person. The court then described Maynard's burden to prove [t]hat the Defendants performed acts which operated to deprive the Plaintiff of one or more of his federal Constitutional rights, as defined and explained in these instructions, by retaliating against him or taking adverse employment actions against him. 39 The district court correctly explained the law. Intentional discrimination means that a defendant acted at least in part because of a plaintiff's protected status. Personnel Administrator of Massachusetts v. Feeney, 442 U.S. 256, 279, 99 S.Ct. 2282, 2296, 60 L.Ed.2d 870 (1979). The court instructed the jury that in order to find an equal protection violation, they needed to find that the individual defendants retaliated against Maynard because he offered assistance to a Black person. Although the burden of proof instruction did not specifically mention intentional discrimination, the court referred the jury to the immediately preceding definition of the civil rights claim at issue, which included the because of language. This reference adequately apprised the jury of the need to find intentional discrimination. 40 The district court properly instructed the jury regarding the Section 1985 claim. The court instructed the jury as follows on the issue of discriminatory intent: 41 [T]here must be some intentional racially discriminatory purpose behind the conspirators' action. In the context of this case, you must find that the conspiracy was aimed at retaliation against Plaintiff because of his report of what he considered to be improper personnel procedures in the processing of the application of a [B]lack person. 42 C. Sufficiency of the Evidence. A jury's verdict or a court's denial of a motion for judgment as a matter of law must be affirmed if there is substantial evidence to support the verdict. Landes Constr. Co. v. Royal Bank of Canada, 833 F.2d 1365, 1370-71 (9th Cir.1987). Substantial evidence is such relevant evidence as reasonable minds might accept as adequate to support a conclusion even if it is possible to draw two inconsistent conclusions from the evidence. George v. City of Long Beach, 973 F.2d 706, 709 (9th Cir.1992), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 1269, 122 L.Ed.2d 664 (1993). 43 Atkinson and Jackson preserved their right to challenge the sufficiency of the evidence on appeal by moving for a directed verdict in the district court. United States v. 33.5 Acres of Land, 789 F.2d 1396, 1400 (9th Cir.1986). As a matter of expediency, the district court agreed to let the defendants' trial brief serve as a motion for a directed verdict. Maynard did not object to the court's decision. 44 In Maynard's response brief, he argues that there was sufficient evidence to support a finding that Atkinson and Jackson conspired to violate his First Amendment rights. However, that question was not before the jury. The instructions and special verdict form framed Maynard's federal civil rights claims exclusively in terms of the Fourteenth Amendment's prohibition of racial discrimination. 45 The dearth of evidence suggesting any racial animus on the part of Daniels, Atkinson, or Jackson persuades us that the jury's verdicts on the Sections 1983 and 1985 claims cannot stand. We recognize that defendants typically do not announce their discriminatory intentions. Appellate courts reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence must be alert to the often subtle ways in which a record may reflect defendants' hidden discriminatory purposes. Nonetheless, while there is evidence that Daniels, Atkinson, and Jackson retaliated against Maynard, there is an absence of evidence that this retaliation occurred because Maynard assisted a Black person. The record reflects instead that they were angry and embarrassed that Maynard had publicly exposed the post-dated letter. Cf. Coverdell v. Department of Social & Health Serv's., 834 F.2d 758, 769 (9th Cir.1987). 46 Maynard testified that at one time Jackson told him she did not believe in giving minorities preferential treatment. Standing alone, this cannot establish a racial animus. Maynard claims that Jackson told him nigger was a grammatically correct term. But the record establishes that while explaining to Maynard why she found sexist language offensive, Jackson told him that although nigger might once have been an acceptable term, it no longer was. When Maynard brought the post-dated letter to the Department's attention, he framed his complaint in terms of Atkinson's and Jackson's violation of the Department's hiring practices, not in terms of racial discrimination against Adkins. In depositions and trial testimony, Maynard expressed doubts that Daniels, Atkinson, and Jackson acted with a racially discriminatory purpose. In the briefs Maynard submitted to this court, he abandoned any argument based on intentional racial discrimination and relied solely on arguments based on the First Amendment. 47 The evidence suggesting an alternative motive for the defendants' actions further influences our decision. Maynard testified that Daniels had formally reprimanded him for disclosing the hiring irregularities outside the chain of command. Maynard further alleged that Atkinson had told him that he lost all credibility when he leaked the information about the letter of hire. We do not suggest that the statements Maynard attributes to the defendants were proper or justified. We note only that the evidence presented by Maynard indicates the defendants' hostility towards him was not kindled by racial prejudice. 48 We reverse the jury's verdicts for Maynard on his Sections 1983 and 1985 claims. Having done so, we need not address the defendants' argument that they were entitled to qualified immunity on Maynard's federal claims. 49