Opinion ID: 754754
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Sufficiency of the Evidence Supporting the Jury's Finding

Text: 98 on Causation 99 The County contends that the district court erred in denying its motion for a new trial because the jury's finding that Molina failed to rehire the Plaintiffs based upon their political activity in support of Hillegeist is not supported by sufficient evidence or is against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence. Given our disposition of the County's claim regarding the proper evidentiary framework applicable to the Plaintiffs' First Amendment claim, we construe the instant claim as a contention that the district court should have ordered a new trial because (1) insufficient evidence existed to support the jury's conclusion that the Plaintiffs' political activity was a substantial or motivating factor in Molina's decision not to rehire them and (2) even if sufficient evidence existed to support this conclusion, the jury's further conclusion that Molina would not have made the same decision absent the Plaintiffs' political activity is against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence. 100 A trial court should not grant a new trial on evidentiary grounds unless the verdict is against the great weight of the evidence. Dotson v. Clark Equip. Co., 805 F.2d 1225, 1227 (5th Cir.1986). This court may overturn a denial of a motion for a new trial only upon a finding of an abuse of discretion. Pagan v. Shoney's, Inc., 931 F.2d 334, 337 (5th Cir.1991). Our review of a district court's decision to deny a motion for new trial is more deferential than our review of the district court's decision to grant such a motion. Pryor v. Trane Co., 138 F.3d 1024, 1025-26 (5th Cir.1998); Pagan, 931 F.2d at 337. 101 When the trial judge has refused to disturb a jury verdict, all the factors that govern our review of his decision favor affirmance. Deference to the trial judge, who has had an opportunity to observe the witnesses and to consider the evidence in the context of a living trial rather than upon a cold record, operates in harmony with deference to the jury's determination of the weight of the evidence and the constitutional allocation to the jury of questions of fact. 102 Shows v. Jamison Bedding, Inc., 671 F.2d 927, 930 (5th Cir.1982). Accordingly, we will hold that the district court has abused its discretion in denying a motion for new trial on evidentiary grounds only if, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, we conclude that the evidence points 'so strongly and overwhelmingly in favor of one party that the court believes that reasonable men could not arrive at a contrary [conclusion].'  Pagan, 931 F.2d at 337 (alterations in original) (quoting Jones v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 870 F.2d 982, 987 (5th Cir.1989)); see also Pryor, 138 F.3d at 1025-26. 103 The record in this case contains more than ample evidentiary support for the jury's conclusion that (1) the Plaintiffs proved by a preponderance of the evidence that their political activity constituted a substantial or motivating factor in Molina's decision not to rehire them and (2) the County failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that Molina would have chosen not to rehire the Plaintiffs even absent their political activity. Numerous witnesses testified that Molina made statements to them indicating that he declined to rehire the Plaintiffs based upon their political activity in support of Hillegeist. 104 Carolyn Faye Dickerson, an employee of the Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace in Fort Bend County, testified that, while Molina occupied that position, she heard him say that some of the Hillegeist supporters at the first of the year probably would no longer have a job at the sheriff's department. Mary Salais, another employee of Molina while he served as a justice of the peace, testified that during the sheriff's election, Molina expressed anger when certain officers applied for warrants because they were campaigning for Hillegeist. She also testified that Molina told her that Brady [did]n't know ... which side [his] bread is buttered on and that he must not value his job or appreciate his job very much because he was campaigning for the wrong side. Additionally, Salais testified that during a conversation that she had with Molina after he took office, Molina stated, We were out to dinner one night and that's when I saw Tony Baloney [Rosas] putting Hillegeist signs in front of my signs and that really pissed me off, kid, and that's when I decided to fire his ass. Elmo Cepeda, a police officer with the Missouri City police department who worked for Fort Bend County's drug task force, testified that Molina told him that he declined to rehire Chamblee because he was backing the wrong man. Larry Pittman, the officer who took Chamblee's place in the detective bureau, testified that Molina told him that Chamblee had bet on the wrong horse and lost. Bettye Newberry, a former employee of Fort Bend County, testified that she had a conversation with Molina at a political rally during the sheriff's campaign and that, during their conversation, they saw Hillegeist with a group of his supporters, including Brady and Fortenberry. She testified that Molina said that Hillegeist's supporters were going to be surprised if they don't have their jobs. 105 Additionally, the Plaintiffs offered a substantial amount of evidence indicating the high quality of their job performance. Brady received a rating of outstanding, the highest possible rating, on his last employment evaluation with the sheriff's department. Brady also testified that a few days before Molina officially announced that he intended to run for sheriff, he telephoned Brady and stated that he considered Brady to be one of the good people in the sheriff's department. Fortenberry also received a rating of outstanding in his last employment evaluation in the sheriff's department. Skinner testified that he had been named Officer of the Year in 1992, the same year that Molina chose not to rehire him, and that he had received this award once before. Leach received an overall rating of very good in his last employment evaluation. Ken Lee, a captain in the sheriff's department during Molina's tenure as sheriff, testified that he considered Leach to be a good employee and a hard worker. Rosas received an overall rating of very good in his last employment evaluation, and his supervisor described him as having done an excellent job of organizing the Warrants Section and implementing new procedures. Evans received a rating of very good on his last employment evaluation in the sheriff's department and consistently received evaluation ratings of very good or outstanding. Chamblee was part of the Fort Bend County Narcotics Task Force, which consisted of employees of numerous local agencies who worked in conjunction with federal agencies to ferret out drug trafficking in the area. Elizabeth Wiggington, a special agent for the Internal Revenue Service, testified that Chamblee's reputation in the federal agencies with which he worked on the Narcotics Task Force was very good and that he had been asked to teach at several law enforcement schools. Jack Schumacher, a special agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration, testified that Chamblee received an award from the International Narcotics Officers Association based upon his job performance. 106 The evidence outlined above provides a strong basis for the jury's conclusion that the Plaintiffs' political activity in support of Hillegeist constituted a substantial or motivating factor in Molina's decision not to rehire him. The County nonetheless contends that the record in this case demonstrates overwhelmingly that Molina did not base his decision not to rehire the Plaintiffs on their political activity in support of Hillegeist. In support of this contention, the County points almost exclusively to various pieces of Molina's testimony. Specifically, the County points to Molina's testimony that political affiliation and campaign activities played no part in his decision not to rehire the Plaintiffs and that he was unaware of the political activities of some of the Plaintiffs. The County also notes that Molina testified that, in choosing not to rehire the Plaintiffs, he based his decision largely on negative statements made about each of the Plaintiffs' job performance during the transition team meetings. Additionally, the County relies on Molina's testimony that he chose not to rehire some of the Plaintiffs because he did not know them very well. 107 As the trier of fact, the jury had the exclusive authority to assess the credibility of witnesses, including Molina. It was therefore free to discredit Molina's testimony regarding his motivation for failing to rehire the Plaintiffs. See Hiltgen v. Sumrall, 47 F.3d 695, 700 (5th Cir.1995) ( 'Even though we might have reached a different conclusion if we had been the trier of fact, we are not free to reweigh the evidence or to re-evaluate credibility of witnesses.' ) (quoting Rideau v. Parkem Indus. Servs., Inc., 917 F.2d 892, 897 (5th Cir.1990)). 108 The County also argues that the fact that Molina rehired numerous Hillegeist supporters indicates that the Plaintiffs' support of Hillegeist did not motivate Molina's decision not to rehire them. While this constitutes probative evidence that Molina may not have chosen not to rehire the Plaintiffs because of their political affiliation, it certainly did not compel such a conclusion by the jury, particularly in light of testimony outlined above that Molina made statements indicating that he intended to make employment decisions based upon political support. Moreover, Molina testified that it simply would not have been feasible not to rehire all of the Hillegeist supporters working in the sheriff's department when he took office. 109 In sum, the evidence in this case does not point so strongly and overwhelmingly in favor of a conclusion that (1) the Plaintiffs' political activity was not a substantial or motivating factor in Molina's decision not to rehire them or (2) that Molina would have chosen not to rehire the Plaintiffs absent their support for Hillegeist that a reasonable jury could not reach a contrary conclusion. We therefore conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying the County's motion for a new trial. 13 110