Opinion ID: 1249203
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Affirmative Defense Instruction

Text: We review jury instructions de novo to determine whether, taken as a whole, they correctly and completely informed the jury of the applicable law. Schmitz v. Canadian Pac. Ry. Co., 454 F.3d 678, 681-82 (7th Cir.2006); see also Boyd v. Illinois State Police, 384 F.3d 888, 894 (7th Cir.2004). We defer to the district court's phrasing of an instruction that accurately states the law, Schmitz, 454 F.3d at 682; however, we shall reverse when the instructions misstate the law or fail to convey the relevant legal principles in full and when those shortcomings confuse or mislead the jury and prejudice the objecting litigant. Byrd v. Illinois Dep't of Pub. Health, 423 F.3d 696, 705 (7th Cir.2005). We review a district court's decision on a motion for a new trial for an abuse of discretion. Schobert v. Illinois Dep't of Transp., 304 F.3d 725, 729 (7th Cir.2002). However, if the district court committed legal error in instructing the jury, the decision to deny the new trial was itself an abuse of discretion. See Almonacid v. United States, 476 F.3d 518, 521 (7th Cir.2007), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 2988, ___ L.Ed.2d ___ (2007), (noting that a court categorically abuses its discretion when a decision rests on legal error). In Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth, 524 U.S. 742, 118 S.Ct. 2257, 141 L.Ed.2d 633 (1998), and Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, 524 U.S. 775, 118 S.Ct. 2275, 141 L.Ed.2d 662 (1998), decided the same day, the Supreme Court considered the contours of employer liability under Title VII for workplace harassment by supervisors. In Ellerth, the Court began with the statutory text, which makes it unlawful for an employer to discriminate based on sex, race or other protected characteristics and defines an employer to include its agent[s]. 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e-2(a)(1), 2000e(b). Noting the general principle that agency liability will attach when an agent commits a tort within the scope of his employment, the Court concluded that harassment is not generally such an act. Burlington Indus., 524 U.S. at 756-57, 118 S.Ct. 2257. The Court further noted that an employer can also be liable, consistent with principles of agency law, for acts outside the scope of employment when committed by a servant who was aided in accomplishing the tort by the existence of the agency relation. Id. at 758, 118 S.Ct. 2257 (quoting Restatement of Agency § 219(2)(d)). To be aided in the agency relation, the Court continued, meant more than simply that the existence of an employment relationship provided the proximity and regular contact that facilitated harassment. That rule would be too broad, the Court concluded, because it would obliterate the distinction between employer liability for coworker harassment and for supervisor harassment recognized in the regulations and the case law. Id. at 760, 118 S.Ct. 2257. Although the Court declined to define with precision when this standardthat a supervisor was aided in accomplishing the tort by the agency relationwould be satisfied, the Court held that, at minimum, it was satisfied in that class of cases in which a supervisor takes a tangible employment action against the subordinate. Id. Such a rule was appropriate because [w]hen a supervisor makes a tangible employment decision, there is assurance the injury could not have been inflicted absent the agency relation. Id. at 761-62, 118 S.Ct. 2257. A supervisor whose harassment of a subordinate culminates in a tangible employment action has acted as an agent of the employer and thus has created liability for the employer. Id. at 762, 118 S.Ct. 2257. The Supreme Court then announced the following rule: An employer is subject to vicarious liability to a victimized employee for an actionable hostile environment created by a supervisor with immediate (or successively higher) authority over the employee. When no tangible employment action is taken, a defending employer may raise an affirmative defense to liability or damages, subject to proof by a preponderance of the evidence, see Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 8(c). The defense comprises two necessary elements: (a) that the employer exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct promptly any sexually harassing behavior, and (b) that the plaintiff employee unreasonably failed to take advantage of any preventive or corrective opportunities provided by the employer or to avoid harm otherwise. . . . No affirmative defense is available, however, when the supervisor's harassment culminates in a tangible employment action, such as discharge, demotion, or undesirable reassignment. Id. at 765, 118 S.Ct. 2257 (emphasis added); Faragher, 524 U.S. at 807-08, 118 S.Ct. 2275 (emphasis added). In Faragher, the Court noted that this approach appropriately held employers liable for certain specific misuses of supervisory authority; at the same time, however, it encourages all parties involved to take appropriate steps to avoid harm, consistent with the purposes of the statute. 524 U.S. at 805-06, 118 S.Ct. 2275. In both Ellerth and Faragher, however, the Supreme Court explicitly conditioned the availability of the affirmative defense on the absence of a tangible employment action. In recent years, the Supreme Court has confirmed that the presence or absence of a tangible employment action is the critical issue in determining whether, in a supervisory harassment claim, an employer may raise the Ellerth/ Faragher affirmative defense. See Pennsylvania State Police v. Suders, 542 U.S. 129, 143, 148-50, 124 S.Ct. 2342, 159 L.Ed.2d 204 (2004) (holding that constructive discharge was not a tangible employment action within the meaning of Ellerth and Faragher unless it was precipitated by some official act of the enterprise for which it was a certainty that the harassing supervisor was aided by the agency relation). Our own cases consistently have applied this standard. See, e.g., Jackson v. County of Racine, 474 F.3d 493, 501 (7th Cir.2007) (noting that liability is strict when the supervisor harassment is accompanied by an official action such as discharge, demotion, or undesirable reassignment); Robinson v. Sappington, 351 F.3d 317, 337 (7th Cir.2003) (holding that, when a constructive discharge was precipitated by the official action of a transfer to what the employee claimed would be an unbearable situation, no affirmative defense was available). In Ms. Huff's case, at the instruction conference, the district court ruled that the absence of a tangible employment action is not a necessary precondition to the availability of an affirmative defense. That view cannot be reconciled, as a matter of law, with the standard set forth in Ellerth and Faragher and elaborated upon in Suders. On the contrary, if Ms. Huff can demonstrate that a supervisor's harassment culminated in a tangible employment action, the Sheriff may not raise an affirmative defense; his liability will be strict. [10] We note that the record contains evidence that would support submitting potential tangible employment actions to the jury, including denial of case leads critical to career advancement and denial of a transfer. [11] We also note that, at trial, the Sheriff repeatedly contended that Mr. Guerra and Mr. Douvris did not supervise Ms. Huff for the Sheriff's Department, and that, therefore, Ms. Huff could only establish the Sheriff's liability by satisfying the more rigorous burdens applicable in claims of co-worker harassment. This argument is not one the Sheriff has pressed to this court on appeal. In any event, we note that the Sheriff's claim in the district court that the individual defendants were not supervisors for the Sheriff as a matter of law lacks support in the record before us. [12] If the individual defendants indeed were authorized to take tangible employment actions against Ms. Huff, affecting her employment relationship with the Sheriff, this authority in and of itself is sufficient evidence from which a jury could conclude that Mr. Guerra and Mr. Douvris were supervising Ms. Huff on behalf of the Sheriff's Department. As the Supreme Court has noted, tangible employment actions fall within the special province of the supervisor. Burlington Indus., 524 U.S. at 762, 118 S.Ct. 2257; see also Parkins v. Civil Constructors of Illinois, Inc., 163 F.3d 1027, 1034 (7th Cir.1998) ([T]he essence of supervisory status is the authority to affect the terms and conditions of the victim's employment.). Ms. Huff, therefore, was entitled to an instruction that properly placed the elements of a supervisory harassment claim before the jury.