Opinion ID: 203443
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Plaintiffs' Emotional Distress

Text: At trial, Soto testified that he had experienced [e]motional damages, anxiety, sleeping problems, and deep sadness following the events described above. He saw a psychiatrist ten times (the maximum his health insurance would allow) beginning in October 2002, and was prescribed various medications for anxiety and panic. He explained that he had sought psychiatric treatment because he wanted to feel like himself again: I mean that I was a happy man like every Puerto Rican. I wanted to be the heart of the party, to share with my buddies, play basketball and everything that Luis Soto entailed. I wasn't able to sleep. I would wake up every night at midnight. I didn't know what time it was but I couldn't sleep. He described himself as anxious always without being able to talk. When asked specifically about damage to his reputation, Soto testified: It was said that I had sent drugs in a package and to me that was stab and as of this date, it is still in the record, my record that I transported drugs through the system, illegal substances through the system. Rosario explained her own emotional distress as stemming from her guilt in having been the one who gave Soto the package and feeling impotent to do something to help him. She visited a psychiatrist a couple of times and took various antidepressant medications because she was in extreme anxiety, very nervous and had some panic attacks. The district court also admitted testimony that Soto's co-workers had heard rumors that he was being accused of shipping drugs through the system, and they conveyed those rumors back to Soto. Rosario described these rumors as devastating for their reputation. She described her husband as having been destroyed by the knowledge that these rumors were circulating at FedEx. In response to FedEx's interrogatories during discovery, Soto stated that he was seeking damages only for emotional distress. He did not claim economic damages or produce documents that would have supported a claim for lost wages. Soto failed to supplement his answers to interrogatories after economic damages were discussed at various depositions. Accordingly, the court ruled that evidence of Soto's economic damages would be excluded under Fed.R.Civ.P. 37. However, the court permitted testimony regarding economic facts . . . to lay the groundwork or foundation for any emotional damages that this plaintiff may have suffered. As a result, Soto presented other damage evidence, discussed in more detail below, describing how his family struggled financially as a result of his termination from FedEx and the emotional toll those financial struggles took.