Opinion ID: 1433395
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Eileen Jewell

Text: Jackson Hospital argues that the record does not include substantial evidence to support the conclusion that Jewell properly mitigated her damages. Prior to firing her, Jackson Hospital employed Jewell then sixty years oldas a surgical technician. Her duties included sterilizing surgical instruments, ensuring that scrubs and other equipment were available for the surgeons, and generally keeping surgical areas clean. As determined by the ALJ and affirmed by the Board, her backpay period began on August 17, 2000 (when she was fired), and concluded in the third quarter of 2003, when she retired and began to receive social security benefits. The ALJ found that, after being fired, Jewell looked for work in the Beattyville and Lee County areas near her home. [2] She did not apply to nearby hospitals because, as far as she knew, they had no surgical units, and she instead asked for work at a library, a grocery store, and a general store. She inquired about working as an aide to the elderly, but did not ask about working in nearby doctors' offices because she said she knew all three doctors in Beattyville and each had kept the same staffs for a substantial period of time. Eventually, she obtained a job with Rite-Aid as a pharmacy technician. Her employment there ended, however, when two new employees were transferred to her store and store managers asked her to transfer to another Rite-Aid located roughly seventy miles away. After asking about other stores closer to home and about other positionsrequests which were all deniedshe left Rite-Aid in November 2002. This Court has explained that a wrongfully-discharged employee is only required to make a reasonable effort to mitigate damages, and is not held to the highest standard of diligence. Westin Hotel, 758 F.2d at 1130. Moreover, this reasonableness of the effort to find substantially equivalent employment should be evaluated in light of the individual's background and experience and the relevant job market. Id. This burden is not onerous, and does not mandate that the plaintiff be successful in mitigating the damage. Id. Nevertheless, deductions will be made from gross backpay for actual [interim] earnings by the worker, [and] for losses which [the worker] willfully incurred by a clearly unjustifiable refusal to take desirable new employment. Phelps Dodge Corp. v. NLRB, 313 U.S. 177, 198-200, 61 S.Ct. 845, 85 L.Ed. 1271 (1941). But, this being an affirmative defense, the burden remains on the employer to prove that the employee failed to mitigate her damages. NLRB v. Reynolds, 399 F.2d 668, 669 (6th Cir.1968). Jackson Hospital argues that: (1) in the aggregate, Jewell did not conduct a full job search, particularly because she limited it to the nearby Beattyville, Kentucky area; (2) while employed at Rite-Aid, Jewell failed to continue her job search and this constituted a failure to mitigate damages; (3) Jewell's backpay should be tolled from the time she left Rite-Aid because she left voluntarily, and (4) after leaving Rite-Aid, she failed to continue her efforts to search for employment. Regarding the scope of her search, the ALJ found no evidence that [Jewell] neglected to make an honest good faith effort to search for work. Likewise, in Westin Hotel, this Court held that a cocktail waitress' failure to apply for comparable jobs located twenty-five miles from her home was reasonable, 758 F.2d at 1130, so there was nothing improper about Jewell limiting her focus to the nearby area. And, considering her age, background, and experience, Jewell's failure to inquire of every theoretical medically-related jobeven when she knew there would be no openingsdid not render her search unreasonable. Second, the fact that, once employed by Rite-Aid, Jewell failed to leverage up into a full-time job was not unreasonable, either. It is not surprising that her interim employmentthe only job she foundmade it difficult to find a different full-time job. Though her burden to find meaningful employment did not suddenly evaporate when she took on part-time work, all that is required is a reasonable effort to search. Jewell satisfied that standard here. See Lundy Packing Co. v. NLRB, 856 F.2d 627, 629-30 (4th Cir.1988). Third, although Jewell willfully left her job at Rite-Aid, an unlawfully laid-off employee is not required to accept or remain in less desirable working conditions. See Westin, 758 F.2d at 1129-30 (holding that the fact that a waitress quit a comparable job did not toll her backpay liability where the sinks at the new job backed up and flooded when it rained). For Jewell to have stayed with Rite-Aid after the other employees transferred in, she would have had to have driven seventy miles each way to get to and from work, all for a seven-dollar an hour job. Refusing that is reasonable. Finally, Jackson Hospital argues that Jewell's search was inadequate for the five months after she left Rite-Aid until she retired. But the ALJ found that Jewell's search was reasonable under the circumstances (her husband had recently died), and we owe that finding deference. In any event, after her job search proved fruitless she retired and her backpay stopped shortly thereafter. And the ALJ completely agreed with Jewell's assessment of the reasonableness of her search: Overall, there is no credible record evidence that disputes or contradicts Jewell's testimony. Jackson Hosp., 352 N.L.R.B. at n. 16. Thus, we enforce Jewell's backpay award.