Opinion ID: 202018
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Jury Instruction on Ellerth-Faragher Defense

Text: 49 This case involves evidence of both harassment by supervisors and harassment by co-workers. In two companion cases decided in 1998, the Supreme Court addressed the question of an employer's vicarious liability for actionable discrimination by a supervisor with immediate or successively higher authority over the plaintiff employee. Ellerth, 524 U.S. 742, 118 S.Ct. 2257, 141 L.Ed.2d 633; Faragher, 524 U.S. 775, 118 S.Ct. 2275, 141 L.Ed.2d 662. 50 Prior to Ellerth and Faragher, cases had established the standard for employer liability for co-worker harassment of the plaintiff employee. Ordinarily, where the harassment is by a non-supervisory co-worker, the employer is liable only if the plaintiff can show that the employer knew or should have known of the charged ... harassment and failed to implement prompt and appropriate action. Crowley v. L.L. Bean, Inc., 303 F.3d 387, 401 (1st Cir.2002) (quoting White v. N.H. Dep't of Corr., 221 F.3d 254, 261 (1st Cir.2000)). 51 As to actionable discrimination by supervisors, Faragher articulated some clear lines: 52 (1) 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. Faragher, 524 U.S. at 807, 118 S.Ct. 2275. 53 (2) Where 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. Id. 54 (3) No affirmative defense is available ... when the supervisor's harassment culminates in a tangible employment action, such as discharge, demotion, or undesirable reassignment. Id. at 808, 118 S.Ct. 2275. 55 (4) The affirmative defense, when available, comprises two necessary elements: (a) that the employer exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct promptly any ... 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. Id. at 807, 118 S.Ct. 2275. The employer bears the burden of proof as to both elements. Id. at 807-08, 118 S.Ct. 2275. 56 (5) As to the first element of the defense, proof of an anti-harassment policy with a complaint procedure available to employees, while not necessarily dispositive, is relevant. Id. at 807, 118 S.Ct. 2275. 57 (6) As to the second element of the defense, proof that the employee failed to meet his obligation of using reasonable care is not limited to an unreasonable failure to use such a procedure, although such proof will normally suffice to meet the employer's burden. Id. at 807-08, 118 S.Ct. 2275. See also Reed v. MBNA Mktg. Sys., Inc., 333 F.3d 27, 32 (1st Cir.2003); Marrero v. Goya of P.R., Inc., 304 F.3d 7, 20 (1st Cir.2002). 58 After Ellerth and Faragher, the question that arose was whether a constructive discharge, occasioned by supervisor harassment so severe it was intolerable, constituted a per se tangible employment action so as to preclude the assertion of the Faragher affirmative defense. This court addressed the question in Reed. See 333 F.3d at 32-33. As is often our wont, we said that while other circuits had adopted hard and fast per se rules as to whether a constructive discharge was or was not a tangible employment action, we would not adopt such a rule. Id. at 33 ([W]e see no reason to adopt a blanket rule one way or the other. Here, it is clear to us that the constructive discharge label cannot be used to preclude the affirmative defense.). Instead, we focused on whether the supervisor's action was an official action comprising the kind of tangible employment action (e.g., discharge, reduction in pay) that the Supreme Court appeared to have in mind. Id. Reed did allow for the possibility that, on other facts, the affirmative defense as to supervisor harassment could be precluded in a constructive discharge case. 59 The Supreme Court addressed the same issue in Pennsylvania State Police v. Suders, 542 U.S. 129, 124 S.Ct. 2342, 159 L.Ed.2d 204 (2004), adopting a test similar to that in Reed. Suders held that constructive discharge is not a per se tangible employment action. Rather, it held that a tangible employment action was an official act, that is, an employer-sanctioned adverse action officially changing [the employee's] employment status or situation, for example, a humiliating demotion, extreme cut in pay, or transfer to a position in which [the employee] would face unbearable working conditions. Id. at 131, 134, 124 S.Ct. 2342. Such an official act can both precipitate an employee's constructive discharge and be a tangible employment action that would preclude the employer's resort to the Faragher defense. See id. at 148-49, 124 S.Ct. 2342. 60 Where the evidence shows that the defendant cannot prove an affirmative defense under the Faragher standard, there is no reason to remand for the giving of a Faragher instruction. See O'Rourke v. City of Providence, 235 F.3d 713, 736 (1st Cir.2001). Indeed, in Faragher itself, the Supreme Court declined to remand because the factual findings made in the trial court demonstrated that the employer was not, on the evidence, entitled to the defense. 524 U.S. at 808-10, 118 S.Ct. 2275. 61 In this case, the court instructed the jury on January 29, 2004, rejecting defendant's proposed Ellerth-Faragher instruction. At that time, Suders had not yet been decided, but Reed had been. Nonetheless, Wal-Mart did not ask for an instruction on whether a tangible employment action, or a tangible event as that term is defined by Reed, had taken place. Instead, Wal-Mart's instruction assumed there was no tangible employment action and that it was entitled to assert the Ellerth-Faragher defense. 62 In its ruling on the post-judgment motion the court said it had declined to give the proposed instruction because the Ellerth-Faragher defense was not applicable. The court found, in essence, that no reasonable jury could have concluded that either element of the defense had been met. First, the court noted that the open door policy existed on paper, but had not been put into practice. Indeed, when Arrieta complained to the Personnel Department and to several supervisors, no corrective actions were taken and his complaints were not even recorded. Second, the evidence was that Arrieta had reasonably availed himself of the procedures and the company had more than sufficient notice of the problems. We can find no reversible error; as in Faragher, the evidence did not support giving the instruction, irrespective of whether Wal-Mart's conduct amounted to a tangible employment action. 63 On this record there is and can be no assertion the jury was misled or that there has been a miscarriage of justice. The instruction the court gave placed the burden on the plaintiff to show not only that his work conditions were intolerable but also that his employer knew or should have known about the intolerable conditions and deliberately allowed them to recur. Thus, whether or not the supervisors themselves engaged in harassment, the supervisors, including Wal-Mart's own personnel department, were well aware of the co-worker harassment and chose to let it occur, providing another basis for Wal-Mart's liability. 64