Opinion ID: 705166
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Evidence of Use of Apparent Authority

Text: 50 Tomka has presented evidence to support her claims. During discovery, Tomka stated that the December 6 dinner was a business meeting convened by Lucey which she felt compelled to attend. Tomka further stated that Seiler employees travelling together on the road often took their meals together, and that business was often discussed during this time. By itself, Tomka's testimony is sufficient to create a fact issue over the nature of the December 6 dinner. However, Lucey also testified at his deposition that it was customary for Seiler employees on the road to eat together, Taylor testified it was the practice of Seiler employees to sometimes talk about business at these meals, and Conroy testified that whenever Seiler employees met for after-work meals business was always discussed one way or the other. Moreover, if the dinners were in fact business meetings, it would certainly be permissible for the trier of fact to find that Tomka felt compelled to attend these meetings; as an out-of-town employee working on a new account, Tomka may have felt that she would be disadvantaged if she failed to attend and receive any valuable information or insight which might be imparted from the various managers at the meeting. This latter proposition might be true even if business was not the sole topic of conversation and the meal took on a social flavor. 51 Seiler and Lucey also argue that, even if the December 6 dinner was a business meeting, the excessive drinking at the meal was the proximate cause of the assaults and that Tomka's drinking was voluntary and unconnected to any use of Lucy's apparent authority. Of course, drinking does not cause rape--people do. However, insofar as the drinking at the December 6 meeting made Tomka more vulnerable and facilitated the assaults, this too could be connected by a fact finder to Seiler's delegation of authority to Lucey. First, Lucey charged the drinks at the meeting to Seiler with his company charge card. 6 Second, Tomka testified that the corporate culture at Seiler encouraged drinking, and that she felt forced to drink during the dinner in order to be accepted. While there is no evidence to suggest that Tomka was physically forced to drink six glasses of wine, it would be reasonable for her to feel pressure to drink, given that all of the others were drinking. A fact finder could reasonably conclude that Seiler employees on assignment customarily met after working hours to eat and discuss business, and that Lucey, as the agent of Seiler, used his apparent authority to promote this policy, which included the supplying of alcoholic drinks on the company's credit card. 52 Of course, there is contradictory evidence in the record that the dinner was simply a social event which Tomka chose to attend and that her consumption of alcohol was likewise voluntary. For example, Conroy's wife was invited to attend both the December 5 and 6 dinners and did attend the December 5 dinner. Conroy stated that he originally did not plan to attend the December 6 dinner. Moreover, Tomka drank much less than either Lucey, Polonsky, or Conroy on December 5, creating an inference that she also could have stopped drinking at the December 6 dinner before she became intoxicated and hence more vulnerable to the attacks. 7 These issues, however, are for the fact finder. As discussed above, Tomka has presented sufficient evidence to create an inference that Lucey used his apparent authority to convene the December 6 dinner and encourage the free use of alcohol. If the trier of fact were to credit Tomka's testimony that the December 6 dinner was in fact a business meeting convened by Lucey, and that he used his apparent authority to foster the excessive drinking, this would provide the required nexus between that event and the alleged assaults which followed. In short, Tomka has created a series of reasonable inferences that Lucey used his apparent authority to convene the dinner and encourage the drinking which enabled the defendants to rape Tomka. If the fact finder credits these inferences, a sufficient nexus between the assaults and Seiler would be established for liability purposes. Thus, Tomka's sexual harassment claims under Title VII--and thus under the HRL--were incorrectly dismissed by the district court. 8