Court Opinion

ID: 9495364
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:01:12.059267+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:56:58.884890
License: Public Domain

NIEMEYER, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I write separately to clarify what, I conclude, we hold in Part III and to explain my support of the judgment reached there.
With respect to the standard of review, it remains the law of this circuit that when a party to a civil action fails to raise a point at trial, that party waives review of the issue unless there are exceptional or extraordinary circumstances justifying review. See Canada Life Assurance Co. v. Estate of Lebowitz, 185 F.3d 231, 239 (4th Cir.1999) (holding that insurance company’s failure to raise specific interpretation of contract at trial resulted in a waiver of its argument on appeal); United States v. Vanhorn, 20 F.3d 104, 114 (4th Cir.1994) (finding that physician had waived her argument that she was entitled to partial credit for her service under the National Health Service Corps program because she “did not raise this issue before the agency or the court below, and has not pointed to any exceptional circumstances justifying our consideration of it now”); Skippy, Inc. v. CPC Int’l, Inc., 674 F.2d 209, 215 (4th Cir.1982) (“In the absence of exceptional circumstances, questions not raised and properly preserved in the trial forum will not be noticed on appeal”); Malbon v. Pa. Millers Mut. Ins. Co., 636 F.2d 936, 940-41 (4th Cir.1980) (explaining reasons for requiring parties to raise all arguments at trial and concluding that “[i]t is elementary that an issue not raised below will not, absent extraordinary circumstances, ... be considered on appeal”). When a case meets the necessary criterion of exceptionality or extraordinariness, then we may notice the error and analyze it under the plain-error standard that we apply in the opinion for the court. The court’s opinion fails, however, to address this necessary prerequisite for our consideration of an issue that was not raised below. While the issue in this case may well be a candidate to meet the exception-*344ality or extraordinariness criterion, the fact that the court’s opinion does not explicitly address it cannot be construed as overruling precedent set by a prior panel of this court. Only an en bane decision could do that. See Mentavlos v. Anderson, 249 F.3d 301, 312 n. 4 (4th Cir.2001); Bell v. Jarvis, 236 F.3d 149, 159 (4th Cir.2000) (en banc).
On the substance of the punitive-damages issue, I write separately to clarify our holding that punitive damages are appropriate in this Title VII case because they accompany an award of lost wages. Such a holding is in accordance with the common-law rule, to which we continue to adhere in Title VII cases, that punitive damages are not appropriate unless they accompany compensatory damages.
In this case, the jury awarded Corti $100,000 in punitive damages, but no compensatory damages. The court, however, awarded Corti more than $410,000 in back-pay and interest. StorageTek argues that Corti is not entitled to the punitive damages award because the jury did not award her compensatory damages. This argument rests on the general rule that punitive damages are prohibited in the absence of compensatory damages. See, e.g., People Helpers Found., Inc. v. Richmond, 12 F.3d 1321, 1327 (4th Cir.1993); Provencher v. CVS Pharmacy, 145 F.3d 5, 11 (1st Cir.1998). While the rule is an established one, StorageTek’s argument fails in application. Our holding that Corti may receive punitive damages is grounded on the fact that the district court awarded her lost wages, and we do not violate the general rule that punitive damages must be supported by compensatory damages in so holding.
Title VII authorizes punitive damages when a defendant discriminates against the plaintiff “with malice or with reckless indifference to the federally protected rights of an aggrieved individual.” 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(b)(l). That provision does not address, one way or the other, whether the common-law rule — that compensatory damages must be proved as a condition to an award of punitive damages — applies. Section 1981a does, however, remove from the jury’s consideration of compensatory damages any award for “backpay.” See 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(b)(2). This provision was necessary to avoid double recovery for backpay because 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(g)(1) already provided for backpay. See Landgraf v. USI Film Prods., 511 U.S. 244, 253, 114 S.Ct. 1483, 128 L.Ed.2d 229 (1994); Provencher, 145 F.3d at 11; Hennessy v. Penril Datacomm Networks, Inc., 69 F.3d 1344, 1352 (7th Cir.1995). Thus, under the scheme established under Title VII, the court awards backpay, and the jury awards other compensatory damages. The fact that the statute separates these factfinding responsibilities does not suggest that Congress abolished the general requirement that some form of compensatory damages be awarded before punitive damages be awarded.
Indeed, backpay awards are compensatory in nature and are, in fact, “the most obvious economic damages in a wrongful discharge case.” Hennessy, 69 F.3d at 1352; see also Landgraf, 511 U.S. at 253, 114 S.Ct. 1483 (recognizing that backpay “is a ‘make-whole’ remedy that resembles compensatory damages in some respects”). In this case, Corti was not awarded compensatory damages as those damages are defined in § 1981a, but she was awarded damages to compensate her for the loss of income resulting from her employer’s discriminatory tactics. Because Corti received a backpay award compensating her for her lost wages, she received “compensatory damages” and thereby became authorized to receive punitive damages in the circumstances prescribed by Title VII.
*345With these modest clarifications, I am pleased to concur.