Court Opinion

ID: 9481113
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:08:06.710659+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:06.149260
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I concur in the majority’s decision but only because the narrow scope of our review compels affirmance. The district court found as a fact that the decision to defer consideration of Hopkins’s partnership candidacy was a product of intentional discrimination. While I view that finding as highly questionable, in light of the all but overwhelming evidence that the decision resulted from Hopkins’s own, well-attested personality deficiencies,1 I cannot say it is “based on an utterly implausible *983account of the evidence” so as to warrant reversal of the district court’s decision. See Bishopp v. District of Columbia, 788 F.2d 781, 785-86 (1986); see also Anderson v. Bessemer City, 470 U.S. 564, 573, 105 S.Ct. 1504, 1511, 84 L.Ed.2d 518 (1985) (“If the district court’s account of the evidence is plausible in light of the record viewed in its entirety, the court of appeals may not reverse it even though convinced that had it been sitting as trier of fact, it would have weighed the evidence differently.”). For this reason, I am constrained to concur in affirming the district court’s conclusion on liability.
I also concur, but even more reluctantly, in affirming the award of a partnership interest under the circumstances here. While I agree with the majority that the plain language of section 706(g) of title VII, together with its legislative history and interpreting case law, make it clear that partnership is a permissible remedy under title VII, I am convinced that this extraordinary equitable remedy should be dispensed only under limited circumstances when justice so dictates. Partnership is a relationship requiring trust and cooperation among the individual partners. As Justice Powell observed in Hishon, this relationship “differs markedly from that between employer and employee,” the former “eon-templatpng] that decisions important to the partnership normally will be made by common agreement ... or consent among the partners.” 467 U.S. at 79-80, 104 S.Ct. at 2236 (Powell, J., concurring);2 see also Wheeler v. Main Hurdman, 825 F.2d 257, 273 (10th Cir.) (partnerships “embody very special relationships and sensitive management concerns inter se”), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 986, 108 S.Ct. 503, 98 L.Ed.2d 501 (1987). Further, the partnership relationship imposes on each partner mutual liability for the misconduct of each other partner. See J. Crane & A. Bromberg, Law of Partnership § 58 (1968). For these reasons, courts should exercise great caution in awarding the remedy of partnership to avoid excessive intrusion on or disruption of the often delicate partnership relationship. In my view, Hopkins’s conduct toward other employees and partners both before3 and, particularly, after her candidacy deferment4 casts great doubt on her ability to function effectively with the other Price Waterhouse partners. Nevertheless, I cannot say that under these circumstances the district court abused its discretion in awarding Hopkins a partnership interest.
As the district court noted, Price Water-house, which has over 900 partners in approximately 90 locations throughout the country, “lacks the intimacy and interdependence of smaller partnerships.” 737 F.Supp. at 1210. For that reason, it is far less likely than many smaller and more cohesive partnerships to suffer serious disruption if forced to accept a partner of Hopkins’s disposition. Further, assuming, as we must in light of the district court’s factual findings, that Hopkins was the victim of gender discrimination, she is entitled to compensation of some sort and the available remedies are limited. While I am *984loath to reward Hopkins’s conduct with an award of partnership, the alternative remedy of unrestricted front pay is even less satisfactory and, as the district court observed, with considerable restraint, “might well provide a wholly unwarranted windfall.” 737 F.Supp. at 1211.
Based on the entire record, I am doubtful that the judgment of the district court achieves justice. Nevertheless, because my skepticism falls somewhat short of “a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed,”5 I am required to concur in the majority’s affirmance of that judgment.

. Hopkins’s difficulty in working with other employees is clearly established in the record and was repeatedly cited in the written assessments of Price Waterhouse partners as the reason for voting against partnership. See J.A. 37-45. As the district court expressly found:
During the review of Ms. Hopkins’ candidacy by the Admissions Committee it was apparent that, although there was considerable respect for her abilities and record of achievement and a recognition of the benefits she had brought to the firm, she ranked very low on her personal interrelations. Even some partners who were most familiar with her work and were strongly urging the Committee and Board to recommend her for partnership in the interests of the firm commented pointedly on her inability to get along with staff and partners.
737 F.Supp. at 1205. Illustrative of Hopkins's treatment of those with whom she worked are the following incidents: (1) during a telephone conversation with a fellow employee, Hopkins "screamed obscenities to him, four letter words, continuous stream of them for up to 45 minutes,” J.A. 76; (2) during a lunch with the chief partner in her section and another partner, she volunteered a lengthy and "vitriolic" critique of her co-workers, "going through the entire professional staff in our office and giving us a read-out on the difficulties that the people exposed or she had experienced with them or that she viewed them,” J.A. 80; (3) while viewing materials produced by an outside graphics contractor who had contracted with Price Water-house for years, Hopkins so criticized his work, "expressfing] herself fairly directly," that he afterward called a senior manager fearful he was going to lose the Price Waterhouse account, J.A. 141; and (4) at the top of a flow chart she received, Hopkins, gratuitously it appears, wrote a personal, and obscene, remark about a fellow employee, J.A. 140.

. Justice Powell was speaking of law partnerships in particular but his reasoning applies equally to an accounting partnership.

. See supra note 1.

. The district court made an express finding that during the year following deferment of her partnership candidacy Hopkins engaged in "unreasonable intentional conduct” by substantially misrepresenting to Donald Epelbaum, a partner in her section, a conversation she had with the chairman and senior partner, Joseph E. Connor. 737 F.Supp. at 1212-13. Relying on "strong” evidence in the record, the district court found that Hopkins "misstated” the substance of her conversation with Connor and "misleadingly implied that Mr. Connor had disparaged certain partners who opposed her candidacy and that he had warned of adverse consequences his partners might experience by opposing her candidacy.” 737 F.Supp. at 1213. Because of that incident, Epelbaum withdrew his previously strong support of Hopkins’s partnership candidacy. Nor was that the first time Hopkins acted with something less than full candor to partners in the firm. In 1980, she represented to mother partner that a project had been completed "within budget” when, in fact, there was a $35,000 discrepancy which she acknowledged only after persistent questioning. J.A. 40. In light of the facts in the record, I, unlike the majority, find no irony in Price Waterhouse's reluctance to accept as partner an individual whose history so strongly suggests she cannot be trusted.

. See United States v. United States Gypsum Co., 333 U.S. 364, 395, 68 S.Ct. 525, 542, 92 L.Ed. 746 (1948) (A finding of the trial court may be reversed as clearly erroneous "when although there is evidence to support it, the reviewing court on the entire evidence is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.").