Court Opinion

ID: 9490468
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:44:13.890568+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:54:06.893184
License: Public Domain

LAY, Circuit Judge,
concurring and dissenting.
I concur in Judge Hansen’s excellent opinion with one exception. I dissent from the vacation of the jury’s award of front pay and the remand to the district court to calculate a proper front pay award in its discretion.
The court holds that our recent opinion in Newhouse v. McCormick & Co., 110 F.3d 635 (8th Cir.1997), controls this issue. I must respectfully disagree. In Newhouse, after a jury had returned a plaintiffs verdict finding age discrimination under the ADEA, the district court faced the equitable decision whether to reinstate the employee or to award front pay. Under those circumstances, the district court does not face the choice between reinstatement and front pay until the jury has made a finding of age discrimination under the ADEA. After the jury determines liability, the jury ordinarily will be discharged and the court then will hear from the parties regarding whether to reinstate or to award front pay.
In the present case the district court was not faced with that decision because the parties stipulated before the jury was instructed that reinstatement was inappropriate. The only issue remaining was whether the ADEA was violated and, if so, what the award of front pay should be. The court determined to submit this as a legal claim to the jury under appropriate instructions, and the jury included front pay as part of its award.
Under these circumstances, I feel the proper application of the Supreme Court’s decision in Lorillard v. Pons, 434 U.S. 575, 98 S.Ct. 866, 55 L.Ed.2d 40 (1978), requires a jury determination of front pay. In Lorillard, the Court interpreted 29 U.S.C. § 626(c)(2) and found that Congress intended to confer a right to trial by jury in ADEA actions to determine “amounts owing” as a result of a violation of the Act. The Court did not specifically decide whether the jury should determine front pay. In Dominic v. Consolidated Edison Co., 822 F.2d 1249 (2d Cir.1987), cited with approval in Newhouse, the Second Circuit held that both the determination of whether to award front pay and how much front pay to award are questions reserved to the district court’s equitable discretion. However, Dominic and Newhouse are dissimilar to this case in one important regard: Neither case reached the court on the stipulated fact that reinstatement was not an appropriate remedy. The oblique discussions in Dominic and Newhouse do not mandate that determining the amount of front pay, once the question of reinstatement is out of the case, is an equitable issue suitable only for a judge’s determination. Determining an appropriate amount of front pay to be awarded involves consideration of factual circumstances, and is an exercise juries perform in many kinds of litigation where litigants seek future wages. See, e.g., Martinez v. Union Pacific R. R., 82 F.3d 223 (8th Cir.1996) (jury in FELA action determining injured employee’s impaired future earning capacity at particular employment); United Paperworkers Int’l Union v. Champion Int’l Corp., 81 F.3d 798 (8th Cir.1996) (reversing on other grounds where jury in Labor Management Relations Act case awarded front pay to improperly discharged employee); Gander v. EMC Corp., 892 F.2d 1373 (8th Cir.1990) (finding evidentiary support in products liability case for jury’s award of past and future lost wages). The fact that we are dealing with front pay under the ADEA should make little difference when the choice of reinstatement is precluded. The issue at that point becomes a legal claim to be determined under the facts of the case.
*615To avoid any misunderstanding, I do not urge that once a judge determines that reinstatement is not a proper remedy that a jury should be recalled to determine the issue of front pay. In that situation, the award and amount of front pay is an integral concern to be balanced together with the court’s equitable discretion as to whether to order reinstatement. That situation lends itself to the court’s equitable discretion. However, where the parties themselves formulate the issue by removing reinstatement as an option, there is no equitable issue remaining and the factual calculation of front pay becomes a purely legal claim that should be decided by the jury. Cf. Dairy Queen, Inc. v. Wood, 369 U.S. 469, 82 S.Ct. 894, 8 L.Ed.2d 44 (1962) (holding money judgment incidental to injunctive relief is legal claim triable by jury). If the district court determines the award cannot be supported by the facts of the particular ease, the court may reduce the award accordingly.
In the present case, the court reviewed the jury’s front pay award and entered judgment upon the verdict. Under the circumstances, it seems to me inefficient and improper under the law to vacate the award only to have the trial court effect its own fact finding to decrease or increase an award already carefully considered.
I therefore dissent. I feel the order vacating the award of front pay is contrary to the ADEA and the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Act in Lorillard.2

. Since I feel that the statute provides for legal relief under the circumstances, it is not necessary to comment upon whether the Seventh Amendment requires a jury trial on this fact issue.