Court Opinion

ID: 9701248
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 22:13:00.90807+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:21.593931
License: Public Domain

REID, Associate Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in pari:
I agree with the majority’s analysis of Ms. Lively’s unequal pay claim. However, I am unable to agree with my colleagues with regard to their review of Ms. Lively’s *971hostile environment, retaliation and intentional infliction of emotional distress claims, and the jury’s award of punitive-damages. Therefore, I respectfully dissent as to these issues.
In this case the jury examined and weighed extensive evidence, made credibility determinations, and drew legitimate and reasonable inferences from the evidence presented before concluding that Ms. Lively prevailed on her claims of hostile work environment, unequal pay, unlawful retaliation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Despite the evidence presented by Ms. Lively, and the jury’s conclusion, the trial court granted the ap-pellees’ motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or, in the alternative, for a new trial.
I begin by emphasizing our standard of review. “Generally, a motion for judgment after trial and verdict is granted only in ‘extreme’ cases.” United Mine Workers of Am., Int’l Union v. Moore, 717 A.2d 332, 337 (D.C.1998) (quoting Daka, Inc. v. Breiner, 711 A.2d 86, 96 (D.C.1998)) (internal quotations and other citation omitted). Moreover, “[t]he evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, who is entitled to every legitimate inference therefrom.” Etheredge v. District of Columbia, 635 A.2d 908, 915 (D.C.1993) (citations omitted). In that regard, “it is the responsibility of the jury (and not the judge) to weigh the evidence and to pass upon the credibility of the witnesses.” Id. at 916 (citations omitted). “If impartial triers of fact could reasonably find the plaintiffs evidence sufficient, the case may not be taken from the jury.” Id. (citing Finkelstein v. District of Columbia, 593 A.2d 591, 594 (D.C.1991) (en banc)). Thus, “ ‘[a] judgment notwithstanding the verdict should be granted only when the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, permits only one reasonable conclusion as to the proper judgment.’ ” Levy v. Schnabel Found. Co., 584 A.2d 1251, 1254 (D.C.1991) (quoting Lewis v. Washington Metro. Area Transit Auth., 463 A.2d 666, 669 (D.C.1983)). In addition, “[t]o grant a motion for a new trial, the trial court must find that the verdict is against the weight of the evidence, or that there would be a miscarriage of justice if the verdict is allowed to stand.” United Mine Workers, supra, 717 A.2d at 337 (citation omitted). See also Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Prods., Inc., 530 U.S. 133, 120 S.Ct. 2097, 2110, 147 L.Ed.2d 105 (2000).1
On the record before us, I am constrained to conclude that the trial judge and my colleagues failed to review the evidence in the light most favorable to Ms. Lively, and to recognize not only that she was entitled to every legitimate and reasonable inference, but also that it is the task of the jurors, rather than the judges, to weigh the evidence and determine the credibility of the witnesses. Hence, in my view, the trial court erred in granting the appellees motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, and, in the alternative, abused its discretion by granting ap-pellees a new trial in the event that this court reversed its judgment vacating the jury’s verdict.

*972
The Hostile Work Environment Claim

My colleagues agree with the trial court that Ms. Lively’s hostile environment claim was time-barred, essentially because:
The December 11 incident, in which Mr. Braswell commented to another employee that she was ‘the dumbest girl I’ve ever seen,’ was an isolated incident which was unlike the other incidents which the trial court believed had produced a hostile work environment.... Additionally, Mr. Braswell’s performance evaluation of Ms. Lively, communicated to her on December 11, was of an entirely different nature from the incidents of sexual harassment, as was his termination of her employment.
I believe that these conclusions by the majority reflect a misunderstanding of what constitutes a continuing violation with regard to a hostile work environment, and the evidence required to prove its existence. The interrelationship between a hostile environment claim and a continuing violation was examined in Van Steenburgh v. Rival Co., 171 F.3d 1155 (8th Cir.1999), a sexual harassment/hostdle environment case in which the 8th Circuit reversed the district court’s grant of judgment as a matter of law after the jury had rendered a verdict in favor of the plaintiff. In that case, the court stated:
Unlike quid pro quo harassment or other “discrete” forms of sex discrimination, hostile environment harassment is an “ongoing nightmare for the employee victim, in legal parlance, a ‘continuing violation.’ ” Gipson v. KAS Snacktime Co., 83 F.3d 225, 229 (8th Cir.1996). An incident within the limitations period need not satisfy the definition of sexual harassment under Title VII when viewed in isolation. See Rorie v. United Parcel Serv., Inc., 151 F.3d 757, 761 (8th Cir.1998); Denesha v. Farmers Ins. Exch., 161 F.3d 491, 499-500 (8th Cir.1998). Rather, the jury must be capable of perceiving the incident as “discriminatory” in light of all the prior incidents of sexual harassment. See Hathaway v. Runyon, 132 F.3d 1214, 1222 (8th Cir.1997) (reinstating jury verdict for plaintiff because humiliating and intimidating effect of snickering noises could have been seen as stemming from prior rejection of sexual overtures); Burns v. McGregor Elec. Indus., Inc., 955 F.2d 559, 564 (8th Cir.1992) (directing the trier of fact to focus on the cumulative effect of the harassment rather than “carvfing] the work environment into a series of discrete incidents”).
Id. at 1159. The jury in Ms. Lively’s case obviously perceived Mr. Braswell’s comments and actions on December 11, 1992, and his July 15,1993 termination of her,, as discriminatory in light of all the other incidents of sexual harassment about which Ms. Lively, Ms. Kaplan, Ms. Logsdon, and Ms. Gness testified at trial.
In light of the jury’s verdict, a review of Ms. Lively’s employment history at FPA, as well as the environment in which she worked, is essential to our analysis. Ms. Lively commenced her career at FPA in 1980, and soon rose to increasingly higher levels of responsibility. Approximately six years after she was hired, Mr. Braswell began his tenure as President of FPA and became Ms. Lively’s supervisor. After Mr. Braswell fired the female Director of Government Relations in 1987, and replaced her with his friend, Mr. Thornburg, the two men began to make regular, even daily, discriminatory and offensive comments to or about women, using such words as bimbos, broads, hookers, prostitutes, old maids, dykes and girls, and uttering language or gestures referring to female body parts, including breasts. In December 1987, while Ms. Lively, Mr. Thornburg, and Mr. Bi'aswell were on business travel, Mr. Thornburg “pulled [Ms. Lively] down on his lap [as she was getting into a limousine] and said, ‘Sit here, Lively. I want to look down your cleavage.’ ”
Ms. Kaplan, Director of Marketing and Communications from 1987-88 recounted the abuse and hostility to which she was *973subjected after she complained about sexual harassment incidents which she observed in the office. When Mr. Braswell prepared a performance evaluation for Ms. Kaplan in 1988, he described her as a “disruptive force,” in part because of her complaints about sexual harassment. He also stated that her “communications” skills were inadequate. As in Ms. Lively’s case, this was the first túne anyone at FPA had criticized Ms. Kaplan’s communications skills. In response to Ms. Kaplan’s complaint after she left FPA, FPA’s Board of Directors conducted an investigation through its Compensation and Personnel Subcommittee. The chairman of the Board, who also served as the chairperson of FPA’s Board, prepared a January 9, 1989 statement addressed to Mr. Braswell, indicating, in part:
You appear to have a tendency to demean women and their abilities, at the same time advancing and promoting the career of [Mr.] Thornburg. While I do not want to debate the sexual overtones (harassment?) attributed to [Mr. Thorn-burg], I feel the charges were true and your handling of the situation with a “trial” is a ludicrous management style.
Despite this statement from the Board chairperson, Mr. Braswell’s salary was increased in January 1989, and a new automobile was made available to him. In addition, Mr. Braswell forbade FPA employees from taking complaints to the Board about him. Subsequently, after Ms. Lively complained about Mr. Braswell’s abusive treatment, the FPA eventually prohibited him from making critical comments about Ms. Lively, or disciplining her. The prohibition extended from 1990 to about December 1992.
In July 1992, during a budget planning session, Ms. Lively heard Mr. Thornburg discuss how FPA would attract people to its booth at a state government affairs conference. Mr. Thornburg said: “to get state legislators into the FPA booth, [FPA] would just put [a female employee] out in the aisle in a short skirt, and that would bring the state legislators into the booth so that FPA could talk to them.” On October 1, 1992, Mr. Braswell made a comment at a meeting, in the presence of nineteen to twenty people, which implied that a male staff member was in Ms. Lively’s room at night for sexual reasons. On December 11, 1992, Mr. Braswell stated that another female employee was “the dumbest girl I’ve ever seen.”
That same day, December 11, 1992, just as he had in Ms. Kaplan’s case, Mr. Bras-well informed Ms. Lively that he had completed his personnel evaluation of her. He criticized Ms. Lively’s communications skills. Even though Ms. Lively had been employed at FPA since 1980, and had assumed increasingly responsible positions, the record shows no criticism, prior to December 11, 1992, of Ms. Lively’s communications skills by anyone other than Mr. Braswell, who made a negative comment in 1988, the very same year in which he also criticized Ms. Kaplan’s communications skills. Not only did Mr. Braswell criticize Ms. Lively’s communications skills, but he also placed her on six months probation pending improvement in her communications skills, and ordered her to appear for diagnostic testing at the Kings-bury Center, a facility specializing overwhelmingly (90 to 95% of its business) in learning disabilities or brain dysfunctions of children.
A jury could reasonably infer from this record that the December 1992 incidents— Mr. Braswell’s comment that a female employee of FPA was “the dumbest girl I’ve ever seen,” and his order that Ms. Lively submit to diagnostic testing at a facility specializing in learning disabilities and brain dysfunctions of children, both of which occurred at the office after a period during which Ms. Lively had worked at home due to recuperation from hip surgery, constituted a continuation of Mr. Braswell’s discriminatory behavior towards Ms. Lively, and thus, were not isolated or unrelated events. See Van Steen-burgh, supra.
*974The majority determines that Van Steenburgh, supra, is inapplicable to Ms. Lively’s ease because “there was no showing in this case that the manner in which Mr. Braswell conducted his performance evaluation of Ms. Lively was untoward or different from the manner in which he conducted such meetings with male employees.” In reaching this conclusion, I respectfully believe that the majority misinterprets Van Steenburgh, and, in the context of our standard of review, the record before us. Furthermore, the majority fails to recognize that harassment of a non-sexual nature may support a hostile environment claim. See Van Steenburgh, supra; see also Spain v. Gallegos, 26 F.3d 439, 447 (3d Cir.1994) (hostile environment claim may be based on actions which “are not sexual by their very nature”).
The female plaintiff in Van Steenburgh began her employment with the Rival Company, a manufacturing plant, in 1988. Beginning in late 1989 or early 1990, the employee’s immediate supervisor made unwanted comments and advances of a sexual nature to and against the employee. These advances or unwanted physical contacts continued in 1992 and 1994, despite the employee’s complaints. On June 8, 1995, the employee’s supervisor “decided to place another employee above her on the production line.” Id. at 1158. The trial court “held that there was insufficient evidence at trial for the jury to find either that sexual harassment occurred within the limitations period or that ... [Van] Steenburgh was constructively discharged.” Id. The 8th Circuit reversed, stating, in part:
Rival is mistaken in asserting that there must be incidents within the limitations period that are explicitly sexual. See Nichols v. American Nat’l Ins. Co., 154 F.3d 875, 887 (8th Cir.1998) (holding that all evidence of abusiveness is relevant to the pattern of discrimination in a continuing violation claim); Kopp v. Samaritan Health Sys., Inc., 13 F.3d 264, 269 (8th Cir.1993) (finding shouting, derogatory remarks, and non-sexual physical contact sufficient to establish a claim for hostile environment sexual harassment). “The critical inquiry is ‘whether members of one sex are exposed to disadvantageous terms or conditions of employment to which members of the other sex are not exposed.’ ” Hathaway, [supra ], 132 F.3d at 1222 (quoting Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc., 510 U.S. 17, 25, 114 S.Ct. 367, 126 L.Ed.2d 295 (1993)[ ] (Ginsburg, J., concurring)). If [the supervisor’s] conduct toward [the employee] on June 8, viewed in the context of his prior harassment, would not have been directed toward a male employee, the jury’s finding of hostile environment harassment should be affirmed.
Id. at 1159.
Through her testimony and that of her colleagues, Ms. Lively established a “continuing policy and practice of discrimination on a company-wide basis” and that “[the] policy and practice operated at least in part within the limitation period.... ” Green v. Los Angeles Cty. Superintendent of Sch., 883 F.2d 1472, 1480 (9th Cir.1989). Both Mr. Braswell and Mr. Thornburg engaged in a practice of sexual harassment through language, gestures, and actions on a regular or daily basis beginning around 1987. Mr. Braswell steadfastly refused to discipline his friend, Mr. Thornburg, or heed the January 9, 1989 words of the Board chairperson that he “appear[ed] to have a tendency to demean women and their abilities, at the same time advancing and promoting the career of [Mr.] Thorn-burg.” The January 9, 1989 statement was given to him after he demeaned the communications skills of Ms. Kaplan when she complained about the sexual harassment by Mr. Braswell and Mr. Thornburg. A few years later, in December 1992, just after the Board lifted the two year prohibition on discriminatory comments or actions by Mr. Braswell against Ms. Lively, he not only resumed his sexually harassing comments by referring to a female employee as, “the dumbest girl I’ve ever seen,” but *975also prepared a performance report for Ms. Lively in which he demeaned her communications skills and directed her to be tested at a facility specializing in learning disabilities and brain dysfunctions of children. In addition, Mr. Braswell rejected Ms. Lively’s request to be tested at a facility, such as the Anne Arundel Community College, which did not specialize in children’s problems. Mr. Braswell acknowledged at trial that no male employee had been subjected to the same directive as Ms. Lively. Mr. Braswell testified that Ms. Lively was fired because she did not return to full time employment at the office. However, the record shows that Ms. Lively was replaced by a male friend of Mr. Braswell’s who carried out his duties for one year on a part time basis from his home in North Carolina.
The relationship between Mr. Braswell’s sexually harassing comments and his personnel actions regarding Ms. Kaplan and Ms. Lively could easily and legitimately be inferred by reasonable jurors. “Intimidation and hostility toward women because they are women can obviously result from conduct other than explicit sexual advances.” Hall v. Hus Constr. Co., Inc., 842 F.2d 1010, 1014 (8th Cir.1988). Furthermore, “‘[elvidence of a hostile environment must not be compartmentalized, but must instead be based on the totality of circumstances of the entire hostile work environment.’ ” Delph v. Dr. Pepper Bottling Co. of Paragould, Inc., 130 F.3d 349, 355 (8th Cir.1997) (quoting Gillming v. Simmons Indus., 91 F.3d 1168, 1172 (8th Cir.1996)); see also Fielder v. UAL Corp., 218 F.3d 973 (9th Cir.2000) (where a female airline employee had been subjected to sexual harassment for a sustained period of time and complained about it, her act of escorting her mother onto an airplane, for which she received a public reprimand, and “the denial of her transfer request [to another jurisdiction] were closely related enough to constitute a continuing violation”).
Based on the record before us and particularly in light of the standard of review which guides our decision, I am unable to conclude that “only one reasonable conclusion [may be reached] as to the proper judgment,” Levy, supra, 584 A.2d at 1254 (citation omitted), and that is that appel-lees should prevail. To the contrary, when viewed in the light most favorable to Ms. Lively, there is ample evidence to support a continuing violation. Moreover, the existence of a continuing violation is mainly a factual determination. See Draper v. Coeur Rochester, Inc., 147 F.3d 1104, 1108 (9th Cir.1998). The jury concluded that there was a continuing violation, and I see no basis for disturbing that conclusion.

The Retaliation, and Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress Claims

I address the remainder of the majority’s opinion briefly. I disagree with the conclusion that no reasonable jury, based on the record before us, could find Ms. Lively’s evidence sufficient to establish retaliation. “Under the DCHRA it is an unlawful discriminatory practice for an employer to retaliate against a person on account of that person’s opposition to any practice made unlawful by the DCHRA.” Howard Univ. v. Green, 652 A.2d 41, 45 (D.C.1994) (footnote omitted) (referencing Arthur Young & Co. v. Sutherland, 631 A.2d 354, 361 (D.C.1993)). Ms. Lively had complained about the sexual harassment of Mr. Braswell and Mr. Thornburgh on more than one occasion. As soon as the two-year prohibition on Mr. Braswell’s criticism or attacks on Ms. Lively was lifted by FPA’s Board chairperson, Mr. Braswell issued a performance evaluation critical of her communications skills, and directed her to submit to diagnostic testing at a facility specializing in learning and brain problems of children. In addition, knowing that she had been working part-time from her home while she was recuperating from hip surgery and faced another operation in July 1993,2 he nonethe*976less issued an ultimatum in June 1993 that she return to work full-time or be terminated. Furthermore, FPA refused to pay Ms. Lively the usual severance benefits. All of this “conduct [had] the capacity of being considered retaliatory, [and thus, the question of retaliation] bec[a]me an issue for the fact finder,” the jury. Fielder, supra, 218 F.3d at 986. The jury found Ms. Lively’s evidence sufficient to show retaliation, and, in my view, there was no basis on which to disturb that finding.
The trial court apparently vacated the jury’s award on Ms. Lively’s intentional infliction of emotional distress claim because, “without the hostile work environment claim, plaintiffs emotional distress claim is restricted to incidents involving her performance evaluation, discontinuance of worker’s compensation benefits, and eventual termination in July, 1993, over seven months after she last appeared at the FPA office.” As I indicated earlier in this dissent, in my view, Ms. Lively presented sufficient evidence to establish her hostile work environment claim in a timely manner. She also summarized the devastating impact that appellees’ prolonged and repeated practice of sexual harassment, culminating in the personnel actions against her, including the directive to submit to testing at a facility specializing in children’s learning disabilities and brain dysfunctions, had on her thirteen year career at FPA:
I felt that I had lost everything, except my family, because FPA was my life. I had been there for 13 years when they fired me, and I was just totally devastated. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep. I felt paranoid. I closed the blinds. I didn’t want my neighbors to see me for I was so afraid that they would think that I did have a communication problem. So the only people I surrounded myself with for about three or four months was immediate family, and I never want to experience that kind of feeling again. I was totally depressed. I don’t ever want to go through that again.
So devastating were appellees’ actions that Ms. Lively had to seek psychiatric counseling. Under our decisions in King v. Kidd, 640 A.2d 656 (D.C.1993); Estate of Underwood v. National Credit Union Admin., 665 A.2d 621 (D.C.1995), Ms. Lively presented evidence sufficient for a reasonable jury to conclude that she sustained her claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Similarly, although this is a closer call for me, given my review of the record before us, I cannot say that the evidence was insufficient to support the jury’s award of punitive damages, even though I agree with the reversal of Ms. Lively’s unequal pay claim. Therefore, I would remand this issue to the trial court for further consideration.
In sum, I would affirm the trial court’s judgment as to Ms. Lively’s unequal pay claim, but reverse its judgment granting judgment as a matter of law, or in the alternative a new trial, with respect to Ms. Lively’s hostile work environment, retaliation and intentional infliction of emotional distress claims, and would remand the issue of punitive damages to the trial court for further consideration, except with respect to the unequal pay claim.

. In Reeves, supra, the Supreme Court stated: [I]n entertaining a motion for judgment as a matter of law, the court should review all of the evidence in the record.
In doing so, however, the court must draw all reasonable inferences in favor of the nonmoving party, and it may not make credibility determinations or weigh the evidence. (Citations omitted). “Credibility determinations, the weighing of the evidence, and the drawing of legitimate inferences from the facts are jury functions, not those of the judge.” (Citation omitted). Thus, although the court should review the record as a whole, it must disregard all evidence favorable to the moving party that the jury is not required to believe. (Citation omitted). That is, the court should give credence to the evidence favoring the nonmovant as well as that "evidence supporting the moving party that is uncontra-dicted and unimpeached, at least to the extent that that evidence comes from disinterested witnesses.” Id. at 2110.

. At the end of October 1992, Ms. Lively had hip surgery as a result of a November 1991 *976accident at the office (she collided into a desk during office renovation), and worked part-time at home during all of November and part of December 1992. However, she was in the office on December 11, 1992.