Court Opinion

ID: 9485785
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 11:29:43.20553+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:21.173850
License: Public Domain

HILL, Senior Circuit Judge,
dissenting mildly:
I find myself in disagreement with our opinion in this case although the substance of my disagreement has to do with a review of the facts rather than the majority’s fine analysis. I find a legal difference with the panel’s opinion only because my view of the evidence requires a different legal result.
The appellant, Edwards, recovered a monetary judgment apparently on the basis of his claim that the Board of Regents retaliated against him because he had complained of age discrimination. (As the panel opinion points out, his complaint under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act was that someone older than he was given some preference in an assignment!)
Edwards pointed to evidence consisting of some extremely tenuous and slightly disagreeable actions he believed the Board had taken with respect to him after he had made the age discrimination complaint. These were little incidents of little consequence. Had there been a retaliatory impulse motivating the Board, one would expect something more done against his best interests than he was able to identify.
On the other hand, the Board demonstrated that when Edwards assigned a class he had sought to teach, he taught it so poorly that, after complaints by those who had paid *385for the instruction were brought to the attention of the Board, the Board refunded all of the tuition paid by those students for attending Edwards’ class.
If there is a difference between a scintilla of evidence and the substantial evidence required to support a verdict in the federal courts, see Lowery v. Sullivan, 979 F.2d 835, 837 (11th Cir.1992), citing Richardson v. Perales, 402 U.S. 389, 401, 91 S.Ct. 1420, 1427, 28 L.Ed.2d 842 (1971) (“Substantial evidenqe is defined as more than a mere scintilla, and means such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion”); see also United States v. Taylor, 972 F.2d 1247, 1252 (11th Cir.1992), citing Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 80, 62 S.Ct. 457, 469, 86 L.Ed. 680 (1942) (jury verdict must be sustained if there is substantial evidence to support it), then this case represents a verdict supported by nothing more than a scintilla and not by substantial evidence.
I agree with the district judge. The evidence did not sufficiently support this verdict for it to stand. I would affirm the district court.