Court Opinion

ID: 9495446
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:03:15.454461+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:01.723591
License: Public Domain

ILANA DIAMOND ROVNER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
The civil trial in this case progressed on the theory that the discrimination at the workplace led to Shick’s mental illness and his constructive discharge. According to the unrefuted expert testimony, he experienced a dissociative disorder in which he shut out access to the ordinary moral ideals and constraints of conscience that had regulated his conduct for 50 years. The trial testimony portrayed the robbery as an act fundamentally inconsistent with Shick’s life prior to that date, which included twenty years in the army during which time he received numerous commendations, a thirty-year marriage, good work history, and no prior history of any criminal action. The jury agreed that the discrimination led to his mental illness and constructive discharge, returning separate verdict forms on disability discrimination and gender discrimination.
On appeal, IDHS stressed in its brief that it does not contest the sufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict on gender discrimination. In fact, IDHS concedes that the trial record supports the verdict and the damages on the gender discrimination claim. The majority’s suggestion to the contrary in footnote 3 is therefore inconsistent with the views of the trial court and the parties themselves, and the record supports their contention that the verdict was supported by sufficient evidence.
IDHS sought a new trial not because the evidence of gender discrimination was insufficient to support the verdict, but because the evidence relating to the ADA claim was, in retrospect, inadmissible and was unfairly prejudicial. The trial court rejected this argument, quoting IDHS’ own representations earlier that the evidence of disability and gender discrimination were “inextricably intertwined,” and therefore that the same evidence would be introduced in a trial based solely on gender discrimination. We review a trial court’s denial of a new trial only for abuse of discretion. Cefalu v. Village of Elk Grove, 211 F.3d 416, 424 (7th Cir.2000). It is because of that highly-deferential standard of review that I am compelled to dissent. We are not at liberty to second-guess the trial court’s decision solely because we might have ruled otherwise. Without a doubt, this appears to be a bizarre verdict and damage award. But we were not there, we did not view the witnesses as did the trial judge, and we are not in the same position to assess the impact of the disability evidence on the trial as a whole. The jury and trial court were there, and the trial court agreed with the jury that the evidence was sufficient to prove gender discrimination. The trial court also determined, from its unique vantage point, that much of the damaging evidence would have been admissible in a trial on gender discrimination alone, and therefore that a new trial was not warranted. On reviewing the record, I cannot conclude that the trial court abused its discretion in that determination. Although some evidence introduced at trial related solely to the disability discrimination, there was substantial overlap in evidence for the two types of discrimination.
*617For instance, throughout the trial, Shick introduced evidence that his use of time was closely scrutinized, and that he received forms of discipline for violations that were ignored when engaged in by the other employees, all of whom were women. Testimony in relation to that allegation included evidence regarding the close monitoring of his bathroom breaks. He asserted that his use of the bathroom was necessitated by his disability, and thus the testimony related to his disability discrimination claim. It also was relevant, however, to his claim of gender discrimination, because his supervisor interpreted the bathroom breaks as an attempt to take extra smoking breaks, but similar long breaks or use of the restroom for smoking went unchecked for the female employees. In this and many other instances, testimony was relevant to both allegations of discrimination. It is perhaps a concession to that overlap that IDHS never sought to sever the two claims in the initial trial, even though the potential prejudicial effect was present in that trial as well. The evidence on retrial of the gender discrimination claim would largely track the evidence admitted in this trial. Viewing the evidence as a whole, it simply was not an abuse of discretion for the trial court to hold that the evidence relating to the ADA claim was not so prejudicial as to require a new trial. Because IDHS did not argue that the front pay award was invalid based on the lack of proximate cause, I would not reach that issue given my views on the request for a new trial, although I understand the court’s desire to reach it in light of the remand where the issue may arise again. I respectfully dissent.