Court Opinion

ID: 9489733
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:22:40.754117+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:53:41.064733
License: Public Domain

DAUGHTREY, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
As noted in the majority opinion, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 states that
[n]o otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States, ... shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assis-tance_
29 U.S.C. § 794(1996). The Act then provides that “[t]he remedies, procedures, and rights set forth in title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” 42 U.S.C. § 2000d et seq., are available for violations of § 504. 29 U.S.C. § 794a. Although § 504, like Title VI, is silent as to the availability of private causes of action, this court, like many others, has concluded that § 504 creates an implied private right of action. Jennings v. Alexander, 715 F.2d 1036, 1040-41 (6th Cir.1983), rev’d on other grounds, Alexander v. Choate, 469 U.S. 287, 105 S.Ct. 712, 83 L.Ed.2d 661 (1985).
I agree with the majority that Consolidated Rail is “receiv[ing] Federal financial assistance” within the meaning of § 504 and, hence, is governed by that statute. I must, however, disagree with the majority’s conclusion that punitive damages are unavailable for a violation of § 504. The United States Supreme Court clearly framed the issue for us in Franklin v. Gwinnett County Pub. Schs., 503 U.S. 60, 112 S.Ct. 1028, 117 L.Ed.2d 208 (1992), in which the issue was whether monetary damages were available in an implied private right of action under Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. §§ 1681-88, which prohibits dis*794crimination in educational programs receiving federal funds. The Court held that
[t]he general rule ... is that absent clear direction to the contrary by Congress, the federal courts have the power to award any appropriate relief in a cognizable cause of action brought pursuant to a federal statute.
Id. at 70-71, 112 S.Ct. at 1035. This clear directive must guide our thinking in determining the availability of punitive damages in actions under § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
Applying Franklin to the case at hand, two questions follow. First, we must ask whether Congress intended to limit the application of this general principle in § 504 cases. Because a private cause of action has been implied in § 504, we cannot expect to unearth legislative history about the availability of remedies. However, as the Court in Franklin did, we can “evaluate the state of the law” surrounding the passage of § 504 in order to determine whether Congress intended to limit the general rule in favor of all appropriate forms of relief. Franklin, 503 U.S. at 71, 112 S.Ct. at 1035-36; CSX Transp., Inc. v. Marquar, 980 F.2d 359, 364 (6th Cir.1992). After evaluating the state of the law to ensure that Congress did not limit § 504 remedies, we must ask whether the disputed remedy is “appropriate.” Marquar, 980 F.2d at 367.
When we examine the state of the law surrounding § 504’s passage, Franklin provides even more insight into this case. Although Franklin was concerned with the appropriate remedies available under Title IX, the analysis it uses applies directly to § 504 cases. The Court observed that before and after passage of Title IX, it applied the general rule treating “the denial of a remedy as the exception rather than the rule.” Franklin, 503 U.S. at 71, 112 S.Ct. at 1036. The Court then noted that in the interim since it had found an implied private right of action in Title IX cases, Congress had twice broadened the coverage of Title IX, Title VI, § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Age Discrimination Act. Yet in these modifications — the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1986, 42 U.S.C. § 2000d-7, and the CM Rights Restoration Act of 1987, Pub.Lamb. 100-259, 102 Stat. 28 — Congress did not alter the presumption that any appropriate remedy was available under the statutes. Franklin, 503 U.S. at 72-73, 112 S.Ct. at 1036-37. Given Congress’s modifications of the Rehabilitation Act arid failure to alter the presumption that any appropriate remedy is available, one can only conclude that Congress has not intended to narrow the available remedies in § 504 cases.
The second question is whether punitive damages are “appropriate” in § 504 cases. Marquar, 980 F.2d at 367. Punitive damages serve to deter certain conduct, as well as to punish. Smith v. Wade, 461 U.S. 30, 49, 54-55, 103 S.Ct. 1625, 1639-40, 75 L.Ed.2d 632 (1983). Because § 504 is designed to eliminate discrimination against qualified handicapped persons, deterrence is an appropriate remedial goal. In such circumstances, punitive damages are completely warranted. Various civil rights statutes reflect this thinking by permitting punitive damages explicitly — for example, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; § 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973; and Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act. See 42 U.S.C. § 1981a (all permitting recovery of punitive damages). Moreover, the Fourth Circuit has observed that Rehabilitation Act cases are similar to tort claims, see Pandazides v. Virginia Bd. of Ed., 13 F.3d 823, 829 (4th Cir.1994); punitive damages undeniably have a significant place in tort law. Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee Corp., 464 U.S. 238, 255, 104 S.Ct. 615, 625, 78 L.Ed.2d 443 (1984).
The majority’s footnote that “it is by no means clear that Franklin has more than peripheral relevance to the case at bar” rests on the observation that Franklin spoke in compensatory terms such as “makfing] good the wrong done” arid “redress[ing] injuries.” Franklin, 503 U.S. at 66, 112 S.Ct. at 1033. But this analysis ignores the Supreme Court’s directive in Franklin to permit “any appropriate relief.”
The majority also relies extensively on pre-Franklin case law, which was divided on the propriety of all types of damages in § 504 cases. Compare Eastman v. Virginia Polytechnic Inst. & State Univ., 939 F.2d 204, 209 *795(4th Cir.1991)(§ 504 does not permit compensatory damages for pain and suffering. or punitive damages), with Kling v. County of Los Angeles, 769 F.2d 532, 534 (9th Cir.)(allowing damages in § 504 cases), rev’d on other grounds, 474 U.S. 936, 106 S.Ct. 300, 88 L.Ed.2d 277 (1985). Many pre-Franklin decisions found punitive damages inappropriate under § 504, as the majority points out. Cortes v. Bd. of Governors, 766 F.Supp. 623, 626 (N.D.Ill.1991); Glanz v. Vernick, 750 F.Supp. 39, 45 (D.Mass.l990); Martin v. Cardinal Glennon Memorial Hosp. for Children, 599 F.Supp. 284 (E.D.Mo.1984); Gelman v. Dep’t of Educ., 544 F.Supp. 651, 654 (D.Colo.1982). While the majority’s reliance on these eases would have been reasonable before 1992, its reliance on pre-Franklin cases ignores our responsibility since Franklin to permit “any appropriate relief’ in the absence of “clear direction to the contrary by Congress.” The musings of these pre-Franklin courts are therefore irrelevant to our present dilemma. The majority insists that in light of this case law, Congress had no reason to assume that courts would award punitive damages under § 504 and, therefore, no reason explicitly to have limited the availability of punitive damages. However, this inferential reasoning ignores the beauty of the Franklin decision, which does not ask what Congress “assumed” or “understood” when it failed to act. Rather, Franklin directs us to permit “any appropriate relief’ unless Congress has issued a “clear direction” otherwise. In my judgment, Franklin requires us to forego the delving into legislative intent in which the majority is engaged.
Finally, I cannot help but observe that the majority’s conclusion that punitive damages are inappropriate under § 504 appears to have more to do with its fear of a “game-show mentality” leading to “capricious” awards than with the nature of the Rehabilitation Act. Noting that discrimination “was perceived by Congress to be most often the product, not of invidious animus, but rather of thoughtlessness and indifference — of benign neglect,” see Alexander v. Choate, 469 U.S. 287, 295, 105 S.Ct. 712, 717, 83 L.Ed.2d 661 (1985), the majority concludes that punitive damages are unnecessary “to punish ‘thoughtlessness’.” However, as the majority must be aware, punitive damages are not awarded unless a plaintiff can prove more than thoughtlessness or indifference. In civil rights cases in this circuit, we require proof of “egregious conduct or a showing of willfulness or malice on the part of the defendant.” Beauford v. Sisters of Mercy—Province of Detroit, Inc., 816 F.2d 1104, 1109 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 913, 108 S.Ct. 259, 98 L.Ed.2d 217 (1987). The majority’s concern about punitive damages being awarded for simple thoughtlessness ignores the existence of the behavior that punitive damages are meant to deter, and it gives the misleading impression that mere indifference can support a punitive damages award.
For these reasons, I respectfully must dissent from Part IV of the majority’s opinion.