Court Opinion

ID: 9493072
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:57:39.749202+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:38.442918
License: Public Domain

DIANE P. WOOD, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I agree with the conclusion of the majority in Parts II.A. and II.B. of the opinion that United Airlines has shown no reason to upset the jury’s verdict in favor of Cheryl Gile on compensatory damages and that the erroneous instruction about mitigating measures was harmless error. I would not, however, reverse the jury’s award of punitive damages, reduced as it was required to be under 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(b)(3) from $500,000 to $100,000 (which kept the total verdict within the statutory $300,000 cap). As the majority states, under Kolstad v. American Dental Ass’n, 527 U.S. 526, 119 S.Ct. 2118, 144 L.Ed.2d 494 (1999), the requisite malice or reckless indifference required for a punitive damage award is present when the employer discriminates “in the face of a perceived risk that its actions will violate federal law.” 527 U.S. at -, 119 S.Ct. at 2125.
The jury was entitled to find, as it did, that this is precisely what United did, through its 'authorized decisionmaker, Regional Medical Director Dr. Robert McGuffin. McGuffin was responsible for handling the accommodation process for United employees whose medical condition called into question their fitness to work. He unquestionably knew about United’s ADA policy, as the majority agrees. The jury did not believe that McGuffin seriously thought that a shift transfer would not have accommodated Gile’s disability, or that his view was formed in good faith. Instead, he behaved with astonishing callousness in the face of Gile’s disability, twice insensitively telling her she should just quit or resign and dismissing her complaints as “mere” personal problems in the face of the extensive medical documentation to the contrary from a professional United itself recommended. I do not disagree with the majority that the record did not compel a finding of malice or reckless indifference; had Gile filed a proper partial Rule 50 motion, she would not have been entitled to judgment as a matter of law on that point. But on this record the jury was certainly entitled to find that United had engaged in reckless behavior.
I therefore respectfully dissent from Part II.C. of the opinion, which reverses the jury’s award of punitive damages.