Feltmann v. Sieben

• Decision Date: 20 March 1997
• Docket Number: No. 95-4058,95-4058
• Citation: 108 F.3d 970
• Parties: 73 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 717, 70 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 44,695 Judith A. FELTMANN, Appellee, v. SIEBEN, doing business as Plaza Motors Company, Inc., Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 970

108 F.3d 970

73 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 717,

70 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 44,695

Judith A. FELTMANN, Appellee, v. SIEBEN, doing business as Plaza Motors Company, Inc., Appellant.

No. 95-4058.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eighth Circuit.

Submitted June 12, 1996.

Decided March 20, 1997.

Susan Nell Rowe, St. Louis, MO, argued, for appellant.

Charles E. Reis, IV, St. Louis, MO, argued, for appellee.

Before WOLLMAN and MORRIS SHEPPARD ARNOLD, Circuit Judges, and ROSENBAUM, ¹ District Judge.

WOLLMAN, Circuit Judge.

Sieben, Inc. (Sieben) appeals from the judgment entered against it in Judith A. Feltmann's action alleging sex discrimination and retaliatory discharge under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. (Title VII), the Missouri Human Rights Act, Mo.Rev.Stat. § 213.010 et seq. (MHRA), and Missouri common law. We reverse.

I.

Plaza Infiniti is one of eight automobile franchises owned and operated by Sieben and housed at Sieben's Plaza Motor Company (Plaza). Bob Rich, then sales manager at Plaza Infiniti, hired Feltmann as a sales consultant in September of 1991. Feltmann was the only female consultant at any of the Plaza franchises. During 1992, Feltmann's only full year at Plaza, Infiniti executives named her to the Pinnacle Club, an elite group of consultants recognized for high sales and consumer satisfaction.

In the summer of 1992, Infiniti instituted an incentive program that awarded consultants bonuses for each car sold. Overall sales were high, and Rich had little time to evaluate the consultants' selling methods. When overall sales began to decline after the incentive program ended, Rich felt pressured to increase sales and began evaluating consultants and requesting them to increase sales. Feltmann's sales declined after the incentive program, but she was still above half of all consultants for 1992 and, in December, tied with another consultant for the most sales that month. Feltmann's average gross profit for December of 1992, however, as well as January through April of 1993, was the lowest of all consultants. Rich testified that Feltmann's low profits on each car resulted from her failure to thoroughly explain the cars' features, a sales tactic that results in a higher selling price.

In November 1992, Feltmann's co-worker Mike Barnstead told her that Gordon Anzalone, a Sieben employee who worked at a different franchise, had called her an extremely vulgar name. Feltmann wrote a letter to Rich the next day about the comment, and Rich reported the incident to Tony Pandjiris, the manager of Plaza Motors. Feltmann ultimately met with John and Tom Capps, Sieben's owners, who told Feltmann to report any future incidents. They also asked her if she wanted Anzalone fired, but Feltmann said she did not. They reprimanded Anzalone and told him that if anything like that happened again he would be terminated. Feltmann never heard of any other vulgar comments about her. In early January, however, Barnstead told Feltmann that she had polarized herself from the rest of the sales department and was going to have a thick personnel file. Feltmann assumed that this comment related to her complaint about Anzalone.

On January 4, 1993, Rich sent Feltmann a personal memo regarding her "work ethic." Rich's memo indicated he was unhappy with her method of selling. She was allowing "guest drives"--permitting prospective buyers to take an Infiniti for a short period of time without an accompanying consultant--too often and too soon in the selling process. Rich also thought she was not a "team player" and did not work well with other Plaza employees.

In March 1993, Rich placed Feltmann and another consultant, Rick Beutel, on probation because of their low sales performance in January and February of 1993. Feltmann and Beutel consequently rebounded by the end of March, and Feltmann sold more automobiles that month than all but one other consultant. Despite her high March sales, Feltmann was not allowed to participate in a sales competition in Chicago. Rich had offered the opportunity to participate to the two top consultants at Plaza Infiniti. When they declined he did not offer the opportunity to Feltmann or to any of several male consultants who wanted to go.

Plaza Infiniti consultants were able to lease, at a low rate, a "demo" Infiniti for personal use. Following the drop in sales after the incentive program, Rich became concerned about costs at the dealership and restricted consultants' use of demo cars to the St. Louis area. Despite this restriction, Feltmann continued her weekly 300-mile round trips to Marion, Illinois, to visit her husband. On February 23, 1993, Rich sent Feltmann a personal memo reiterating that her use of her demo was restricted to the St. Louis area. No males received such a memo, even though Feltmann contends that they took their cars out of the St. Louis area occasionally. Feltmann continued to take her demo to Marion weekly until April 1993, two months after she received the personal memo from Rich and six months after the first restriction.

In January or February of 1993, Feltmann received her federal 1099 tax form, which included bonuses attributed to her from the summer 1992 incentive program. Her 1099 indicated more bonus income than she had actually earned. Casey Jones's and Beutel's 1099s also indicated larger bonuses than they had actually earned. Feltmann obtained copies of the checks addressed to her and discovered that someone had forged her signature for endorsement. The forgeries resulted from the system Plaza Infiniti used to handle consultants' bonus checks. Pandjiris would sign the consultants' checks, deposit them in a group account, and then issue the consultant a check on that account. Some consultants had given Rich and Pandjiris authority to sign their checks if the checks arrived in their absence. Although Feltmann had not given her managers such authority, they signed her name anyway. Feltmann also discovered that she had been credited with sales she did not actually make. Feltmann complained to Rich that her 1099 showed income in excess of what she actually earned. On April 14, 1993, Sieben gave Feltmann a check covering her additional tax liability, but required her to sign a release stating that she held Plaza harmless for any claims relating to the incentive program. Sieben eventually discovered that Jim Schlabach, who had been in charge of the account, had been taking money from it, and terminated him.

Prior to April 9, 1993, Plaza Infiniti's guest drive policy provided that consultants were to use their "best judgment" in permitting a customer to guest drive a car. Feltmann allowed many more guest drives than any other consultant: Sieben's guest drive log reveals that between July of 1992 and April of 1993 she permitted 107, while the highest male consultant permitted forty-eight. In February of 1993, Rich reprimanded Feltmann when she loaned two small Infinitis to Infiniti owners who did not want to drive their own cars in a snowstorm.

On April 9, 1993, Rich announced a new guest drive policy. Consultants were not to loan out any cars without Rich's permission or without logging the cars in the guest drive log book. Overnight guest drives would no longer be permitted, and consultants had to accompany their guests. Before Rich left for a trip the weekend of May 15, he reiterated that no guests could drive the new Q45 without an accompanying consultant. Despite the April 9 memo and Rich's specific instruction, however, Feltmann permitted a customer to take a Q45 alone, and allowed another customer to keep a J30 model for the entire weekend, without getting permission or noting the guest drive in the log book.

The following Monday, May 17, 1993, Rich fired Feltmann because she had allowed these guest drives contrary to his specific instructions. Feltmann requested a meeting to review her discharge. She then met with Rich, Pandjiris, and John and Tom Capps and alleged that she had been discriminated and retaliated against. The Capps told her that they took her allegations very seriously and would investigate her complaints. Ultimately, the Capps found no merit in her allegations. John Capps, however, considered Feltmann a "salvageable employee" and had Pandjiris extend an offer of reinstatement to her. Feltmann declined the offer, however, because Tom Capps refused her demand that he fire four male sales consultants, did not accord her complaints any merit, and would make no changes at the showroom. She also refused a position in another Sieben showroom. Feltmann subsequently worked at Lexus of St. Louis for ten months and then at St. Louis Acura for four months, until major depression, allegedly precipitated by her discharge from Plaza, forced her to quit.

After exhausting her administrative appeals, Feltmann brought this action alleging sex discrimination in violation of Title VII and the MHRA; retaliatory discharge in violation of Title VII and the MHRA; and retaliatory discharge under Missouri common law for reporting the forged checks. The jury found in favor of Feltmann and awarded her $112,661 in back pay, $20,072.24 in compensatory damages, and $25,000 in punitive damages on her Title VII sex discrimination claim. Sieben filed a motion for judgment as a matter of law (JAML) or, in the alternative, for a new trial or remittitur. The district court denied the motion and awarded Feltmann front pay of $72,668.38 for a two year period, together with costs and attorneys' fees.

II.

Sieben contends that the district court erred in failing to grant Sieben's motion for JAML on Feltmann's discrimination claims, both because Feltmann failed to establish her prima facie case and because she failed to introduce evidence sufficient to support a finding of discrimination.

We review de novo a district court's denial of a motion for JAML, applying the same standard used by that court. See Triton Corp. v. Hardrives, Inc.,...