Tincher v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

• Decision Date: 20 June 1997
• Docket Number: No. 96-2713,WAL-MART,96-2713
• Citation: 118 F.3d 1125
• Parties: 74 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1503, 70 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 44,773 Talitha TINCHER, Plaintiff-Appellee, v.STORES, INC., Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 1125

118 F.3d 1125

74 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1503,

70 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 44,773

Talitha TINCHER, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. WAL-MART STORES, INC., Defendant-Appellant.

No. 96-2713.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

Argued Feb. 21, 1997.

Decided June 20, 1997.

Michael C. Kendall, Stephanie J. Hahn (argued), Indianapolis, IN, for plaintiff-appellee.

Gus Sacopulos, Gregory S. Carter (argued), Sacopulos, Johnson, Carter & Sacopulos, Terre Haute, IN, for defendant-appellant.

Before CUMMINGS, RIPPLE, and KANNE, Circuit Judges.

KANNE, Circuit Judge.

Talitha Tincher sued Wal-Mart under Title VII, alleging that the company discriminated against her because of her religion. Specifically, Tincher claimed that Wal-Mart failed to reasonably accommodate her observance of the Sabbath and that Wal-Mart eventually terminated her to rid themselves of the burden of accommodating her religious observances. After a three-day trial, a jury returned a verdict in Tincher's favor, including an award of punitive damages, finding that Wal-Mart intentionally discriminated against Tincher. Wal-Mart promptly moved for a judgment as a matter of law, challenging both the liability determination and the punitive damages award. The district court denied Wal-Mart's motions.

On appeal, neither party disputes that Tincher presented a prima facie case of discrimination or that Wal-Mart provided a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for firing Tincher. Thus, we need only address whether Wal-Mart's asserted reason for the termination was pretextual and whether the punitive damage award was appropriate. We affirm the finding of liability because Tincher presented enough evidence from which a reasonable jury could infer that Wal-Mart proffered a pretextual reason for Tincher's firing. We vacate the punitive damage award, however, because no reasonable factfinder could have found that Wal-Mart acted with a callous disregard for Tincher's rights or intentionally violated federal law.

I. History ¹

Talitha Tincher is a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, and she began actively practicing that religion in September 1989. Tincher first worked at the Wal-Mart in Greencastle, Indiana in 1988. She left that job in order to pursue her education, and she later returned to the Greencastle Wal-Mart in the summer of 1989. In her first stint at Wal-Mart, Tincher never requested that the store make any accommodation for her in regard to her religion. When she returned in 1989, Tincher indicated on her employment application that she was unavailable to work from 6 pm on Fridays to 7:30 pm on Saturdays. Tincher, however, worked whenever she was scheduled up until the time she verbally requested that the store accommodate her religious needs.

At some point in 1990, Tincher approached the store manager, Peter Newbal, asking him to transfer her to the stocking crew because that job would not include Saturday work and thus not interfere with her practice in the Seventh Day Adventist Church. In response, Newbal rolled his eyes and replied, "Oh yeah, I know all about them." On a few occasions, Tincher was scheduled to work on the Sabbath, and Tincher would have to remind Newbal or Debbie Davis (an assistant manager) about her schedule request. On these occasions, Wal-Mart always accommodated Tincher.

Tincher worked in the stocking crew for two months until she was promoted to Domestics Department Manager, another position that did not require her to work on the Sabbath. Newbal later approached Tincher about transferring to the UPC (universal product code) department. This department handles the store's bar coding and computer pricing needs. Tincher expressed her interest in a UPC position so long as it would not interfere with her observance of the Sabbath. Newbal assured Tincher that he would accommodate her, and Tincher took the UPC position.

Tincher worked in the UPC department with David Sutherlin and Tonya Hunter, and the three of them were apparently good friends. Hunter served as the "head clerk" of the UPC department and sometimes left instructions for Sutherlin and Tincher. As the "head UPC clerk," however, Hunter was not a member of management. Davis, one of the store's assistant managers, supervised the UPC office as part of her general responsibilities.

One night in December 1991, Sutherlin and Tincher were engaged in "horseplay" while working in the UPC office. Sutherlin asked Tincher to help him guess the store manager's (Newbal's) computer password. Sutherlin and Tincher were not authorized to access Newbal's computer database. Tincher successfully suggested Newbal's birth year as part of the password. Sutherlin somehow came up with the rest of the code, entered the database, and informed Tincher of his access. Tincher never actually "keyed in" the password to enter the database herself. Nonetheless, Tincher knew that accessing the computer "would be trouble," and the next day, Tincher told Hunter what she and Sutherlin had done. Tincher contacted Hunter under the belief that Hunter, as the "head UPC clerk," was her "immediate supervisor" and thus the first person she should contact about any problems pursuant to company policy. Hunter showed little interest in Tincher's concerns, and she refused to go with Tincher to tell management about what had happened. At some point after this conversation, Hunter and Sutherlin used the password to give themselves unauthorized pay raises. Tincher never used the password to enter the manager's database, nor did she ever give herself an unauthorized raise.

About two months after this incident, Tincher began work in another capacity at Wal-Mart. Newbal apparently approached Tincher (because of her seniority) about moving to another position (apparently in data entry) outside the UPC department as that office was becoming overcrowded. Tincher asked if the new position would require her to work on Friday nights and Saturdays. Newbal replied that the new job would require work on those days, and Tincher voiced her objections. At that point, Newbal replied, "Well, what do you think I ought to do? Fire you?" Tincher became upset because she had gone to school to learn data entry, and she viewed this position as a good opportunity. Newbal eventually assigned Tincher to a test scanner position, a relatively new job that required no special training. Tincher considered this move a "demotion" although neither her pay nor her benefits decreased.

Around this same time, Tincher inadvertently interrupted a conversation between Hunter and Brenda Stinson, another UPC worker; they were discussing the fact that Sutherlin had given himself a pay raise by accessing the manager's database. Tincher and Stinson both told Hunter to report the incident to management, and Hunter promptly called Newbal. Although Tincher wanted to participate in Hunter's conversation with Newbal, Hunter spoke to Newbal alone. At this point, Tincher believed that the appropriate management people had been contacted regarding the computer access incident. It is unclear, however, whether Hunter told Newbal about the computer security breach on that day or at a later time.

About two or three months later, on April 2, 1992, Wal-Mart terminated Hunter and Sutherlin because they used Newbal's computer password to give themselves unauthorized pay raises. The next day, Davis and an employee from the safety and loss prevention department met with Tincher for about an hour to discuss the computer password incident and the firing of Hunter and Sutherlin. They told Tincher that her job was safe if she told the truth because they knew that she did not give herself a pay raise. That same day, Newbal met with Wal-Mart District Manager Curtis Morgan and apprised him of the situation. Morgan--who had no knowledge of Tincher's religion--received his only information regarding the password incident from Newbal. Upon hearing that Tincher accessed the computer and gave the password to other employees, Morgan directed Newbal to fire Tincher even though Morgan knew that Tincher did not give herself a pay raise. Later that day, Newbal fired Tincher and had Davis escort her out of the building. The exit interview form signed by Newbal listed the reasons for Tincher's termination as misusing equipment, violating company policy, and "getting access into computer under manager's password--and not letting management know." When questioned with several hypotheticals on cross-examination at trial, Morgan testified that he might not have given the "okay" to terminate an employee who only "guessed" a computer password and then notified an immediate supervisor of the computer breach the next day.

On August 25, 1993, Tincher filed a complaint in the Putnam County Circuit Court against Wal-Mart, Newbal, Davis, and several "John Doe" defendants. Tincher brought two claims. Her first claim alleged that the defendants discriminated against her on the basis of her religion in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. (as amended by the Civil Rights Act of 1991), and the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Tincher's second cause of action alleged state common-law defamation violations. The case was subsequently removed to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, and apparently assigned to Magistrate Judge William Hussmann who commenced trial on October 31, 1995.

At the conclusion of Tincher's case-in-chief, the district court granted Wal-Mart's motion for a judgment as a matter of law pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50 as to the defamation claims against all the defendants and as to the discrimination claims against Davis and Newbal. The court also dismissed the claims against the unnamed "John Doe" defendants based on its lack of jurisdiction over them. At the close of all the evidence, Wal-Mart--the only remaining defendant--renewed its Rule...