Rodriguez-Hernandez v. Miranda-Velez

• Citation: 132 F.3d 848
• Decision Date: 04 November 1997
• Docket Number: P,97-1444 and 97-1445,96-1416,MIRANDA-VELE,ET,RODRIGUEZ-HERNANDE,Nos. 95-2027,MIRANDA-VELEZ,s. 95-2027
• Parties: 75 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1228, 73 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 45,317, 48 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 707 Sandralaintiff, Appellee, v. Edwin, et al., Defendants, Appellants. Sandralaintiff, Appellee, v. Edwin, et al., Defendants, Appellants. Sandralaintiff, Appellee, v. Edwin, ET AL., Defendants, Appellants. Sandralaintiff, Appellant, v. Edwin, et al., Defendants, Appellees. . Heard
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (1st Circuit)

Page 848

132 F.3d 848

75 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1228,

73 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 45,317,

48 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 707

Sandra RODRIGUEZ-HERNANDEZ, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. Edwin MIRANDA-VELEZ, et al., Defendants, Appellants.

Sandra RODRIGUEZ-HERNANDEZ, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. Edwin MIRANDA-VELEZ, et al., Defendants, Appellants.

Sandra RODRIGUEZ-HERNANDEZ, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. Edwin MIRANDA-VELEZ, ET AL., Defendants, Appellants.

Sandra RODRIGUEZ-HERNANDEZ, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. Edwin MIRANDA-VELEZ, et al., Defendants, Appellees.

Nos. 95-2027, 96-1416, 97-1444 and 97-1445.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard Nov. 4, 1997.

Decided Jan. 6, 1998.

Judith Berkan, with whom Rosalinda Pesquera, San Juan, PR, and Mary Jo Mendez, Piedras, PR, were on brief, for Plaintiff.

Eugene F. Hestres, San Juan, PR, with whom Bird, Bird & Hestres was on brief, for Defendants.

Frank D. Inserni on brief, pro se.

Before LYNCH, Circuit Judge, CYR, Senior Circuit Judge, and DiCLERICO, ^* District Judge.

LYNCH, Circuit Judge.

Sandra Rodriguez-Hernandez was discharged from her job at Occidental International after complaining to her employer about being subjected to the sexual demands of a high-level executive at Occidental's most important customer. The main issues presented by this appeal are whether the jury's verdict in favor of the customer dictates that the verdict against her employer be reversed; whether the court's evidentiary and juror peremptory challenge rulings were correct; whether the district court evinced bias against the defendants; and whether the court's attorney's fees award was adequate. We affirm the verdict, but we vacate and remand on the attorney's fees issue.

I.

We review the facts in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict. See Ansin v. River Oaks Furniture, Inc., 105 F.3d 745, 749 (1st Cir.1997), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 118 S.Ct. 70, 139 L.Ed.2d 31 (1997).

Rodriguez worked as an office manager for Occidental International, a Florida company with offices in Florida and Puerto Rico. Rodriguez started working for Occidental in December of 1988 in the Traffic and Claims division of the Puerto Rico office. She was twice promoted, and was put in charge of overseeing the daily operations of her office in February of 1990. While she was never formally evaluated during her employment, Rodriguez received regular praise for her work, and before the suspension and dismissal that led to this lawsuit, she had never been the subject of disciplinary action.

Occidental International sells electrical and industrial equipment. Occidental's most important market was Puerto Rico, and its most important customer was the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority ("PREPA"). At the time of Rodriguez's dismissal, approximately 80% of Occidental's business in Puerto Rico was with PREPA.

Omar Chavez was the President and sole shareholder of Occidental. Chavez lived in Florida, and would make monthly business trips to Puerto Rico. Chavez pursued a number of strategies which he thought would ensure continued good relations between Occidental and its customers, particularly with PREPA. Evidence presented at trial showed that Chavez primarily employed young, attractive women, known to customers as "Occidental Gals," and instructed them to be especially cordial to PREPA employees.

Good relations were particularly important with high-ranking PREPA officials like Edwin Miranda-Velez, the Chief of PREPA's Materials Management Division and the overseer of PREPA's public contracts for the type of goods sold by Occidental. Chavez introduced Rodriguez to Miranda, and told her that Miranda was very important for Occidental's business and that she and the other employees should be nice to him and "keep him satisfied." She was instructed to visit Miranda every time she went to the PREPA offices.

Occidental pursued other strategies. It made political contributions to the Popular Democratic Party, of which Miranda was a very active member, and solicited donations on its behalf. Chavez financed social activities for PREPA employees and gave Christmas presents to PREPA officials. In December of 1990, Chavez threw a party for PREPA officials at a local hotel. The members of the Occidental Puerto Rico staff, all female, were instructed to attend the event unaccompanied, so they would be available to dance with the PREPA executives. The night's entertainment at that party included a dancing show performed by scantily clad women.

The close relationship with PREPA benefitted Occidental, and Chavez, in several ways. Chavez was able to learn from Miranda in advance what bids would be coming up and how much Occidental's competitors were bidding. Miranda helped to steer business to Occidental through requests for proposals that were handled outside the ordinary bidding process. For example, Miranda helped Occidental to obtain a transportation contract on an "emergency" basis. Miranda signed all pertinent documentation and recommended payments to suppliers. There were also allegations that Miranda was able to help Occidental avoid trouble over tax disclosures.

Miranda began to make unwelcome approaches and suggestive comments to Rodriguez. He invited her out to dinner. He asked her to visit his office after hours and on Friday evenings. He anonymously sent her flowers for her birthday and included a sexually explicit card. Rodriguez complained to Chavez about this behavior; Chavez responded by stressing that Miranda was an important client, but assured her that he would deal with the problem.

The culmination, as it were, of Miranda's advances came on February 28, 1992. Miranda called Rodriguez and told her he would come pick her up to take her to a motel. Rodriguez, upset by Miranda's latest advance, called Chavez to complain about Miranda's call. Chavez responded by defending Miranda, and saying that Rodriguez should respond to Miranda "as a woman." Rodriguez told Chavez that if he would do nothing about the situation, she would take her complaints to the Director of PREPA.

That weekend, Chavez flew to Puerto Rico. On March 9, 1992, Chavez gave Rodriguez a letter informing her that she was suspended from work for thirty days. The letter stated the reasons for her suspension as unauthorized use of company property, contracting for services in the company name without authorization, and absenteeism. On April 6, Rodriguez received a second letter dismissing her from employment at Occidental. The grounds for her dismissal were an unexplained imbalance of $157.00 in petty cash funds and negligence in executing daily functions such as picking up company mail, as well as the problems noted in the March 9 letter. Rodriguez had never been notified of any such deficiencies before.

II.

In September of 1992, Rodriguez filed a complaint against Occidental and Chavez with the Anti-Discrimination Unit of the Puerto Rico Department of Labor and with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In November of 1992, while that complaint was before the agency, Rodriguez sued Miranda in district court under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violations of her rights under the Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments, and sued both Miranda and PREPA under Puerto Rico tort law and the Puerto Rico Constitution.

After exhausting her administrative remedies, Rodriguez received a right-to-sue letter from the EEOC in June of 1993 and amended her complaint to name Chavez and Occidental as defendants. The amended complaint asserted claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e-2000e-17, as well as claims under Puerto Rico law.

In July of 1994, the district court issued an order eliminating some of Rodriguez's claims. The district court dismissed the § 1983 claim, but not the Puerto Rico law claims, against Miranda. Thus only Puerto Rico law claims remained against Miranda and PREPA, over which the court retained jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1367. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of defendant Chavez on Rodriguez's Title VII claim against Chavez, but allowed the Puerto Rico law claims against Chavez to go to the jury. Thus the only federal claim that remained at the start of the trial was Rodriguez's Title VII claim against her employer, Occidental. The only claims which went to the jury against Miranda were based on commonwealth law.

The trial was hotly contested and extremely contentious. In the course of the trial, the district court sanctioned defense counsel for violating an order in limine. After a five week trial, the jury held Occidental and Chavez liable to the plaintiff, but found Miranda and PREPA not liable. The jury form simply asked that the jurors answer yes or no as to whether each of the defendants was "liable to plaintiff Sandra Rodriguez." Rodriguez received an award of $200,000 in compensatory and punitive damages against Occidental and Chavez. The jury answered no as to the commonwealth law claims against Miranda.

The district court awarded Rodriguez attorney's fees. But in the face of a documented request for approximately $440,000 in fees and costs, the court awarded only $150,223.26. The district court disallowed some work as duplicative, some as having been performed by attorneys when the court thought it should have been done by paralegals, and further reduced the award because of the plaintiff's "lack of success."

Occidental and Chavez appeal from the jury verdict in cases number 96-1416 and 97-1444, alleging a host of errors and demanding a new trial. Defense counsel Inserni appeals in case number 95-2027 from the contempt order issued against him during the trial. Plaintiff cross-appeals, in case number 97-1445, arguing that the district court's award of attorney's fees was in error and insufficient.

III. Appeal of Occidental and Chavez

A. Jury Inconsistency Argument

Occidental and Chavez's flagship argument, simply put, is that because the jury did not find either Miranda or...