Mota v. Univ. TX Houston Hlth Sci. Ctr.

• Decision Date: 09 August 2001
• Docket Number: No. 00-20009,00-20009
• Citation: 261 F.3d 512
• Parties: (5th Cir. 2001) LUIS F. MOTA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HOUSTON HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER; ET AL., Defendants, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HOUSTON HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER, Defendant - Appellant
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 512

261 F.3d 512 (5th Cir. 2001)

LUIS F. MOTA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HOUSTON HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER; ET AL., Defendants, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HOUSTON HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER, Defendant - Appellant.

No. 00-20009

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT

Aug. 9, 2001

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas

Before HIGGINBOTHAM and BENAVIDES, Circuit Judges, and DUPLANTIER,^* District Judge.

PATRICK E. HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judge:

This case presents claims under Title VII of retaliation and sexual harassment by a member of the same sex. A professor at the University of Texas Houston Health Science Center filed suit, alleging that he was harassed by his supervisor. He also claimed that the University retaliated against him for lodging complaints with the University and the EEOC. Following a jury trial, the district court entered judgment for the plaintiff on these claims, awarding compensatory damages, back pay, front pay, attorney's fees, and costs.

The University challenges the court's denial of its motion for judgment as a matter of law, asserting error on an array of legal and factual grounds. The University argues that the jury's retaliation verdict was not supported by an adverse employment action and lacked an adequate basis in fact; that the alleged acts of harassment were not sufficiently severe or pervasive; that the jury erred in finding that the University had not established its affirmative defenses to the harassment claim; and that the court's award of front pay, attorney's fees, and costs was an abuse of discretion. We affirm the court's judgment in virtually all respects, vacating only a portion of its award of costs.

I

Dr. Luis F. Mota, a resident alien from Caracas, began work in 1993 as a visiting professor in the Department of Periodontics at the Dental Branch of the University of Texas Houston Health Science Center.¹ He began his first year as a tenure-track professor with the University in 1995. At all relevant times, Dr. Raul Caffesse was the head of the Periodontics Department at the Dental Branch.

Caffesse and Mota knew each other prior to Mota's term at the University. Mota's parents, who were also periodontists, knew Caffesse and would receive him into their home on social visits. Likewise, Caffesse would entertain Mota's parents when they traveled to the United States. After Mota moved to Houston, he continued this social relationship with Caffesse and Caffesse's family.

Caffesse's stature as a renowned periodontist prompted Mota to apply for a position at the University. Caffesse, who had an endowed professorship named after him at the Dental School, was considered to be among the ten most famous academic periodontists in the world.

In June 1996 Mota and Caffesse participated in a three-day conference in Monterrey, Mexico. The event was jointly sponsored by the Dental School and the University of Nuevo Laredo. Although Mota was not originally scheduled to attend, Caffesse told Mota several days before the trip that he should accompany him as a representative of the Dental School. Caffesse arranged for them to share the same hotel room.

Mota later testified that Caffesse engaged in unwanted and offensive sexual conduct toward him while they were in the hotel room. During their time in Mexico, Caffesse allegedly told Mota that he had to "get along with him and that people who worked with him had to get along with [him] and that he only wanted to know [Mota] better." Caffesse also suggested that Mota's immigration status could be jeopardized if he no longer worked at the University.

Following the trip to Monterrey, Caffesse promised Mota that the incidents which occurred in Mexico would not happen again. He also told Mota that he had arranged for him to give a presentation at another seminar and that Mota would receive a $500 honorarium. Mota asserts that he took the honorarium money and purchased a present for Caffesse in excess of the $500. According to Mota, the gift was motivated by his desire not to be indebted to Caffesse.

Despite Caffesse's assurances, incidents of harassment allegedly continued. Mota later testified that Caffesse engaged in unwanted and offensive sexual advances at conferences he attended in Philadelphia, Breckenridge, and Orlando. Caffesse also allegedly engaged in other acts of sexual harassment while he and Mota were in Houston. In the face of Caffesse's advances, Mota canceled conference engagements which he knew Caffesse would also attend.

The record also supports the inference that Caffesse threatened Mota. During one conference, Mota refused to room with Caffesse. Caffesse angrily raised his hand in the air and told Mota that he could not do that to him and could not work in the department if Mota kept rejecting him. On another occasion, Caffesse allegedly told Mota that the University would defend Caffesse--as it allegedly had in the past--in any type of complaint brought against him. Caffesse further informed Mota that Caffesse disliked certain persons at the school, and that he had "helped them to leave" the school. He regularly admonished Mota not to tell anyone of his advances.

On April 23, 1997, Mota submitted a detailed, written sexual harassment complaint against Caffesse to the University. According to Mota, he and a member of the Sexual Harassment Board had agreed that the investigatory panel would not include persons who had past dealings with Caffesse or who were associated with the Dental or Medical schools. Prof. George Stancel was appointed chairman of the three-member panel. Stancel was a medical school professor who apparently had worked closely with the spouse of a professor who worked regularly with Caffesse. Stancel later testified that he was aware of Caffesse's stature at the Dental School and that he had met him on at least one occasion.

The members of the panel concluded that they were unable to determine whether or not Caffesse had violated the University's sexual harassment policy. During the investigation, Caffesse admitted to the panel that he had sexually propositioned Mota on two trips following the Mexico trip. Another member of the University testified before the panel that "if you cross Caffesse, you are definitely in trouble. In other words, if you tell him 'no' you better watch out."

Although Mota had recorded conversations with Caffesse, he did not submit these to the panel. The panel never asked for such evidence; nor was the panel aware of its existence. Mota later played the tapes to the jury in the trial before the district court.

Upon issuing its decision, the panel notified Mota and suggested that, if he had new evidence, he could request a reopening of his case. Despite the evidence contained on the tapes, Mota did not ask the panel to reopen the case. Four days after the decision, Mota requested "protection against further harassment and retaliation" by Caffesse. In response, Caffesse told the Dean of the Dental School, Dr. Ronald Johnson, that he was willing to work out an arrangement acceptable to Mota, under which the two professors could continue working in the Periodontics Department.

Dean Johnson did not learn of Mota's University complaint until July 16, 1997, when Mota sent him a courtesy copy of a complaint he had filed with the EEOC.² University policy prohibits the panel from notifying the appropriate administrative authority in the University that a complaint has been filed. According to M. David Low, the University president, Johnson was the person responsible for protecting Mota from retaliation.

In a meeting with Caffesse and Mota on July 23, 1997, Dean Johnson asked Mota to write a memo describing parameters under which he would feel comfortable working in the Department. When Mota declined to do so, Johnson instructed Caffesse to draft the document. The next day, Caffesse sent Mota a letter outlining guidelines.

In response to the charges of retaliation contained in Mota's EEOC complaint, the University hired an outside attorney to conduct an investigation. The University contends that Mota did not cooperate with the attorney, whose April 9, 1998 report concluded that no retaliation had occurred.

Mota does not allege that any further acts of sexual harassment occurred after the filing of his April 1997 complaint. He contends, however, that the University retaliated against him. First, he asserts that, in the wake of his complaint, Caffesse arranged Mota's schedule so as to bring them into constant contact. Mota alleges that Caffesse made this scheduling decision in the face of Mota's objections. When Caffesse relented and changed Mota's schedule, he reassigned him from some of the desirable graduate clinics to the less prestigious undergraduate clinics.

On August 20, 1997, Johnson and Low denied Mota a $2,500 stipend for serving as the Dental School clinical coordinator. Mota had been the clinical coordinator since late 1995. However, the University contends that Mota had not performed the duties of clinical coordinator since September 1996. The University argues that the discontinuation of Mota's stipend resulted from an inquiry sent by Mota to Johnson, in which Mota stated that he continued to receive supplemental pay for the clinical coordinator position. Johnson testified that he stopped payment simply to correct an administrative oversight, as the University would not pay someone who was not doing the work required by the position.

On September 10, 1997, the University denied Mota's request for a paid six-month leave of absence. President Low denied Mota's request, yet authorized six months of unpaid leave beginning November 3, 1997.³ Mota was to return to work on May 1, 1998.

While Mota was on leave, he began looking for another job and visited his parents in Venezuela several times. He also requested that the University grant him access to his...