Cush-Crawford v. Adchem Corp.

• Decision Date: 01 August 2000
• Docket Number: DEFENDANT-APPELLANT-CROSS-APPELLEE,PLAINTIFF-APPELLEE-CROSS-APPELLANT,Docket Nos. 00-7617,00-7745,CUSH-CRAWFOR
• Citation: 271 F.3d 352
• Parties: (2nd Cir. 2001) TONIA L.v. ADCHEM CORP.,
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Page 352

271 F.3d 352 (2nd Cir. 2001)

TONIA L. CUSH-CRAWFORD, PLAINTIFF-APPELLEE-CROSS-APPELLANT v. ADCHEM CORP., DEFENDANT-APPELLANT-CROSS-APPELLEE

Docket Nos. 00-7617, 00-7745

August Term, 2000

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT

Argued: January 18, 2001

Decided: November 16, 2001

Defendant-employer and plaintiff-employee each appeal from the judgment of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Arthur D. Spatt, J.) awarding plaintiff the statutory maximum of $100,000 in punitive damages on plaintiff's claim of sexual harassment - hostile work environment, but awarding neither compensatory nor nominal damages. The Court of Appeals (Leval, J.) holds that, in a case under Title VII, an award of compensatory or nominal damages is not a prerequisite to an award of punitive damages. Affirmed.

Ira G. Rosenstein (Siobhan A. Handley and Cathleen O'Donnell, on the brief), Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe Llp, New York, N.Y., for defendant-appellant-cross-appellee.

Charmaine M. Stewart, Esq. (Nadira Stewart, on the brief), Elmont, N.Y., for plaintiff-appellee-cross-appellant.

Julie L. Gantz (c. Gregory Stewart, Philip B. Sklover, and Vincent J. Blackwood, on the brief), Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, as amicus curiae in support of plaintiff-appellee.

Before: Newman, Leval, and Sack, Circuit Judges.

Leval, Circuit Judge

Defendant Adchem Corporation appeals from the judgment of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Arthur D. Spatt, J.), entered after a jury verdict in favor of plaintiff Tonia Cush-Crawford on her claim for sexual harassment -hostile work environment brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e. Plaintiff cross-appeals from the judgment insofar as it failed to award compensatory damages. We find no error requiring reversal. We write to clarify that in this Circuit a Title VII plaintiff may recover limited statutory punitive damages absent an award of either actual or nominal damages.

BACKGROUND

On June 16, 1993, defendant Adchem hired plaintiff Tonia Cush-Crawford as a laboratory technician. Adchem owned and operated two adhesive tape manufacturing plants in Westbury and Riverhead, New York, employing approximately 150 persons.

Cush-Crawford was hired to work at the Westbury plant, where she reported to a laboratory supervisor named Collin Mars. Mars had interviewed Cush-Crawford for the position. Cush-Crawford testified that Mars began to contact her even before she appeared for work at Adchem. In the week prior to the start of her employment, he called her several times at her home, saying that he was in Florida and asking her whether she was excited about starting the job. Within Cush-Crawford's first week on the job, Mars began to tell her that she looked beautiful and that he loved the dresses she wore. He would page her over the intercom, and when she called back he would ask her what she was doing later. Cush-Crawford having disclosed in her interview that she liked to work out at a gym, Mars repeatedly asked her whether she would like to go to the gym with him after work. Cush-Crawford testified that at the beginning she said no, but that Mars did not stop asking. She also testified that Mars began complaining about her work performance, and that she believed that his complaints were tied to her refusals to go out with him. As a result, Cush-Crawford eventually went to the gym with Mars on one or two occasions.

Two or three weeks into her employment at Adchem, Mars asked Cush-Crawford to go to Toronto with him to attend a Caribbean festival. Cush-Crawford testified that initially she refused to go, but that she agreed after a few days because Mars "would remind [her]" of the "weekly evaluation" that he controlled as her supervisor. Cush-Crawford further testified that Mars's behavior toward her changed and that his evaluations of her work improved after she agreed to go to the festival with him.

Cush-Crawford and Mars drove to Toronto early on a Saturday morning sometime in late July or August of 1993. Cush-Crawford expected to have her own room. Instead, Mars informed her that only one room was available in the bed and breakfast. Cush-Crawford testified that after the carnival that night, Mars tried to kiss her and touch her breasts, but that she pulled away, and that Mars did not bother her again during the remainder of the weekend. After returning from Canada Mars began to comment negatively on Cush-Crawford's work habits.

Approximately one week after the trip to Canada, Mars asked Cush-Crawford to go on a second trip with him, this time a one-day trip to Boston for another carnival. Cush-Crawford testified that although she initially said no, she eventually changed her mind and agreed to go, in fear that if she did not, she would not survive Adchem's three-month probation period. On the drive back from Boston, Mars claimed that he was too tired to drive and pulled off the highway into a motel. He booked one room, and once inside the room told Cush-Crawford that he "wanted to make love." Cush-Crawford testified that when she refused, Mars told her that he had hired her and that he could also fire her. Upon their return to work, Mars once again complained about her work performance.

Around August 24, 1993, Mars and Cush-Crawford went out for Cush-Crawford's birthday. Cush-Crawford testified that she agreed to do so because she did not want to get a bad evaluation. At dinner, Mars again told Cush-Crawford that he "wanted to sleep with [her]," that "he wished he could make love to [her] on her birthday," and that he wanted to go to a hotel with her. Cush-Crawford again refused.

Cush-Crawford testified that she and Mars went out one last time during the winter of 1993-1994. Mars told her that she was up for an evaluation and then asked her to go to dinner with him. Although Cush-Crawford and Mars apparently did not see one another outside work again, Mars continued to ask her out into early 1994, even after she told him that she was "fed up" with him. Cush-Crawford further testified that Mars sent her a number of greeting cards in the mail and that he made comments as late as February 1994 to the effect that she looked "good" or "sexy." Finally, in August 1994, he asked her to accompany him on a company trip to the Riverhead plant and to stay overnight at a hotel with him. She refused.

Cush-Crawford testified that she reported Mars's advances to Adchem supervisors beginning in September 1993, telling a production control supervisor that "Mars was coming on to [her] and he was calling [her] and he kept asking [her] out and [that] if [she] didn't go out with him he would get upset, and if [she] didn't return his pages he would be upset with [her] the next day." Cush-Crawford also testified that in that same month, she told Adchem's vice president about the situation, and that the vice president told her that he was "aware of the situation." Cush-Crawford testified further that she told the vice president about similar matters on July 14, 1994, and in November 1994.

In the November 1994 meeting, Cush-Crawford testified that she used the words "sexual harassment" for the first time. Adchem then reassigned her to its Riverhead facility and suspended Mars. After Cush-Crawford grew dissatisfied with working at the Riverhead plant, she returned to the Westbury facility, where she was again put under the supervision of Mars, though this time separated by an intermediate layer of supervision. A few months later, Cush-Crawford suffered an unrelated on-the-job injury and did not return to Adchem.

On April 21, 1995, Cush-Crawford filed a complaint alleging unlawful discrimination with the New York State Commission on Human Rights. The EEOC issued a right-to-sue letter on November 8, 1997. On January 30, 1998, Cush-Crawford filed this action in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The complaint alleged, in relevant part, hostile environment sex harassment and quid pro quo sex harassment, as well as retaliation for lodging a sex harassment complaint, in violation of Title VII.

Defendant's principal contention was that the relationship was consensual and non-harassing and that Cush-Crawford had not reported her complaints about Mars to company officials prior to November 1994. A company official testified that when Cush-Crawford made a complaint in September 1993, it related to an incident involving a co-worker, and included no mention of sexual advances by Mars. According to the defendant, Cush-Crawford's complaints were always in connection with other issues, and mentioned Mars only in passing. Finally, defendant contended that when Cush-Crawford finally brought her complaint about Mars to its attention in November 1994, company officials took prompt remedial action.

After a six-day jury trial before Judge Spatt, the jury returned a verdict in favor of Adchem on the quid pro quo and retaliation claims, and in favor of Cush-Crawford on the hostile environment claim. The jury awarded Cush-Crawford zero dollars in actual damages and $100,000 in punitive damages. Plaintiff moved for a new trial on the issue of compensatory damages and for an award of attorney's fees; defendant moved to set aside the jury's verdict on the hostile environment claim and to set aside the award of punitive damages. The trial judge denied defendant's motion to set aside the verdict and the punitive damages award, and denied plaintiff's motion for a new trial on the issue of actual damages. The trial judge then awarded plaintiff $54,052 in attorney's fees and $2,026 in costs. Adchem appealed and Cush-Crawford cross-appealed.

DISCUSSION

On appeal, Adchem and Cush-Crawford raise a number of different arguments. Adchem contends: (1) Cush-Crawford's Title VII claims were time-barred; (2) the evidence was insufficient to support the jury's verdict on the question of...