Comacho v. Colorado Electronic Technical College, Inc., 77-1144
| Decision Date | 25 January 1979 |
| Docket Number | No. 77-1144,77-1144 |
| Citation | 590 F.2d 887 |
| Parties | 18 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1796 Irene (Salazar) COMACHO, Appellee, v. COLORADO ELECTRONIC TECHNICAL COLLEGE, INC., Appellant. Tenth Circuit |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit |
Robert J. Mason, Colorado Springs, Colo., for appellant.
Gregory Walta, Colorado Springs, Colo., for appellee.
Before SETH, Chief Judge, and BREITENSTEIN and LOGAN, Circuit Judges.
Irene Comacho brought this Title VII action against the Colorado Electronic Technical College, and prevailed. The school has appealed only the amount of the back pay award and the attorney fees.
These two factors are, of course, left to the discretion of the trial court under 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(g) and (k), and the appellate court will not disturb the awards by the trial court short of an abuse of discretion. Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U.S. 405, 95 S.Ct. 2362, 45 L.Ed.2d 280; Taylor v. Safeway Stores, Inc., 524 F.2d 263 (10th Cir.). Thus the issues are narrow and the scope of our review is limited.
A brief synopsis of the relevant facts will suffice. Plaintiff, a female Mexican-American, was fired on February 15, 1972. She was at that time on sixty days maternity leave without pay which began January 31, 1972.
Judgment was entered in December 1976 with an award of 56.5 months of back pay which was calculated on the basis of 8.5 months in 1972 and the ensuing forty-eight months prior to judgment. This amount was reduced by the income plaintiff received from other employment during that time. The trial court granted attorney fees after a supporting affidavit was submitted. Counsel for defendant did not contest the reasonableness of the fees claimed.
With regard to the back pay award the college contends that it should be reduced to eighteen months of compensation. This figure uses a six-months maternity leave because plaintiff was pregnant a second time during the intervening period, and uses a 1974 cutoff date because the college at that time offered reinstatement without back pay.
We do not believe the trial court abused its discretion in making the back pay award. It cannot be said that the calculations were arbitrary because the trial court found that plaintiff used due diligence in seeking work. Sprogis v. United Air Lines, Inc., 517 F.2d 387 (7th Cir.). This finding cannot be stricken unless clearly erroneous, Silberhorn v. General Iron Works Co., 584 F.2d 970 (10th Cir.), and although there was conflicting evidence, the record supports the trial court. Therefore, we do not believe the trial court abused its discretion in awarding back pay.
The defendant also argues a question of law; that is, whether an offer of reinstatement without back pay determines the cutoff point for calculating an award of back pay. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(g), as we have seen, gives the trial court discretion as to the remedies. The obvious purpose of the Act is to compensate persons for injuries suffered on account of unlawful discrimination. Congress clearly intended that the remedies employed would "make whole" as nearly as possible any person injured under the Act. Section 2000e-5(g) was intended to permit the restoration of the injured person to the position where he would have been were it not for the unlawful...
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Thomas v. Resort Health Related Facility, 81 C 229.
...position that the reinstatement offer was ineffective because it did not include back pay. See Comacho v. Colorado Electronic Technical College, Inc., 590 F.2d 887 (10th Cir. 1979) (per curiam); see also Jurinko v. Edward L. Wiegand Co., 477 F.2d 1038 (3d Cir. 1973), vacated and remanded, 4......
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U.S. v. Lee Way Motor Freight, Inc.
...accordance with its view of the evidence and the law. It has been held to be a question of law. See Comacho v. Colorado Electronic Technical College, Inc., 590 F.2d 887, 889 (10th Cir. 1979). purpose is to render the aggrieved employees whole and restore them to the economic status that the......
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E.E.O.C. v. Ford Motor Co., s. 79-1515
...purposes of Title VII." Our decision is in accord with the decisions of three other circuits. In Comacho v. Colorado Electronic Technical College, Inc., 590 F.2d 887 (10 Cir. 1979) (per curiam), a woman sued a college under Title VII for discriminatorily firing her. She prevailed and was aw......
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Unger v. Consolidated Foods Corp.
...of discretion. Sherkow v. Wisconsin Dept. of Public Instruction, 630 F.2d 498, 504 (7th Cir. 1980); Comacho v. Colorado Electronic Technical College, Inc., 590 F.2d 887, 888 (10th Cir. 1979); Waters v. Wisconsin Steel Works of Internat'l Harvester Co., 502 F.2d 1309, 1321 (7th Cir. 1974), c......