Gallagher v. Wilton Enterprises, Inc.

• Citation: 962 F.2d 120
• Decision Date: 06 January 1992
• Docket Number: No. 91-1767,91-1767
• Parties: 59 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1251, 58 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 41,431 Carolyn M. GALLAGHER, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. WILTON ENTERPRISES, INC., Defendant, Appellant. . Heard
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (1st Circuit)

Page 120

962 F.2d 120

59 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1251,

58 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 41,431

Carolyn M. GALLAGHER, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. WILTON ENTERPRISES, INC., Defendant, Appellant.

No. 91-1767.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit Heard Jan. 6, 1992.

Decided April 24, 1992.

Gerald A. Golden with whom Brett G. Rawitz, Chicago, Ill., Kevin Light, Boston, Mass., Neal Gerber & Eisenberg, Chicago, Ill., and Choate Hall & Stewart, Boston, Mass., were on brief, for defendant, appellant.

Scott A. Lathrop, Boston, Mass., for plaintiff, appellee.

Before BREYER, Chief Judge, BOWNES, Senior Circuit Judge, and SELYA, Circuit Judge.

PER CURIAM.

Plaintiff-appellee Carolyn M. Gallagher sued defendant-appellant Wilton Enterprises, Inc. under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e et seq., and Mass.Gen.Laws Ann. ch. 151B. She alleged: that she was sexually harassed on the job by her supervisor; that she was fired for not engaging in sexual conduct with her supervisor; and that she was subjected to differential treatment on the basis of sex.

The claim under the Massachusetts statute was tried to a jury. The jury awarded plaintiff $105,750 for lost earnings and benefits (back pay); $40,000 for the present value of net loss of future earnings and benefits (front pay); and $20,000 for emotional distress. In its memorandum opinion and order denying defendant's renewed motion for directed verdict and motion for judgment n.o.v., the court found the Title There are two issues: (1) whether the district court erred in holding a jury trial; and (2) the sufficiency of the evidence. We affirm the district court on both issues.

VII claim to be "moot in light of the judgment to be entered on the state-law claim."

JURY TRIAL

"Maintenance of the jury as a fact-finding body is of such importance and occupies so firm a place in our history and jurisprudence that any seeming curtailment of the right to a jury trial should be scrutinized with the utmost care." Chauffeurs, Teamsters & Helpers Local No. 391 v. Terry, 494 U.S. 558, 565, 110 S.Ct. 1339, 1345, 108 L.Ed.2d 519 (1990) (quoting Dimick v. Schiedt, 293 U.S. 474, 486, 55 S.Ct. 296, 301, 79 L.Ed. 603 (1935)). The touchstone of our inquiry is the Seventh Amendment, ² which, while it does not apply to state court proceedings, nonetheless controls when a federal court is enlisted to adjudicate a claim brought pursuant to a state's substantive law. See Byrd v. Blue Ridge Rural Elec. Coop., Inc., 356 U.S. 525, 536-38, 78 S.Ct. 893, 900-01, 2 L.Ed.2d 953 (1958), overruled on other grounds, Hanna v. Plumer, 380 U.S. 460, 85 S.Ct. 1136, 14 L.Ed.2d 8 (1965).

The Byrd Court took pains to remind us that:

The federal system is an independent system for administering justice to litigants who properly invoke its jurisdiction. An essential characteristic of that system is the manner in which, in civil common-law actions, it distributes trial functions between the judge and the jury and, under the influence--if not the command--of the Seventh Amendment, assigns the decisions of disputed questions of fact to the jury.

Id., 356 U.S. at 537, 78 S.Ct. at 901 (footnote omitted). The Court spoke specifically to the reach of the Seventh Amendment in diversity cases in Simler v. Conner, 372 U.S. 221, 222, 83 S.Ct. 609, 610-11, 9 L.Ed.2d 691 (1963):

We agree with respondent that the right to a jury trial in the federal courts is to be determined as a matter of federal law in diversity as well as other actions. The federal policy favoring jury trials is of historic and continuing strength. Only through a holding that the jury-trial right is to be determined according to federal law can the uniformity in its exercise which is demanded by the Seventh Amendment be achieved. In diversity cases, of course, the substantive dimension of the claim asserted finds its source in state law, but the characterization of that state-created claim as legal or equitable for purposes of whether a right to jury trial is indicated must be made by recourse to federal law.

A federal court must look first to state law to determine the elements of the cause of action and the propriety of the remedies sought. This done, the court should turn to federal law to "characterize" the action and remedies as either legal or equitable. ³

II.

We, therefore, must determine the nature of an employment discrimination suit brought pursuant to Mass.Gen.Laws Ann. ch. 151B. Courts have routinely held that discrimination suits in general, and employment discrimination suits in particular, are analogous to either of two common-law The second, more important, inquiry focuses on the remedies sought in a particular case. Under chapter 151B, a plaintiff can pursue a wide variety of damages. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has held, for example, that the statute "afford[s] victims of discrimination the legal remedy of compensatory damages," Conway, 523 N.E.2d at 256, including damages for emotional distress. See Brown v. Trustees of Boston Univ., 674 F.Supp. 393, 395 (D.Mass.1987), aff'd in relevant part, 891 F.2d 337 (1st Cir.1989), cert. denied, 496 U.S. 937, 110 S.Ct. 3217, 110 L.Ed.2d 664 (1990); Egger v. Local 276, Plumbers & Pipefitters Union, 644 F.Supp. 795, 805 (D.Mass.1986); College-Town, Div. of Interco, Inc. v. Massachusetts Comm'n Against Discrimination, 400 Mass. 156, 508 N.E.2d 587, 594-95 (1987); Bournewood Hosp., Inc. v. Massachusetts Comm'n Against Discrimination, 371 Mass. 303, 358 N.E.2d 235, 241-43 (1976). In egregious cases, the statute also affords victims the legal remedy of punitive damages. See Mass.Gen.Laws Ann. ch. 151B, § 9 (West Supp.1991); see also Contardo v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc., 753 F.Supp. 406, 411-12 (D.Mass.1990) (awarding punitive damages).

                causes of action.   Many courts have characterized such cases as actions ex delicto.   See, e.g., Curtis v. Loether, 415 U.S. 189, 195, 196 n. 10, 94 S.Ct. 1005, 1008, 1009 n. 10, 39 L.Ed.2d 260 (1974) (likening discrimination action "to an action for defamation or intentional infliction of mental distress" and suggesting that racial discrimination "might be treated as a dignitary tort");  Hill v. Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc., 934 F.2d 1518, 1524 (11th Cir.1991) (analyzing federal-law action to redress employment discrimination as a tort for Seventh Amendment purposes);  Santiago-Negron v. Castro-Davila, 865 F.2d 431, 440-41 (1st Cir.1989) (similar);  Pons v. Lorillard, 549 F.2d 950, 954 (4th Cir.1977) (similar), aff'd on other grounds, 434 U.S. 575, 98 S.Ct. 866, 55 L.Ed.2d 40 (1978);  cf.  Conway v. Electro Switch Corp., 402 Mass. 385, 523 N.E.2d 255, 256-57 (1988) (analyzing action under Mass.Gen.Laws Ann. ch. 151B as a tort).   A few courts have suggested that employment discrimination cases may also be characterized as actions ex contractu.   See Hill, 934 F.2d at 1524;  Pons, 549 F.2d at 954.   For our purposes, the distinction makes no difference:  regardless of whether a claim under chapter 151B is viewed as sounding in tort or contract, the cause of action is traditionally "legal" and the imperatives of the Seventh Amendment therefore attach.   See Curtis, 415 U.S. at 195, 196 & n. 10, 94 S.Ct. at 1009 & n. 10;  Hill, 934 F.2d at 1524;  Santiago-Negron, 865 F.2d at 440-41;  Pons, 549 F.2d at 954
                

The fact that state law provides monetary redress is suggestive, but not dispositive, in terms of Seventh Amendment analysis. Although an action for money damages is "the traditional form of relief offered in the courts of law," Curtis, 415 U.S. at 196, 94 S.Ct. at 1009, not every "award of monetary relief must necessarily be 'legal' relief." Id. (emphasis in original). A backpay award granted under Title VII, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e to 2000e-17 (1988), for instance, is frequently considered to be restitutionary in nature and, therefore, an example of monetary equitable relief. See Great Am. Fed. Savings & Loan Ass'n v. Novotny, 442 U.S. 366, 375 & n. 19, 99 S.Ct. 2345, 2350 & n. 19, 60 L.Ed.2d 957 (1979); Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U.S. 405, 419-21, 95 S.Ct. 2362, 2372-73, 45 L.Ed.2d 280 (1975). Here, however, it seems clear that federal law characterizes the damages available under chapter 151B as falling at the "legal" end of the law/equity continuum.

Our circuit has held that compensatory damages in federal employment discrimination cases are, for Seventh Amendment purposes, legal remedies. See, e.g., Perez-Serrano v. DeLeon-Velez, 868 F.2d 30, 32-33 (1st Cir.1989); Santiago-Negron, 865 F.2d at 441. By and large, other courts agree that compensatory damages are not subsumed by equitable concepts of reinstatement and restitution. See, e.g., Williams v. Owens-Illinois, Inc., 665 F.2d 918, 929 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 971, 103 S.Ct. 302, 74 L.Ed.2d 283 (1982); In the face of this overwhelming array of authority, appellant raises one argument that must be answered. It asserts that the court was bound to follow prior precedent of the circuit holding that there is no right to a jury trial under Mass.Gen.Laws Ann. ch. 151B, § 9. In Olin v. Prudential Insurance Co., 798 F.2d 1 (1st Cir.1986), we held:

                Moore v. Sun Oil Co., 636 F.2d 154, 156 (6th Cir.1980).   Similarly, compensatory damages for emotional distress are usually thought to comprise a legal remedy.   See Shah v. Mt. Zion Hosp. & Medical Ctr., 642 F.2d 268, 272 (9th Cir.1981);  Miller v. Texas State Bd. of Barber Examiners, 615 F.2d 650, 654 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 891, 101 S.Ct. 249, 66 L.Ed.2d 117 (1980);  De Grace v. Rumsfeld, 614 F.2d 796, 808 (1st Cir.1980);  cf. 22 Am.Jur.2d Damages §§ 261, 985 (1988).   By the same token, federal law characterizes punitive damages as legal remediation for Seventh Amendment purposes.   See Curtis, 415 U.S. at 197, 94 S.Ct. at 1010;  Moore, 636 F.2d at 157
                

The court also properly rejected Olin's claim for a jury trial on the state claim for the relevant state statute, Mass.Gen.Laws Ann....