Aviles v. Conrnell Forge Co.

• Decision Date: 21 February 2001
• Docket Number: No. 99-4003,99-4003
• Citation: 241 F.3d 589
• Parties: (7th Cir. 2001) ALFREDO AVILES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CORNELL FORGE COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 589

241 F.3d 589 (7th Cir. 2001)

ALFREDO AVILES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CORNELL FORGE COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 99-4003

In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Argued November 2, 2000

Decided February 21, 2001

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 96 C 5989--Harry D. Leinenweber, Judge.

Before HARLINGTON WOOD, JR., RIPPLE and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.

ROVNER, Circuit Judge.

This is a successive appeal of an employment discrimination case. The plaintiff asks us to find that calling the police to report that a disgruntled employee is waiting outside the workplace and may be armed is an adverse action as a matter of law. We decline the plaintiff's invitation because a truthful, non- discriminatory report to the police should not subject an employer to Title VII liability. We therefore affirm the district court's grant of a directed verdict at the close of the plaintiff's evidence.

I.

We will assume familiarity with our prior opinion in this matter and will repeat only those facts necessary to understand the issues presented in this appeal. See Aviles v. Cornell Forge Co., 183 F.3d 598 (7th Cir. 1999). Alfredo Aviles sued his employer, Cornell Forge, claiming that the company subjected him to a hostile work environment based on his national origin. He also claimed that Cornell Forge retaliated against him for filing a hostile work environment claim. In his complaint, Aviles alleged that shortly after filing an EEOC charge against Cornell Forge, the company suspended him for five days, and then falsely told the local police that Aviles had threatened his supervisor with a gun. According to Aviles, as a result of this false report, the police physically and emotionally harmed him during their investigation. Aviles contended that four police cars and six officers responded to the call, and rousted him from his car with their guns drawn, injuring him in a number of ways before determining that he was, in fact, unarmed. The district court originally granted summary judgment in favor of the employer on both the discrimination and retaliation claims, but for the reasons stated in our earlier opinion, we remanded the case for a trial on the retaliation claim. We held that a false report to the police that Aviles was armed and laying in wait outside the plant could certainly be construed by the fact-finder as a retaliatory action meant to dissuade Aviles from pursuing his claim. We therefore remanded the case for trial on the claim that Cornell Forge retaliated against Aviles by making a false police report.

At trial, Aviles presented evidence that he filed an EEOC claim, and that shortly thereafter, he was suspended from his job. He refused to leave the premises following the suspension and told his supervisors that they could call the police. One supervisor indeed called the police, who escorted Aviles off the property and told him not to return. Despite this warning, Aviles returned to the area later, parking his car approximately one and one half blocks from the entrance to the plant. Although Aviles contended that he returned only to pick up his paycheck, we must take the facts as the district court found them following Aviles' presentation of evidence at a bench trial. Not knowing that Aviles was there for that alleged innocent purpose, someone from the plant called the police again and reported that Aviles was sitting in his car outside the plant entrance. The officer taking the call, knowing that an employee had been removed from the plant under police escort earlier that day, asked the caller if Aviles was armed. The caller replied that he did not know if Aviles was armed but that he might be. Based on that conversation, the police approached Aviles with a great display of force. Aviles testified that in the ensuing altercation, the police injured his arm, causing him pain. After the police had removed Aviles from his car, the dispatcher called the plant back and asked to speak to the supervisor who was involved in Aviles' suspension. At that time, Aviles' supervisor told the dispatcher that Aviles had threatened in the past to kill himself and other employees at the plant with a gun. There was no evidence that the dispatcher passed this statement on to the officers at the scene, and Aviles presented no evidence that any of these statements were false.

At the close of Aviles' evidence, Cornell Forge moved for a directed verdict. The company argued that Aviles failed to prove an adverse act by his employer, and that he failed to establish a causal link between the protected expression and the adverse action. Cornell Forge also argued that Aviles failed to establish any damages. The district court granted the motion. The court noted first that Aviles had presented no evidence regarding who at Cornell Forge made the call to the police that resulted in Aviles' injuries. The court found that the police dispatcher, not the Cornell Forge caller, raised the issue of the gun, and that there was no evidence that the caller lied when stating he did not know whether Aviles was armed but that he might be. The court held that calling the police and making a truthful report did not constitute an adverse action. The court further found that Aviles failed to prove a causal link between the protected expression and the adverse action. In particular, Aviles failed to show that the employer could have anticipated a violent response by the police, or that Aviles would resist during the investigatory stop and thereby be injured. The court therefore granted Cornell Forge's motion for a directed verdict. Aviles appeals.

II.

On appeal, Aviles contends that calling the police and reporting that a disgruntled employee is armed is an adverse action as a matter of law. Aviles also complains that the district court sua sponte asserted a legitimate reason for his employer's adverse act, even though the defendant had not put on any evidence supporting the so- called legitimate reason. Finally, Aviles claims that he did in fact prove a causal connection between the charge of discrimination and the call to the police with evidence that his supervisor said Aviles was "going to pay," and that he was "going to get" Aviles.

We review the district court's grant of a directed verdict under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 52. Subpart (c) of that rule provides that, in a bench trial, once a party has been fully heard on an issue, the "court may enter judgment as a matter of law against that party with respect to a claim or defense that cannot under the controlling law be maintained or defeated without a favorable finding on that issue." The rule dictates that such a judgment be supported by findings of fact and conclusions of law as required under Subpart (a) of the same rule. Subpart (a), in turn, specifies that these findings of fact shall not be set aside unless clearly erroneous, and due regard shall be given to the opportunity of the trial court to judge the credibility of the witnesses. The trial judge's...