Baker v. Windsor Republic Doors

• Decision Date: 10 July 2009
• Docket Number: No. 1:06-cv-01137.,1:06-cv-01137.
• Citation: 635 F.Supp.2d 765
• Parties: Douglas BAKER, Plaintiff, v. WINDSOR REPUBLIC DOORS, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Tennessee

Page 765

635 F.Supp.2d 765

Douglas BAKER, Plaintiff, v. WINDSOR REPUBLIC DOORS, Defendant.

No. 1:06-cv-01137.

United States District Court, W.D. Tennessee, Eastern Division.

July 10, 2009.

Justin Gilbert, Gilbert Russell McWherter PLC, Jackson, TN, for Plaintiff.

David A. Campbell, III, Matthew D. Besser, Vorys Sater Seymour and Peese LLP, Cleveland, OH, G. Ross Bridgman, Jr., Vorys Sater Seymour and Pease LLP, Columbus, OH, Stephen K. Heard, Stewart Estes & Donnell, Nashville, TN, for Defendant.

ORDER AFFIRMING JURY AWARD FOR COMPENSATORY DAMAGES

J. DANIEL BREEN, District Judge.

The Plaintiff, Douglas Baker, filed this civil action against the Defendant, Windsor Republic Doors ("WRD"), pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), 42 U.S.C. §§ 12101, et seq.; the Tennessee Handicap Act ("THA"), Tenn.Code Ann. §§ 8-50-103, et seq.; and the Tennessee Human Rights Act ("THRA"), Tenn.Code Ann. §§ 4-21-101, et seq. The Plaintiff alleged that the Defendant discriminated against him on the basis of his disability status and retaliated against him for exercising his rights under the ADA. After a four-day jury trial beginning on September 2, 2008, a jury found the Defendant to be liable on both the discrimination and retaliation claims, awarding Baker $84,000 in back pay¹ and $29,500 in compensatory damages. The Defendant timely renewed its motion for judgment as a matter of law and alternatively requested a new trial under Rule 59, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. See also Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(b). The Court granted judgment in favor of the Defendant on the discrimination claim, but not the retaliation claim. Due to conflicting legal authority, the Court allowed the parties to submit supplemental briefs regarding the propriety of compensatory relief in an ADA retaliation action. After evaluating the parties' arguments, the Court opines that the jury's $29,500 compensatory award should be sustained.

ANALYSIS²

I. The ADA

The anti-retaliation provision of the ADA provides as follows:

(a) Retaliation. No person shall discriminate against any individual because such individual has opposed any act or practice made unlawful by this Act or because such individual made a charge, testified, assisted, or participated in any manner in an investigation, proceeding, or hearing under this Act.

. . . .

(c) Remedies and procedures. The remedies and procedures available under sections 107, 203, and 308 of this Act [42 U.S.C. §§ 12117, 12133, 12188] shall be available to aggrieved persons for violations of subsections (a) and (b), with respect to title I, title II and title III [42 U.S.C. §§ 12111 et seq., 12131 et seq., 12181 et seq.], respectively.

42 U.S.C. § 12203 (emphasis added). Section 12117, which is one of the statutes cross-referenced above, incorporates certain powers, remedies, and procedures of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, including the provisions of 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5. When the ADA was first enacted, this same remedial scheme also applied to claims for disability discrimination pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 12112.

Although the text of § 2000e-5 does not allow for compensatory damages, in 1991, Congress enacted 42 U.S.C. § 1981a, which provides:

In an action brought by a complaining party under the powers, remedies, and procedures set forth in . . . [42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e-5 or 2000e-16] (as provided in . . . []42 § U.S.C. 12117(a)[], and section 794a(a)(1) of Title 29, respectively) against a respondent who engaged in unlawful intentional discrimination (not an employment practice that is unlawful because of its disparate impact) under section 791 of Title 29 and the regulations implementing section 791 of Title 29, or who violated the requirements of section 791 of Title 29 or the regulations implementing section 791 of Title 29 concerning the provision of a reasonable accommodation, or section 102 of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. § 12112), or committed a violation of section 102(b)(5) of the Act, against an individual, the complaining party may recover compensatory and punitive damages as allowed in subsection (b) of this section, in addition to any relief authorized by section 706(g) of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, from the respondent.

§ 1981a(a)(2) (emphasis added). This law expanded the availability of both compensatory and punitive damages for certain violations of the ADA. While § 1981 a(a)(2) lists the statutory claims to which it applies, such as violations of § 12112, this statute does not explicitly reference the anti-retaliation provision at § 12203.

The Defendant asserts that the issue of whether compensatory damages are available under the ADA's anti-retaliation provision depends upon Congress's intent regarding the applicability of § 1981a(a)(2) to § 12203—a source of some disagreement among the federal courts.³ A slight majority of courts have found that Congress's failure to specifically reference § 12203 within § 1981a(a)(2), as it did with other statutory claims, indicates the absence of an intent to extend compensatory damages to ADA retaliation claims. See, e.g., Kramer v. Banc of Am. Sec., LLC, 355 F.3d 961, 965 (7th Cir.2004); EEOC v. Faurecia Exhaust Sys., Inc., 601 F.Supp.2d 971, 975-76 (N.D.Ohio 2008). A minority view is that the cross-reference to § 12117 in § 12203 indicates Congressional intent that the remedies for violations of the latter statute should be the same as those available under Title I of the ADA, which means § 1981a(a)(2) would necessarily extend compensatory damages to retaliation in tandem with discrimination.⁴ See, e.g., Edwards v. Brookhaven Sci. Assocs., LLC, 390 F.Supp.2d 225, 236 (E.D.N.Y. 2005).

When a court engages in statutory construction, the starting point should always be the language used by the legislature. Pittsburgh & Conneaut Dock Co. v. Dir., Office of Workers' Comp. Programs, 473 F.3d 253, 266 (6th Cir.2007) (citation omitted). When the statute's language is plain and unambiguous, "the sole function of the courts is to enforce it according to its terms." Id. Ascertaining a statute's directive requires consideration of the broader legislation in which the particular statutory language at issue is contained.⁵ Robinson v. Shell Oil Co., 519 U.S. 337, 341, 117 S.Ct. 843, 136 L.Ed.2d 808 (1997) (citations omitted); United States v. Meyers, 952 F.2d 914, 918 (6th Cir.1992). Sometimes a statute that is facially clear may become ambiguous when viewed in the context of the full legislative scheme. FDA v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., 529 U.S. 120, 132, 120 S.Ct. 1291, 146 L.Ed.2d 121 (2000). A statute is ambiguous "where the disposition required by the text" would lead to an absurd result. Lamie v. United States Tr., 540 U.S. 526, 534, 536, 124 S.Ct. 1023, 157 L.Ed.2d 1024 (2004) (quoting Hartford Underwriters Ins. Co. v. Union Planters Bank, N.A., 530 U.S. 1, 6, 120 S.Ct. 1942, 147 L.Ed.2d 1 (2000)). If possible, the court should afford meaning to every word approved by Congress. See, e.g., Reiter v. Sonotone Corp., 442 U.S. 330, 339, 99 S.Ct. 2326, 2331, 60 L.Ed.2d 931 (1979).

A literal reading of § 1981a(a)(2) supports the Defendant's argument. The relevant statutory language extends compensatory damages to statutory claims: (1) brought pursuant to the "powers, remedies, and procedures" of § 2000e-5 through § 12117(a) and (2) against a defendant who violated one of the specific statutory provisions listed.⁶ A retaliation claim under § 12203 meets the first of these criteria but not the second because, unlike § 12112, it was not explicitly referenced in the 1991 Act. Accord Kramer, 355 F.3d at 965 ("Section 1981a(a)(2) permits recovery of compensatory and punitive damages (and thus expands the remedies available under § 2000e-5(g)(1)) only for those claims listed therein."). As such, a narrow interpretation of the relevant statute supports the conclusion that compensatory damages are unavailable for ADA claimants alleging retaliation under § 12203. Although, the literal meaning of § 1981a(a)(2) is not necessarily controlling if it produces a result that is absurd or contrary to other provisions of the ADA.

The Plaintiff argues that finding § 1981a(a)(2) to be inapplicable to his claim would be contrary to Congress's intent to enact a co-extensive cause of action for retaliation when it proscribed intentional discrimination at § 12112. In support of this position, he cites to several cases in which the Supreme Court has found that intentional discrimination encompasses retaliation.

Under the facts of Jackson v. Birmingham Board of Education, 544 U.S. 167, 125 S.Ct. 1497, 161 L.Ed.2d 361 (2005), a basketball coach was removed because he had complained that a girls' team was receiving unequal funding in violation of Title IX. While the text of Title IX did not explicitly delineate a separate private cause of action for retaliation, the Supreme Court found that retaliation was contained within the prohibition against intentional discrimination based upon sex. It reasoned as follows:

Retaliation is, by definition, an intentional act. It is a form of "discrimination" because the complainant is being subjected to differential treatment. Moreover, retaliation is discrimination "on the basis of sex" because it is an intentional response to the nature of the complaint: an allegation of sex discrimination. We conclude that when a funding recipient retaliates against a person because he complains of sex discrimination, this constitutes intentional "discrimination" "on the basis of sex," in violation of Title IX.

Id. at 173-74, 125 S.Ct. 1497 (citations omitted). The Jackson opinion noted that the Supreme Court previously had recognized an implicit prohibition against retaliation within 42 U.S.C. § 1982. Id. at 176, 125 S.Ct. 1497 (discussing Sullivan v. Little Hunting Park, Inc., 396 U.S. 229, 90 S.Ct. 400, 24 L.Ed.2d 386 (1969)). After noting that Sullivan had been decided prior to the enactment of Title IX, the Jackson Cou...