Bouveng v. NYG Capital LLC

• Decision Date: 31 March 2016
• Docket Number: 14 Civ. 5474 (PGG)
• Citation: 175 F.Supp.3d 280
• Parties: Hanna Bouveng, Plaintiff, v. NYG Capital LLC d/b/a New York Global Group, FNL Media LLC, and Benjamin Wey, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

175 F.Supp.3d 280

Hanna Bouveng, Plaintiff,

v.NYG Capital LLC d/b/a New York Global Group, FNL Media LLC, and Benjamin Wey, Defendants.

14 Civ. 5474 (PGG)

United States District Court, S.D. New York.

Signed March 31, 2016

Benedict P. Morelli, Morelli Ratner PC, David S. Ratner, Martha Martin McBrayer, Morelli Alters Ratner, P.C., New York, NY, for Plaintiff.

Darren Oved, Edward Charles Wipper, Oved & Oved, LLP, Gary Meyerhoff, Glenn Charles Colton, Dentons US LLP, Justin M. Sher, Joanna Riesman, Mark Elliot Cuccaro, Sher Tremonte LLP, New York, NY, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION & ORDER

PAUL G. GARDEPHE, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE.

Plaintiff Hanna Bouveng brings this action against Defendants NYG Capital LLC, d/b/a New York Global Group (“NYGG”), FNL Media LLC (“FNL Media”), and Benjamin Wey alleging claims of (1) quid pro quo sexual harassment under the New York State Human Rights Law (the “NYSHRL”) and New York City Human Rights Law (the “NYCHRL”) against all Defendants; (2) retaliation under the NYSHRL and NYCHRL against all Defendants; (3) defamation against all Defendants; and (4) assault and battery against Defendant Wey.

Following a ten-day trial, a jury returned a verdict in Plaintiff's favor on all claims except the assault and battery claims against Defendant Wey. As to compensatory damages, the jury awarded Plaintiff (1) $500,000 on her quid pro quo sexual harassment claims under the NYSHRL and NYCHRL against all Defendants; (2) $1.5 million on her defamation claim against all Defendants; and (3) $1.00 on her retaliation claims under the NYSHRL and NYCHRL. As to punitive damages on her defamation claim, the jury awarded Plaintiff: (1) $10 million against Defendant Wey; (2) $1 million against Defendant NYGG; and (3) $5 million against Defendant FNL Media. On Plaintiff's NYCHRL retaliation claim, the jury awarded her $1.00 as against each Defendant.

Defendants have moved under (1) Fed. R. Civ. P. 50 for judgment as a matter of law; (2) Fed. R. Civ. P. 59(a)(1)(A) for a new trial as to liability; and (3) Fed. R. Civ. P. 59 for a new trial or a remittitur concerning the damage awards. (Dkt. No. 255) For the reasons stated below, Defendants' motion for judgment as a matter of law or for a new trial as to liability will be denied. Defendants' motion for a new trial with respect to the compensatory and punitive damage awards will be granted unless Plaintiff accepts a remittitur as to (1) the compensatory damage award on her quid pro quo sexual harassment claim; and (2) the punitive damage awards against Wey and FNL Media.

BACKGROUND

I. THE EVIDENCE AT TRIAL

A. The Parties

Plaintiff Hanna Bouveng was raised in Vetlanda, Sweden. (Trial Tr. (Dkt. No. 236) at 896¹ ) After high school, she obtained a bachelor's degree in media communication from Sweden's Halmstad University. (Id. at 897-98) Plaintiff was an exchange student in Hong Kong during her last semester, and then worked in marketing in Hong Kong for several months after completing her studies. (Id. at 899) She also worked as a model in Hong Kong. (Id. at 901)

After graduation, Plaintiff was employed at Pecto Media, a marketing company in Oslo, Norway, with banking and other corporate clients. (Id. at 898) Plaintiff had “sales and branding” responsibilities at Pecto, and called on clients throughout Norway. (Id.) Plaintiff's responsibilities included making presentations to Pecto clients and obtaining renewal of Pecto's contracts with clients for annual marketing plans. (Id.) Plaintiff' speaks Swedish, Norwegian, and English, and has also studied French, German, and Spanish. (Id.)

In 2012, Plaintiff came to New York City on a student visa to study marketing, management, and fashion at Berkeley College. (Id. at 900) She lived in a small apartment in the East Village with a friend from school. (Id. at 900-01)

Defendant Benjamin Wey is the chief executive officer and sole owner of Defendant New York Global Group, an international business Consulting firm based in Manhattan. (Trial Tr. (Dkt. No. 232) at 487; Trial Tr. (Dkt. No. 234) at 759) NYGG also has offices in China, where it employs fifty people. (Trial Tr. (Dkt. No. 232) at 536) FNL Media—a limited liability company—is a “wholly owned subsidiary of New York Global Group” and the “parent company” of an online publication called The Blot Magazine(“The Blot”), of which Wey is the publisher. (Trial Tr. (Dkt. No. 228) at 267; Trial Tr. (Dkt. No. 242) at 1429) NYGG and FNL Media share office space at 40 Wall Street in Manhattan. (Trial Tr. (Dkt. No. 228) at 138, 144, 162)

Wey was born in China and moved to the United States to attend college at Oklahoma Baptist University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in business administration. (Trial Tr. (Dkt. No. 234) at 756-58) Wey also holds an MBA from the University of Central Oklahoma and a master's degree from Columbia University business school. (Id. at 759)

B. Meeting and Job Offer

During the summer of 2013, Plaintiff—then 24 years old—met Wey at a party at his house in the Hamptons. (Trial Tr. (Dkt. No. 232) at 526; Trial Tr. (Dkt. No. 236) at 903) Wey later invited Plaintiff and a friend to a party at his penthouse apartment in Manhattan. (Trial Tr. (Dkt. No. 236) at 907) At these parties, Plaintiff told Wey about her family background, including that her grandfather had founded SAPA, a large, successful aluminum company in Sweden. (Trial Tr. (Dkt. No. 232) at 527; Trial Tr. (Dkt. No. 234) at 760; Trial Tr. (Dkt. No. 236) at 908, 914) Plaintiff also told Wey that she had finished her studies and was “looking for an internship or a job” in New York City. (Trial Tr. (Dkt. No. 236) at 908)

Later in the summer of 2013, Plaintiff and Wey met for lunch. (Id. at 909) According to Plaintiff,

[Wey] ordered wine for us. And when we got the wine he asked me if he could move— jump over and sit next to me. And so he did. And then he started to [say] ... that he was lonely and that he needed someone in his life and that he needed someone that he could show the world.... And then well he basically said that he wanted a girlfriend. So I told him that I was not interested. I think you have to keep on searching because I'm interested in a job.... So then he moved back over. And we had lunch. And that was it.

(Id. at 909-10)²

A few days later, however, Wey called Plaintiff and “basically said that he thought that [she] was brave that [she] would say no to him[,] [b]ecause a lot of people don't say no to him.” (Id. at 910) Wey also told Plaintiff that she “should come in to discuss a position at his company,” and she agreed to do so. (Id.)

In July 2013, Plaintiff met with Wey and James Baxter—NYGG's general counsel and chairman of the board—at NYGG's offices at 40 Wall Street. (Id. at 911; Trial Tr. (Dkt. No. 240) at 1255) Plaintiff testified that she was offered a marketing position at NYGG (Trial Tr. (Dkt. No. 236) at 911); Wey testified that he agreed to hire her as an intern. (Trial Tr. (Dkt. No. 232) at 529-30) Both sides agree that Plaintiff, Wey, and Baxter completed paperwork relating to Plaintiff's application for a J-1 visa, which would enable Plaintiff to work in the United States.³ (Trial Tr. (Dkt. No. 232) at 528; Trial Tr. (Dkt. No. 236) at 911-12)

C. Summer 2013 Trip to Sweden

In August 2013, after the J-1 visa paperwork had been submitted, Plaintiff returned to Sweden for an interview at the American embassy in connection with her visa application. (Trial Tr. (Dkt. No. 236) at 912) Wey told Plaintiff that “he would really like to” join her on the trip, so that she could “introduce [him] to some of the people [she] know[s].”⁴ (Id.) Plaintiff drafted an itinerary for Wey's trip, proposing visits to Stockholm, Oslo, and Plaintiff's hometown of Vetlanda, and meetings with a number of senior Swedish business executives. (Defense Exhibit (“DX”) BF; Trial Tr. (Dkt. No. 234) at 761-62) Plaintiff' sent the itinerary to Wey via email, and ended her message with the word “Kram,” which is Swedish for “hug.” (DX BF; Trial Tr. (Dkt. No. 294) at 1036)

Wey testified that one of the reasons he traveled to Sweden in August 2013 was to learn about Nordica Life Insurance Company (“Nordica Life”). (Trial Tr. (Dkt. No. 232) at 539) The “people who were involved with Nordica were friends of [Plaintiff's] father,” and Wey “came up with the idea that perhaps Nordica Life Insurance Company could be acquired by Chinese investors.” (Id.) In the event of an acquisition, Wey believed that Plaintiff's father—Nils Sundqvist—would have “an important role in the company,” and that Plaintiff herself would become Nordica Life's “director of marketing.” (Id. at 540)

During this August 2013 trip, Plaintiff and Wey travelled to Vetlanda and to Vastervik, Sweden, where a preliminary meeting related to Nordica Life was conducted. (Trial Tr. (Dkt. No. 236) at 913) They also had meetings in Stockholm and Norway. (Id. at 913-14; DX BF) Plaintiff introduced Wey to her father and her cousin's uncle, and she took him to see the aluminum company that her grandfather had founded. (Trial Tr. (Dkt. No. 236) at 914) During this trip, Wey did not “make any sexual advances towards [Plaintiff],” and the “the conversation about him wanting a girlfriend [did not] come up again.” (Id. at 913-14)

D. Plaintiff's Employment at NYGG

Plaintiff's employment at NYGG began on October 1, 2013. (Id. at 916) Plaintiff testified that when she started at NYGG, she wanted only a professional relationship with Wey. (Id.)

Plaintiff was given her own office, and was told that her responsibilities would be “marketing and Communications.” (Id. at 917) During her first month at NYGG, Plaintiff did “lobbying work” in Washington, D.C., and worked on NYGG's website and press releases. (Id. at 917-18) Plaintiff also researched individuals NYGG was scheduled to meet and the companies they worked for. (Id. at 918) Plaintiff's work also involved The Blot Magazine. (Id.) She attended meetings in which The Blot team discussed “everything from budget to ...