Bruso v. United Airlines Inc.

• Decision Date: 02 February 2001
• Docket Number: Nos. 00-1688,00-1699,s. 00-1688
• Citation: 239 F.3d 848
• Parties: (7th Cir. 2001) MARK J. BRUSO, Plaintiff-Appellee, Cross-Appellant, v. UNITED AIRLINES, INCORPORATED, Defendant-Appellant, Cross-Appellee
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 848

239 F.3d 848 (7th Cir. 2001)

MARK J. BRUSO, Plaintiff-Appellee, Cross-Appellant, v. UNITED AIRLINES, INCORPORATED, Defendant-Appellant, Cross-Appellee.

Nos. 00-1688, 00-1699

In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

ARGUED NOVEMBER 2, 2000

DECIDED FEBRUARY 2, 2001

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division: No. 97 C 7005, Charles R. Norgle, Sr., Judge. [Copyrighted Material Omitted]

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Before HARLINGTON WOOD, JR., RIPPLE and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge.

Mark Bruso sued his employer, United Airlines, Inc. ("United"), alleging that United demoted him in retaliation for his reports of sexual harassment by a fellow supervisor in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. sec. 2000e et seq. A jury found in favor of Mr. Bruso and awarded him $10,000 in damages. Mr. Bruso sought to retry the issue of damages because he believed the jury's award was insufficient, but the district court refused his request. The district court also granted United's motion for judgment as a matter of law on the issue of punitive damages. Following the court's entry of judgment on the jury's verdict, Mr. Bruso moved for various forms of equitable relief and for an award of attorneys' fees. The district court denied his requests for equitable relief but granted him the $393,418.75 he requested in attorneys' fees. United now appeals the court's award of attorneys' fees. Mr. Bruso cross-appeals the court's refusal to retry the issue of damages, the court's grant of judgment as a matter of law against him on the issue of punitive damages, and the court's denial of his requests for equitable relief. For the reasons set forth in the following opinion, we affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings.

I BACKGROUND

A. Facts

Mark Bruso has been an employee of United since 1987. From February 5, 1996, to January 24, 1997, Mr. Bruso served as an administrative supervisor of cabin services at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago ("O'Hare"). His direct supervisor was John King, United's manager of cabin services at O'Hare. King, in turn, reported to Rod Strickland, United's station manager at O'Hare. This team of managers and supervisors had received extensive training from United's senior litigation counsel, Nancy Gordon, on United's policy of zero tolerance for discrimination and sexual harassment.

The events of this case originate with the conduct of Kevin Sporer, another administrative supervisor under King's charge. Sporer was not well liked among other United employees; he had a short temper and was known to be verbally abusive to his subordinates. Sporer was known to scream and swear at female employees, sometimes threatening to fire them. Various United employees reported Sporer's behavior to King, and, although King occasionally spoke to Sporer about his conduct, he never formally disciplined him.

On December 18, 1996, Mr. Bruso was in one of United's ready rooms with Amy Swanson and Juan Palacios, two nonsupervisory United employees. Sporer charged into the room and yelled at Swanson to retrieve some computer printouts, then to leave for the day. Mr. Bruso confronted Sporer and told him that his aggressive behavior toward Swanson was out of line. According to Swanson and Palacios, Sporer then began a confrontation by yelling at Mr. Bruso, and Mr. Bruso initially responded in a normal tone of voice but began yelling as Sporer's tirade continued. Eventually, Sporer said to Mr. Bruso, "If you don't get out of my face, I'm going to punch you." R.111-4 at 667. Mr. Bruso's response to Sporer was "Go ahead." Id. Palacios eventually left the room because he thought there was going to be a physical fight between Sporer and Mr. Bruso. No such fight occurred, however, because Sporer eventually stormed out of the room.

That evening, Mr. Bruso telephoned King and informed him of the confrontation with Sporer. King asked Swanson and Palacios to submit written statements describing what they had witnessed, which each of them did. The following day, King had a meeting with Mr. Bruso and Sporer at which he told them that he had initially intended to fire them both. Instead, King asked Mr. Bruso and Sporer to provide written statements. He discussed their versions of the altercation with them and then took the matter under advisement. The next day, King informed Mr. Bruso that he was going to remove Sporer from his supervisory duties and that he was going to place a letter of counsel in Mr. Bruso's personnel file.

Mr. Bruso, having never before received a formal reprimand while working for United, wrote a letter to King to elaborate further on his confrontation with Sporer. Mr. Bruso explained in his letter that several of United's female employees had complained about Sporer's conduct toward them, and, in Mr. Bruso's opinion, Sporer's problem working with women created potential legal difficulties for United. He detailed his own experiences with Sporer, as well as accounts that he had received from Swanson and another United employee, Bea Wiggens, concerning Sporer's conduct toward them. Mr. Bruso gave copies of his letter to King and to Strickland.

After reviewing Mr. Bruso's letter, United's management commissioned an independent review team ("IRT") to review the allegations of harassment concerning Sporer that Mr. Bruso had detailed in his letter to King. The IRT was comprised of Richard Bolanowski and Richard Mayer, both of whom were United employees and had received training in the antidiscrimination laws and United's pol icies designed to implement those laws. Mr. Bruso was suspended with pay while the IRT conducted its investigation.¹

The IRT compiled a list of witnesses it intended to interview from Mr. Bruso's letter to King and from the initial interviews it conducted. The first witness the IRT interviewed was King. King told the IRT that several employees had lodged complaints with him about Sporer's conduct, including a male employee who told King that Sporer did not treat women well. The IRT also interviewed Swanson and Wiggens, both of whom confirmed essentially what Mr. Bruso had written in his letter to King. Wiggens verified that Sporer often berated her and belittled her and moved her to another shift so that he would not have to work with her. Swanson confirmed that Sporer stared at her and frequently asked her inappropriate questions about her personal life. The IRT spoke with two other female employees, both of whom stated that Sporer had made them uncomfortable; however, the IRT did not interview the remaining witnesses on the list it originally created.²

In addition to speaking with these witnesses, the IRT also spoke with Mr. Bruso. The IRT met with Mr. Bruso and explained to him that his letter to King put United in a precarious legal position because it accused Sporer of sexually harassing United's female employees. Mr. Bruso objected to this characterization of his letter, and he provided another written statement in which he said that his original letter did not actually accuse Sporer of sexual harassment; instead, he had only intended to report to United's management what other employees had told him in order to alert United to the potential problems presented by Sporer's conduct.

Based on the information it gathered during its investigation, the IRT concluded that Sporer, in fact, had not sexually harassed or discriminated against anyone. The IRT filed a written report suggesting that Mr. Bruso had written his accusatory letter to King to try to justify his role in the December 18 confrontation with Sporer. King accepted the IRT's conclusion, and he wrote a letter to Mr. Bruso explaining that, in his opinion, Mr. Bruso either had falsely accused Sporer of sexual harassment or had failed to report Sporer's inappropriate conduct in a timely manner. King also mentioned in his letter that Mr. Bruso's behavior during the December 18 confrontation with Sporer, "while inappropriate for any employee, was inexcusable for a member of management." R.73, Ex.D at 2. As a result, King demoted Mr. Bruso to the last nonsupervisory position he held at United: a ramp serviceman, or baggage handler. King's decision to demote Mr. Bruso was affirmed by Strickland.

Mr. Bruso chose to protest his demotion, and he took time off work, without pay, to prepare his case. He filed a formal appeal, and Strickland was the manager designated to hear the appeal. Because Strickland had affirmed his demotion, Mr. Bruso requested that his appeal be reassigned, but his request was refused. Mr. Bruso also sought permission to present witnesses on his behalf at his management review hearing, but Strickland refused that request as well. Elizabeth Cavanaugh, a United employee who took notes at Mr. Bruso's management review hearing, testified at trial that Strickland was adversarial and angry during the meeting. Ultimately, Strickland denied Mr. Bruso's appeal.

Following that denial, Mr. Bruso protested his demotion to the president and vice president of United. Gordon was asked to respond to Mr. Bruso's complaints. Gordon asked Mr. Bruso to submit written materials supporting his position, which he did. Based on her review of Mr. Bruso's case, Gordon concluded that Mr. Bruso's accounts of Sporer's conduct were inconsistent and that Mr. Bruso had changed his story as to whether Sporer had engaged in sexual harassment. In Gordon's opinion, Mr. Bruso had selectively and misleadingly chosen language from the sexual harassment training materials she had distributed in order to support his claims of harassment. Gordon therefore declined to rescind Mr. Bruso's demotion.

Mr. Bruso began work in his demoted position as a ramp serviceman on January 24, 1997. Because of his job change, he had to purchase new uniforms and to pay new union dues. Mr. Bruso's demotion took an...