Casanova v. American Airlines Inc.

• Citation: 616 F.3d 695
• Decision Date: 05 August 2010
• Docket Number: No. 09-1020.,09-1020.
• Parties: Bruce CASANOVA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. AMERICAN AIRLINES, INC., Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (7th Circuit)

616 F.3d 695

Bruce CASANOVA, Plaintiff-Appellee,

v.AMERICAN AIRLINES, INC., Defendant-Appellant.

No. 09-1020.

United States Court of Appeals,Seventh Circuit.

Argued Sept. 25, 2009.

Decided Aug. 5, 2010.

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied Sept. 2, 2010. ^*

Robert J. Drummond (argued), Chicago, IL, James T. Foley, Foley Law Group, LLC, Westmont, IL, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Steffen N. Johnson, Winston & Strawn LLP, Washington, DC, Kimball R. Anderson (argued), Winston & Strawn LLP, Chicago, IL, for Defendant-Appellant.

Before EASTERBROOK, Chief Judge, and KANNE and SYKES, Circuit Judges.

EASTERBROOK, Chief Judge.

American Airlines terminated Bruce Casanova's employment as a baggage handler. He sued, contending that the airline had retaliated against him for claiming workers' compensation benefits. Illinois deems such retaliation tortious. See 820 ILCS 305/4(h); Kelsay v. Motorola, Inc., 74 Ill.2d 172, 23 Ill.Dec. 559, 384 N.E.2d 353 (1978). A jury returned a verdict of more than $1 million: $112,000 for lost wages, $250,000 for emotional injury, and $724,000 for punitive damages.

The district judge denied the employer's post-judgment motions. 2008 WL 5114620, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 97795 (N.D.Ill.Dec. 3, 2008). The judgment is defective-it says that the jury decided in plaintiff's favor but omits the relief-but nonetheless appealable because the litigation plainly is over in the district court. Bankers Trust Co. v. Mallis, 435 U.S. 381, 98 S.Ct. 1117, 55 L.Ed.2d 357 (1978).

Casanova did not apply for workers' compensation benefits until several months after he had been fired, but he contends, and the jury must have concluded, that American Airlines knew that an application was forthcoming. He sprained his left arm (or perhaps tore a muscle in his left shoulder) on a Friday when lifting a golf bag. The next Monday, toward the end of his shift, he reported this injury to a supervisor, who sent him to the firm's medical center at O'Hare International Airport, which instructed Casanova not to use his left arm pending a further evaluation. The supervisor also reported this injury to Specialty Risk Services, which handles all injury and workers' compensation matters on the airline's behalf. This report to SRS is the foundation for Casanova's contention that his discharge was a form of anticipatory retaliation for the compensation claim that was likely to ensue.

The supervisor was skeptical of Casanova's assertions, because he told her that he was in too much pain to participate in the airline's standard post-injury debriefing (it needs to know what happened so that repetition can be prevented) yet had waited three days to report the injury and had worked most of a shift between the injury and the report. That Casanova answered a phone call with his left hand, without any apparent discomfort, further piqued the supervisor's interest. Other supervisory personnel at American Airlines decided that Casanova should be placed under surveillance to see whether he used his left arm. The two persons who watched Casanova reported that he did, frequently, and that he also drove his car even though his physician had instructed him not to drive until the injury healed.

The pictures they took of these events were too grainy to be useful, but their information led the airline to direct Casanova to participate in an “Article 29F hearing.” (The reference is to the part of the collective bargaining agreement that permits American Airlines to require its employees to appear and answer questions.) Casanova did not cooperate. Managers asked him about the injury and his activities since. Casanova usually replied: “I don't recall.” He could not recall where or how he had hefted the golf bag, or what flight it had been on. He could not recall any of his activities during the days after he had reported the injury. When asked whether “I don't recall” would be his complete statement about the events, Casanova said: “I don't recall.” He did, however, give concrete answers to several questions. When he was asked whether he had used his left arm at all during the days after the injury, he replied: “No.” At trial, he admitted that this was a lie, which he justified by telling the jurors that he just didn't care what answers he was giving, because he was distraught and wanted the interrogation to end.

After the oral part of the procedure, the next step is a written statement. Managers directed Casanova to narrate in writing how the injury had occurred and what had happened later. Casanova refused. Eventually he produced two handwritten pages, but they do not contain any relevant information. Instead they protest the airline's decision to hold an Article 29F inquiry and assert that subjecting him to questions “has inflicted severe emotional distress upon me.... The procedures that American Airlines uses are harassing and intimidating.” Managers told Casanova that this statement did not meet the requirements of the collective bargaining agreement; he declined to add anything, asserting that oral responses should suffice. He was fired that afternoon for lying during the hearing (the patter of “I don't recall” was transparent dissembling) and insubordination (refusal to prepare a written narrative).

Which poses the question: How could a jury return a verdict in Casanova's favor, and award more than $1 million, when the discharge is amply supported by undisputed facts? (Casanova concedes lying and feigning forgetfulness, and his written statement, which does not mention the injury and its aftermath, is part of the record.) How could the district judge deny a post-verdict motion under Fed.R.Civ.P. 50? The answer appears to be that the trial was hijacked by plaintiff's counsel and used to protest the Article 29F procedure. Instead of asking the jury to decide whether the (anticipated) request for workers' compensation, as opposed to the insubordination, caused the discharge, counsel asked the jury to decide whether American Airlines should order surveillance of employees who claim to be injured, and whether employers should use such surveillance as the basis of interrogation.

The district judge's order denying the Rule 50 motion said that the evidence supports the verdict because the injury was a but-for cause of the discharge. But for the injury, there would not have been a meeting between Casanova and the supervisor, and American Airlines would not have concluded that Casanova was likely to seek workers' compensation benefits. But for the supervisor's suspicions (caused by the delayed report, plus Casanova's use of his left arm despite claiming pain too intense...