Cornwell v. Robinson, s. 1014
| Decision Date | 03 May 1994 |
| Docket Number | D,Nos. 1014,1197,s. 1014 |
| Citation | 23 F.3d 694 |
| Parties | 64 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1254, 62 USLW 2772, 62 USLW 2784 Dorothea M. CORNWELL, Plaintiff-Appellee-Cross-Appellant, v. William F. ROBINSON, New York State Division for Youth, Louis E. Salem, New York State Department of Audit & Control, Patricia Hite, New York State Department of Civil Service, Frederick Hodges, Thomas Baleno, Albert Eldridge, Individually, and in his capacity as Assistant Director of the MacCormick Youth Center, and Steve Centeno, Individually, and in his capacity as Senior Counselor at the MacCormick Youth Center, Defendants, Warren Albrecht, Individually, and in his capacity as Director of the MacCormick Youth Center, Susan Yeres, Individually, and in her capacity as Assistant Director of the MacCormick Youth Center, Joseph Maffia, Individually, and in his capacity as Unit Manager and/or Senior Youth Division Counselor at the MacCormick Youth Center, Frederick Felton, Frederick Brewington, Al Fields, New York State Division for Youth, Defendants-Appellants-Cross-Appellees. ockets 93-7618, 93-7646. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Deborah H. Karalunas, Syracuse, NY (Kevin G. Martin, Bond, Schoeneck & King, on the brief), for plaintiff-appellee-cross-appellant.
Victor Paladino, Asst. Atty. Gen., Albany, NY , for defendants-appellants-cross-appellees.
Vincent J. Blackwood, Asst. Gen. Counsel, E.E.O.C., Washington, DC (James R. Neely, Jr., Deputy Gen. Counsel, Gwendolyn Young Reams, Associate Gen. Counsel, Samuel A. Marcosson, Atty., E.E.O.C., Washington, DC, of counsel), submitted a brief for amicus curiae E.E.O.C.
Before OAKES, KEARSE, and CARDAMONE, Circuit Judges.
Defendants Warren Albrecht, Susan Yeres, Joseph Maffia, Frederick Felton, Frederick Brewington, and Al Fields (collectively the "individual appellants"), and New For the reasons stated below, we conclude (1) that the statute-of-limitations defenses of the individual appellants to Cornwell's claims under Secs. 1983 and 1985 should have been upheld, and (2) that Cornwell's Title VII claims were timely and were supported by sufficient evidence. In light of the latter conclusion, the cross-appeal is moot. Accordingly, the judgment in favor of Cornwell on her Title VII claims against DFY, Albrecht, Yeres, and Maffia, jointly and severally, in the amount of $175,000 is affirmed. The judgment in her favor against the individual appellants for damages on her claims under Secs. 1983 and 1985 is reversed.
York State Division for Youth ("DFY") appeal from so much of a judgment entered in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York, following a combined jury and bench trial before David N. Hurd, Magistrate Judge, as awarded plaintiff Dorothea M. Cornwell a total of $247,750 in compensatory and punitive damages for violations of 42 U.S.C. Secs. 1983 and 1985 (1988), and compensatory damages for disparate treatment and maintenance of a hostile working environment, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e-2 et seq., (1988) ("Title VII"), in connection with Cornwell's employment by DFY. Appellants contend that the district court should have (1) dismissed as untimely (a) all of Cornwell's claims under Secs. 1983 and 1985, and (b) her Title VII claims to the extent that they related to events in 1986, or (2) dismissed Cornwell's Title VII disparate-treatment claims as a matter of law on their merits. Cornwell has cross-appealed, urging that if we vacate the judgment in her favor on her claims of disparate treatment, we should also vacate and remand with respect to so much of the judgment as dismissed as a matter of law her claims of retaliation.
At times pertinent to this action, DFY operated the Austin A. MacCormick Youth Center ("MacCormick"), a residential facility for male juvenile offenders. In 1981-1986, MacCormick was a secure facility housing about 48 to 52 residents, many of whom had committed acts that, if committed by adults, would have constituted violent felonies. During that period, Albrecht was MacCormick's director; Yeres and defendant Albert Eldridge were its assistant directors.
Among the staff at MacCormick were a number of youth division aides ("YDAs"). The duties of a YDA included supervising and counseling residents, interacting with them during "living skill hours," participating in recreational activities, and writing reports. MacCormick was divided into four units; each unit housed up to 13 residents and was assigned approximately 10 YDAs.
DFY began hiring women as YDAs at MacCormick in 1981. It assigned no more than one female YDA to any unit. The first female YDAs hired were assigned to the 4 p.m. to midnight shift. According to MacCormick policy, YDAs were allowed to bid for and work on other shifts, through a bidding system based on seniority. Nonetheless, though there was no written policy to this effect, women YDAs were not allowed to work the "overnight shift," which ran from midnight to 8 a.m. MacCormick officials maintained that, because only one YDA was on duty on the overnight shift, exclusion of female YDAs was necessary to protect privacy rights of the residents, who were to be visually supervised during their use of showers and the toilets.
Cornwell is a black woman who was first employed at MacCormick as a YDA in November 1981. She was hired as a temporary employee; in March 1982, she became a "permanent" employee, subject to a one-year period of probation. As described below, she remained employed there until February 1983 and was again employed there in March-April 1986.
Maffia and defendant Steve Centeno at various times were Cornwell's immediate supervisors at MacCormick. Felton, Brewington, and Fields, along with defendants Thomas Baleno and Frederick Hodges, were employed as YDAs at the same time as Cornwell. Each participated in one or more of the events described below.
Since appellants contend, inter alia, that they were entitled to judgment as a matter
of law on the merits, we summarize the trial evidence of the pertinent events in the light most favorable to Cornwell, drawing all inferences and making all credibility assessments in her favor.
From the time of Cornwell's initial orientation at MacCormick in late 1981, a number of the men on the staff expressed the view that MacCormick was not a place where women should be working. From late 1981 through early 1983, Cornwell was treated with hostility and subjected to various incidents of harassment by her coworkers. For example, they undermined her authority with the residents by refusing to cooperate in her efforts to discipline them and by referring to her in derogatory terms in their conversations with residents. She was regularly called names such as "bitch," "black bitch," or "dog fucking bitch."
In the spring of 1982, when Cornwell applied for a change of shift or a change of unit, the hostility of certain of her coworkers, including Baleno, Felton, Brewington, and Hodges, became intensified. She testified that they verbally attacked her:
There were certain staff that just did not want me on the unit. I was referred to as a bitch. Of course, that was the primary one.
And then I was referred to as a dog fucking bitch, a black whore. The white guys called me a black whore. The black guys called me a black ho, a black stank bitch, a black stank ho, variations of, you know, things like that.
(Trial Transcript ("Tr.") 1238.)
In August 1982, Donald Holly, a senior YDA who had acted as a mentor to Cornwell and a buffer between female YDAs and the men who did not want female YDAs at MacCormick, was transferred from the unit in which Cornwell worked to MacCormick's Central Service unit. Shortly thereafter, Felton told Cornwell, "Well, now that the big black Don Holly is gone, now we will get the bitches out of here, we will show Steve [Centeno] and Joe [Maffia] that we don't need these bitches around here...." (Id. 1249-50.) On one occasion thereafter, Felton entered a room in which Cornwell and Holly were working. In plain view of Cornwell, Felton stripped to his undershorts. Holly reported the incident to Maffia. On another occasion, Holly observed Centeno "turn[ ] his back side up ... toward [Cornwell]." (Id. 744.)
Other incidents included one YDA's throwing a bunch of keys at Cornwell, hitting her in the chest, Felton's threatening to "kick her ass," and Brewington's shoving Cornwell when he thought she was lodging a complaint about him to a supervisor. On another occasion, when Fields, in the company of another employee, learned that Cornwell was on the other end of the telephone line, he grabbed the phone and made kissing noises into it, which he explained to the employee meant that Cornwell was to "kiss his ass." On many occasions, male YDAs in Cornwell's presence would grab their crotches. Cornwell testified, "they actually sneered and fondled themselves, and it was directed to me accompanied by 'bitch'." (Id. 1354.)
In October, Hodges sexually propositioned Cornwell. When she rebuffed his advance, he grabbed at her chest and ripped her blouse. Another YDA had to come to Cornwell's assistance. Though Cornwell complained to her superiors, Hodges was not disciplined. Yeres simply told Cornwell, "if this ever happens again, I want you to take it outside the [facility]" (id. 1258); and Centeno said, "maybe there is some truth [ ] to this ... maybe we don't need women here" (id. 1255).
On January 12, 1983, at the end of a special staff meeting, Brewington announced that the YDAs had "all agreed" to make lists of deficiencies in Cornwell's work, to be read at the meeting. Cornwell testified that Brewington
pulled out [a] list and he says, now, you know, we all agreed that we...
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