Cowan v. Strafford R-VI School Dist.
| Decision Date | 07 April 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. 96-4010.,No. 97-1131.,No. 97-1132.,96-4010.,97-1131.,97-1132. |
| Citation | 140 F.3d 1153 |
| Parties | Leslie COWAN, Cross-Appellant/Appellee, v. STRAFFORD R-VI SCHOOL DISTRICT, Appellant/Cross-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Thomas A. Mickes, St. Louis, MO, argued (Teri B. Goldman, on the brief), for Appellant/Cross-Appellee.
David M. Silberman, Washington, DC, argued (Francis R.A. Sheed, Washington, DC, and Lisa S. Van Amburg, St. Louis, MO, on the brief), for Cross-Appellant/Appellee.
Before FAGG and HANSEN, Circuit Judges, and PIERSOL,1 District Judge.
Strafford R-VI School District appeals from a jury verdict in favor of Leslie Cowan, a former school teacher, in her lawsuit under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., for religious discrimination and 42 U.S.C. § 1983, for violation of her First Amendment rights. Cowan has filed a cross-appeal. She appeals from the district court's decision to deny reinstatement as a remedy in this case. We affirm.
Leslie Cowan was hired by the Strafford R-VI School District as a second grade teacher on a probationary basis in the fall of 1990. As a probationary teacher, her contract was subject to renewal by the School Board on an annual basis. Customarily, the decision of whether or not to renew an elementary school teacher's contract was made by the School Board with the advice of the school principal, Lucille Cogdill, and in general, the school board followed Cogdill's recommendations.
For the first two years of Cowan's tenure, the School Board renewed Cowan's contract. After her third year, however, the School Board voted unanimously not to renew Cowan's contract in accordance with Cogdill's advice. Cowan believes that this action was a result of a "magic rock letter" that she sent home with her second graders on the last day of school. The letter read as follows:
Dear Second Grader:
You have completed second grade. Because you have worked so hard, you deserve something special and unique; just like you! That something special is your very own magic rock.
The magic rock you have will always let you know that you can do anything that you set your mind to. To make your rock work, close your eyes, rub it and say to yourself three times, "I am a special and terrific person, with talents of my own!" Before you put your rock away, think of three good things about yourself. After you have put your rock away, you will know that the magic has worked.
HAVE FUN IN THIRD GRADE!!!!
Cowan attached a rock to this letter and sent one home with each student in May of 1992.
In August of 1992, Cogdill informed Cowan that she had received complaints from parents regarding the "magic rock letter." In particular, Cogdill indicated that two families had decided to move their children to private Christian schools as a direct result of the use of the letter. Cogdill followed up this discussion with an admonition to Cowan to avoid magical ideas in her teaching. After Cogdill spoke with Cowan regarding the letter, she informed the School District Superintendent that the magic rock letter was a cause for concern among community parents. This information was also passed on to the School Board. Also in August of 1992, Cogdill issued "job targets" to Cowan. Job targets are devices used by the School District to indicate areas of needed improvement in a teacher's performance.2 The job targets issued to Cowan indicated two areas she needed to improve: interpersonal relationships with parents and instructional process.
At the beginning of the 1992-93 school year, Cogdill held a staff meeting in which she informed the teachers that she was concerned about the perception of the school in the community with regard to teaching New Ageism, and she instructed teachers to avoid magical notions in their teaching. In conjunction with this discussion, she announced a seminar coordinated by a local pastor, the Reverend Stark, that was devoted to the issue of New Ageism and the infiltration of New Age thinking in the public schools.
Cogdill had been informed about the seminar by the Reverend Stark personally. He visited Cogdill after he had seen a copy of the magic rock letter brought home by his granddaughter. The Reverend communicated to Cogdill that he considered the letter to be contrary to his religious beliefs. Other members of the Strafford religious community were concerned about the magic rock letter as well. The Reverend Vawter, another local pastor, indicated to his congregants that they needed to be concerned about New Age infiltration of the schools because a teacher in the school system was teaching New Ageism to students through the use of magic rocks.
Over the course of the 1992-93 school year Cogdill showed only lukewarm support for Cowan in her efforts to improve her teaching. Then, in March of 1993, on the eve of the School Board's vote on Cowan's contract renewal, Cogdill suggested to Cowan that she resign because she was not going to be renewed. Cowan did not resign, and shortly thereafter, the School Board voted unanimously not to renew Cowan's contract.
As a consequence of her nonrenewal, Cowan filed suit against the School District alleging that she was not renewed because she had offended the religious sensibilities of the Strafford community. Cowan claimed that the School District acted in violation of her rights under Title VII and the First Amendment. The jury returned a verdict for Cowan on the Title VII, religious discrimination claim, with damages in the amount of $18,000.00. The jury also returned a verdict in Cowan's favor on the First Amendment, 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim, but no damages were awarded. Post-trial, the district court denied the School District's motion for judgment as a matter of law or, in the alternative, for a new trial. Also, the trial court denied the School District's motion for relief from judgment under Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b) based upon allegations that Cowan had committed perjury at trial. In addition, the court considered Cowan's motion to be reinstated in her position with the School District, but rather than reinstate Cowan, the trial court chose to award Cowan two years front pay. Both parties appeal from the trial court's rulings.
The first issue raised by the School District is whether the district court erred in denying its motion for summary judgment. This Court has directly addressed whether a denial of summary judgment may be reviewed after a full trial on the merits. See, e.g., Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Golden Triangle, 121 F.3d 351, 354 (8th Cir.1997); Johnson Int'l Co. v. Jackson Nat'l Life Ins. Co., 19 F.3d 431, 434 (8th Cir.1994). It is well established that "[a] ruling by a district court denying summary judgment is interlocutory in nature and not appealable after a full trial on the merits." Johnson Int'l at 434 (citing Bottineau Farmers Elevator v. Woodward-Clyde Consultants, 963 F.2d 1064, 1068 n. 5 (8th Cir.1992)). After a district court has denied a summary judgment motion and the case proceeds to trial, the question of whether a party has met its burden is answered by considering the record as a whole, not the pretrial evidence in isolation. Johnson Int'l at 434. Therefore, the Court concludes that the first issue raised and briefed by the School District is not properly before this Court.
The School District also argues that the trial court erred when it denied the School District's motion for judgment as a matter of law or, in the alternative, for a new trial. On appeal the Court reviews the district court's denial of a motion for judgment as a matter of law de novo using the same standards as the district court. Keenan v. Computer Assoc. Int'l, Inc., 13 F.3d 1266, 1268 (8th Cir.1994). This Court must determine "'whether there is sufficient evidence to support a jury verdict.'" Id. (quoting White v. Pence, 961 F.2d 776, 779 (8th Cir. 1992)). Of course, the Court must view that evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, and it may not engage in a "weighing or evaluation of the evidence or consider questions of credibility." Id. "The law places a high standard on overturning a jury verdict." Hathaway v. Runyon, 132 F.3d 1214, 1220 (8th Cir.1997). Thus, judgment as a matter of law "is only appropriate when all of the evidence points one way and is `susceptible of no reasonable inference sustaining the position of the nonmoving party.'" Keenan at 1269 (quoting White at 779). The evidence must be such that no reasonable juror could have found for the non-moving party. Hathaway at 1220. When an appellate court reviews a denial of a motion for a new trial under Fed.R.Civ.P. 59(a) a much more deferential standard is used; the trial court's decision will not be reversed absent a clear abuse of discretion. Keenan at 1269.
The School District argues that Cowan did not produce any evidence linking the District's employment decision to the magic rock letter as required under Title VII. A plaintiff in a discrimination case under Title VII can proceed under the Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, 490 U.S. 228, 109 S.Ct. 1775, 104 L.Ed.2d 268 (1989), mixed motives analysis if an employee first establishes that religion was a motivating factor in the employment decision. Then the burden of persuasion shifts to the defendant, who must show that it would have made the same decision even in the absence of the illegal criteria. See Stacks v. Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages, Inc., 996 F.2d 200, 202 (8th Cir.1993). A plaintiff is entitled to have her case analyzed under the mixed motives standard if she presents "`evidence of conduct or statements by persons involved in the decision making process that may be viewed as directly reflecting the alleged discriminatory attitude....'" Nitschke v....
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