Equal Emp't Opportunity Comm'n v. Exel, Inc.

• Decision Date: 16 March 2018
• Docket Number: No. 14-11007,14-11007
• Citation: 884 F.3d 1326
• Parties: EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION, Plaintiff–Appellant Cross–Appellee, Contrice Travis, Intervenor–Appellant Cross–Appellee, v. EXEL, INC., Defendant–Appellee Cross–Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

884 F.3d 1326

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION, Plaintiff–Appellant Cross–Appellee,Contrice Travis, Intervenor–Appellant Cross–Appellee,

v.EXEL, INC., Defendant–Appellee Cross–Appellant.

No. 14-11007

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

March 16, 2018

Anne Noel Occhialino, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Office of General Counsel–Appellate Services, Washington, DC, Robert K. Dawkins, Ottrell Ferrell Edwards, Sairalina Montesino, Steven A. Wagner, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Atlanta, GA, for Plaintiff–Appellant Cross–Appellee Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Rudjard M. Hayes, Sanchez Hayes & Associates, LLC, Tyrone, GA, for Plaintiff–Appellant Cross–Appellee Contrice Travis.

David Richard Kresser, Terri R. Stewart, Fisher & Phillips, LLP, Atlanta, GA, for Defendant–Appellee Cross–Appellant.

Before TJOFLAT and JILL PRYOR, Circuit Judges, and MOODY,^* District Judge.

JILL PRYOR, Circuit Judge:

A jury awarded the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (the "EEOC") and Contrice Travis back pay, compensatory damages, and punitive damages after finding that Travis's employer, Exel, Inc., discriminated against her because of her sex. The discrimination occurred when Dave Harris, Travis's supervisor, denied her a promotion in favor of Michael Pooler, a male employee. After the verdict, Exel filed a renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law. The district court denied Exel's motion as to liability, but granted it as to the jury's punitive damages award. Travis and the EEOC now appeal the vacatur of the jury's punitive damages award, and Exel cross-appeals the denial of its motion as to liability. After careful review, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

Travis sought a promotion to a position vacated by her direct supervisor, Kenny Teal, when Harris promoted Teal to Operations Manager. When she learned of Teal's promotion, Travis told Harris that she wished to be considered for Teal's vacated position. But instead of promoting Travis, Harris selected Pooler to fill the vacated position, purportedly through the application of Exel's priority transfer practice ("PTP"), which Exel implemented as a means of transferring employees to vacant positions instead of laying them off.

By his own admission, Harris could have promoted Travis even though he was presented with a PTP candidate. Harris testified at trial that the PTP imposed no mandatory hiring and that he retained discretion in deciding whether to hire Pooler. Harris also acknowledged that he could have exercised his discretion by promoting Travis and moving Pooler into Travis's vacated position. The evidence at trial showed the feasibility of this option: several witnesses testified that Travis was well qualified for the promotion. Teal and another supervisor testified that Travis was an exceptional employee who could have easily met the job's demands. Pooler himself testified that Travis was more qualified for the job than he was. But despite Travis's expressed interest and qualifications—and Harris's discretion to promote her—Harris told her that he "was never going to" promote her to a supervisor position. Doc. 165 at 130.¹

Harris also had a history of bias against women. Multiple witnesses testified at trial that Harris treated female employees differently than male employees. He spoke to female employees less often, acted standoffish toward them, and asked other supervisors to manage them so that he did not have to do so. But most importantly, trial testimony connected evidence of Harris's general bias against women with his specific decision not to promote Travis. Teal testified that after he was promoted he recommended Travis for his vacated position, and Harris's response was that he "would not put a woman in a management position." Doc. 166 at 16.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

We review a district court's ruling on a renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law de novo and apply the same standards as the district court. Abel v. Dubberly , 210 F.3d 1334, 1337 (11th Cir. 2000). Judgment as a matter of law is appropriate "only if the facts and inferences point overwhelmingly in favor of one party, such that reasonable people could not arrive at a contrary verdict." Goldsmith v. Bagby Elevator Co., Inc. , 513 F.3d 1261, 1275 (11th Cir. 2008) (internal quotation marks omitted). "We consider all the evidence, and the inferences drawn therefrom, in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party." Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). "We will not second-guess the jury or substitute our judgment for its judgment if its verdict is supported by sufficient evidence." Lambert v. Fulton Cty. , 253 F.3d 588, 594 (11th Cir. 2001).

III. DISCUSSION

A. Travis's Evidence Was Sufficient for a Reasonable Jury to Find that She Suffered Discrimination Because of Her Sex.

Title VII prohibits employers from discriminating "against any individual with respect to [her] compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual's ... sex." 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1). A plaintiff can prove sex discrimination under Title VII by showing that her sex "was a motivating factor for any employment practice, even though other factors also motivated the practice." Id. § 2000e-2(m). At trial, Exel countered Travis's claim that she was denied the promotion based on her sex by offering a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for Harris's hiring decision: a routine application of the PTP resulted in Pooler's selection over Travis. To prove her Title VII claim, then, Travis had to show that Exel's proffered reason was pretextual "either directly by [showing] that a discriminatory reason more likely motivated the employer or indirectly by showing that the employer's proffered explanation is unworthy of credence." Texas Dep't of Cmty. Affairs v. Burdine , 450 U.S. 248, 256, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 67 L.Ed.2d 207 (1981).

We may overturn the jury's verdict only if we conclude that no reasonable jury could have found that Harris's hiring decision was motivated by discrimination based on Travis's sex rather than by application of the PTP. We cannot so conclude for two reasons. First, the jury heard evidence that Harris could have promoted Travis despite being presented with a PTP candidate. Franklin Hudson, who worked in Exel's Human Resources Department, testified that General Managers like Harris controlled their own hiring and could veto PTP candidates if they wished. Likewise, Harris admitted that he made the ultimate decision whether to hire Pooler. He also admitted that he could have exercised his hiring discretion by promoting Travis and moving Pooler into Travis's vacated position. Our dissenting colleague argues that this would have been a demotion for Pooler, but that is beside the point: the PTP did not require Harris to hire Pooler to fill Teal's vacated position. If the PTP did not require Harris to hire Pooler, then it is for the jury to decide what motivated Harris's decision. Because two different witnesses—including the decisionmaker himself—testified that the PTP imposed no mandatory hiring, the jury reasonably could have concluded that Harris had the discretion to promote Travis even though he was presented with a PTP candidate.

Indeed, the jury also heard evidence supporting the inference that Harris could have promoted Travis to Teal's vacated position without going through the PTP process at all. Both Travis and Harris testified that when Teal was promoted, Travis approached Harris seeking promotion to Teal's vacated position. Even though the evidence failed to show exactly when this conversation took place relative to when Exel's Human Resources Department first presented Pooler to Harris as a PTP candidate, the jury reasonably could have inferred that it took place beforehand. Harris testified that when Travis expressed interest in the promotion, he told her that he "was going to" post the open position, but had not done so yet. The Human Resources Department could not have referred Pooler as a PTP candidate until after the opening was posted, or at least submitted to Human Resources for posting, according to trial testimony. This evidence supports the reasonable inference that Harris knew about Travis's interest before he ever received Pooler as a PTP candidate or even learned that he would receive a PTP candidate at all. And the evidence that promotions often happened informally at Exel—for example, Harris received his own position through an informal promotion process—supported a finding that Harris could have promoted Travis when she approached him about Teal's vacated position, without going through the PTP process at all.

Second, the evidence showed that Harris harbored a bias against women. Travis testified that Harris "limited his contact with pretty much all the females in [the] office" and asked her to "manage the ladies in the office." Doc. 165 at 161. Another Exel employee, Tommy Chambers, testified that Harris was "standoffish" with female employees and treated them differently than male employees. Doc. 166 at 95. According to Chambers, Harris would come into work in the morning and "go straight to his office. He wouldn't speak to any of [the female employees]." Id. at 99. Chambers also testified, similarly to Travis, that Harris instructed him to address any issues that arose with the female employees, even if those employees normally would report to Harris directly.

The evidence the jury heard also connected Harris's bias against women with his refusal to promote Travis. Again, the evidence showed that, when she found out Harris had promoted Teal, Travis went to Harris's office and told him that she wanted Teal's vacated position.² Travis testified that Harris's response was dismissive: he looked her in the eye and told her that he "was never going to" promote her to a supervisor position. Doc. 165 at 130. Even though this response was not overtly discriminatory, the jury reasonably could have inferred from the...