Farley v. Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co.

• Decision Date: 14 December 1999
• Docket Number: 98-4799,Nos. 98-4566,s. 98-4566
• Citation: 197 F.3d 1322
• Parties: (11th Cir. 1999) John FARLEY, Plaintiff-Appellee, Cross-Appellant, v. NATIONWIDE MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant-Appellant, Cross-Appellee. John Farley, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, Defendant-Appellant,
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 1322

197 F.3d 1322 (11th Cir. 1999)

John FARLEY, Plaintiff-Appellee, Cross-Appellant, v. NATIONWIDE MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant-Appellant, Cross-Appellee.

John Farley, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, Defendant-Appellant,

Nos. 98-4566, 98-4799.

United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit.

Dec. 14, 1999.

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida,(No. 96-8750-CV-DTKH), Daniel T.K. Hurley, Judge.

Before ANDERSON, Chief Judge, MARCUS, Circuit Judge, and MILLS^*, Senior District Judge.

MARCUS, Circuit Judge:

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company appeals from a jury verdict entered in favor of the Plaintiff, John Farley, on his American with Disabilities Act ("ADA") and Age Discrimination in Employment ("ADEA") claims. The jury specifically found that the Defendant, Nationwide, wrongfully terminated Farley from his claims adjustor position based on his disability and age, and judgment was entered for Farley in the amount of $585,120. Nationwide now appeals this verdict alleging both that the jury instructions contained material mistakes of law and that the compensatory damages awarded were excessive. On cross-appeal, Farley contests the trial court's (1) grant of summary judgment on his retaliation claims, (2) award of one year of front pay rather than reinstatement, (3) refusal to include front pay in the liquidated damages award, and (4) denial of attorney's fees for post-verdict work. After thorough review, we affirm the entire trial court judgment except for its grant of summary judgment on Plaintiff's retaliation claims.

I.

The essential facts adduced at trial include these. John Farley worked as a claims adjuster at Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company ("Nationwide") from 1985 to 1995. A claims adjustor is charged with handling all aspects of an insurance claim from investigating a damages claim to negotiating and settling the claim with the policyholder. In that time, Farley received numerous pay raises and satisfactory or above performance evaluations. However, Farley also suffered from several long-term disabilities including alcoholism, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression.

In 1991, Farley was placed under the supervision of District Claims Manager Hugh Glatts. That year was particularly stressful for Farley. His mother died and his young daughter was diagnosed with a rare and potentially fatal disease. These events conjoined with Farley's job-related stress and pre-existing disabilities to trigger a decline in Farley's job performance and mental well-being. On August 5, 1991, Farley met with Glatts to inform him of these events. Glatts responded by criticizing Farley's job performance and indicating that Farley would be terminated. Farley then collapsed in Glatts's office. Two days later, Glatts threatened to replace Farley with Dominic Christo, a co-worker in his mid-twenties, because Christo was "more receptive to change."

Shortly thereafter, Farley began seeing a psychiatrist and a psychologist. During this period, Farley was able to maintain successfully his job responsibilities at Nationwide. However, Farley was subjected to numerous jokes by Glatts and other Nationwide managers about his mental health. In the fall of 1991, a cartoon depicting Farley was posted prominently on the company's bulletin board. The bulletin board was used for employee pictures, job listings, and other employment-related notices. The cartoon featured a psychologist talking to a patient lying on a couch. A picture of Farley's head had been inserted over the head of the patient. The cartoon caption read "Just Plain Nuts." A similar cartoon had been mocked up for another co-worker, Warren Peede, who suffered from a mental disability. The cartoons were created by Tom Sutterfield, a Nationwide supervisor who knew of Farley's disabilities. Sutterfield eventually would become a supervisor of Farley's in late 1994.

Over the rest of his tenure with Nationwide, Farley endured disability-related jokes by Glatts in front of co-workers and received additional anonymous cartoons in his mailbox. Glatts repeatedly would insult other disabled workers as well. Notably, Glatts expressed a desire to terminate Warren Peede, a co-worker of Farley's who suffered from a mental disability as the result of a car accident. Glatts expressed a fear that Peede was "dangerous" to work around because of his mental disability, and in 1991, Glatts asked Peede to take a "disability retirement."

In April 1995, Farley requested and received a week of disability leave on the recommendation of his physician for stress-related disabilities. Shortly before this request, Sutterfield had told Farley that his performance was satisfactory. His most recent performance evaluation had been above-average. Upon Farley's return, however, Sutterfield informed Farley that Nationwide management found his stress to be "unusual" and that they did not believe in stress-related disabilities. Farley was then placed on thirty days of "work probation" for allegedly poor technical performance, and all of his work files were taken away for "review." Farley testified that no other adjustor had ever been stripped of all of his files, and that the action prevented him from fulfilling his work responsibilities. The stress from these events apparently worsened Farley's physical condition, and he took a month of disability leave in May.

While on leave, Farley filed a discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") on May 10, 1995, and informed his two supervisors, Sutterfield and Glatts, of the complaint. Glatts subsequently told Farley that he had received a copy of the complaint and that Nationwide's general counsel was handling it. When Farley returned to work on June 5, he requested a five day, forty hour a week work schedule as a reasonable work accommodation. Farley testified that during this timeframe he was working eighteen to twenty hours a day to satisfy Nationwide's work probation demands. Glatts allegedly refused his request, even though it was official company policy that claims adjustors work only thirty-eight and three-quarters of an hour per week. Farley was terminated one month later on July 8, 1991 for allegedly poor technical performance. John Farley was forty-seven years old. His replacement, Heath Dillard, was in his late twenties.

On September 24, 1996, John Farley commenced this lawsuit against Nationwide under the ADA, see 42 U.S.C. 12101 et. seq., and the ADEA, see 29 U.S.C. 621 et. seq., in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit of Palm Beach County, Florida alleging that Nationwide wrongfully terminated him because of discrimination based on his disability and age as well as retaliation for his complaint filed with the EEOC. The suit then was removed timely to the Southern District of Florida and referred by agreement of the parties to a magistrate judge for trial and all further proceedings pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 636(c). Prior to trial, Nationwide moved for summary judgment. The magistrate judge denied the motion as to Farley's discrimination claims under the ADA and ADEA but granted the motion as to Farley's retaliatory discharge claim. Farley's discrimination claims were tried to a jury in November 1997.

On the morning of the final day of trial, the trial court read the proposed verdict form to both parties and allowed them to comment on the form. Notably, Nationwide made no objections to the verdict form. The trial court also distributed copies of the jury instructions to both parties which gave them an opportunity to call an error to the court's attention. Again, Nationwide interposed no objection to the court's instructions.

Shortly after the jury was excused to deliberate later that day, Nationwide identified an alleged typographical error in the jury instructions. Nationwide explained that the term "qualified disability" did not exist in the caselaw and that the instruction should have read "qualified individual with a disability." The trial court dismissed the objection and ordered a recess.

Later that day, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the Plaintiff on both the ADA and ADEA claims, finding the termination to be a result of intentional and willful discrimination on the basis of age and disability. They awarded Farley a total of $585,120 comprised of these elements: $110,120 for past lost earnings, $25,000 in lost future earnings, and $450,000 in emotional pain and suffering damages.

After trial, Nationwide renewed its motion for judgment as a matter of law, and also moved for a new trial based on alleged error in the jury verdict form and the accompanying jury instructions. Both motions were denied on March 2, 1998 in their entirety. At the same time, Nationwide moved for remittitur regarding the jury award. The magistrate judge granted the motion in part, reducing the back pay award to $54,501.84 (i.e., one year of full back pay taking into account the difference in salary between Farley's new job and his job at Nationwide) and the front pay award to $5,600. But the judge also denied the motion in part and reduced the emotional pain and suffering damages to only $300,000-the maximum recovery amount allowed under 42 U.S.C. 1981a(b)(3)(D).

II.

A. Jury Instructions

We review Nationwide's verdict form and jury instruction claims against a familiar legal landscape. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 51 reads in pertinent part, "no party may assign as error an instruction unless he objects thereto before the jury retires to consider its verdict, stating distinctly the matter objected to and the grounds of the objection." See Fed.R.Civ.P. 51 (emphasis added). We interpret Rule 51 strictly, and require a party to object to a jury instruction or jury verdict form prior to jury deliberations in order to preserve the issue on...