Heaton v. The Weitz Co., Inc.

• Decision Date: 24 July 2008
• Docket Number: No. 07-2851.,No. 07-3030.,07-2851.,07-3030.
• Citation: 534 F.3d 882
• Parties: Edward D. HEATON, Appellee, v. THE WEITZ COMPANY, INC., Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

534 F.3d 882

Edward D. HEATON, Appellee, v. THE WEITZ COMPANY, INC., Appellant.

No. 07-2851.

No. 07-3030.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: April 18, 2008.

Filed: July 24, 2008.

Gene R. La Suer, argued, Sharon K. Malheiro, on the brief, Des Moines, IA, for appellant.

Amy Lynn Reasner, argued, Wilford H. Stone, on the brief, Cedar Rapids, IA, Susan R. Oxford, EEOC, argued for amicus, Washington, D.C., for appellee.

Before WOLLMAN, BEAM, and RILEY, Circuit Judges.

RILEY, Circuit Judge.

Edward Heaton (Heaton) filed suit against The Weitz Company, Inc. (Weitz) alleging he was retaliated against in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-3, et seq. (Title VII) and 42 U.S.C. § 1981a. A jury found in favor of Heaton on his retaliation claim, and awarded Heaton $137,070.44 in compensatory damages, including an award of $73,320.00 for emotional distress. The jury also awarded Heaton $25,000.00 in punitive damages.

Weitz moved for judgment as a matter of law pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(a) (Rule 50). The district court¹ denied this motion, and granted an award of attorney fees. Weitz appeals, contending the district court erred in (1) denying Weitz's Rule 50 motion on Heaton's retaliation claim; (2) submitting punitive damages to the jury and denying Weitz's Rule 50 motion on punitive damages; (3) finding Heaton presented sufficient evidence to support the jury's award of damages for emotional distress; and (4) awarding attorney fees of $85,446.90. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

Heaton, a man of partial Hispanic descent, became a journeyman ironworker in 1992. In 2000, Heaton became a member of an ironworkers union. In October of 2000, Heaton began working for Weitz as a journeyman ironworker. Heaton was progressively promoted to foreman, general foreman, and finally superintendent ironworker in January of 2003. Weitz Vice President, Michael Novy (Novy), promoted Heaton to the superintendent ironworker level. Heaton reported directly to Novy.

In March or April of 2003, a union (affiliated with the Teamsters) superintendent, Noel Huber (Huber), instructed some of the Teamsters to go to Heaton, tell him he was a "fucking spic," and ask Heaton "if [Heaton] knew what a `[s]pic' was." Other workers told Heaton they heard Huber say, "The only thing worse than having [his] daughter marry a fucking nigger would be to have [his] daughter marry a fucking [s]pic like that Ed Heaton." Heaton complained to Weitz's Human Resources Department, specifically Chantry DeVries (DeVries), about Huber's comment. DeVries was Weitz's personnel benefits manager, had attended training on state and federal anti-discrimination laws, and was listed in Weitz's policies as the contact person for making discrimination complaints. Heaton asked that Weitz take action to stop the discriminatory behavior and specifically requested that Novy not be informed about the complaint because Heaton believed Novy and Huber were friends outside of work, attended the same church, and Novy was very defensive of Huber. Heaton also told DeVries he was worried he might be retaliated against, by losing his promotion or his job.

Despite Heaton's request, DeVries assigned the complaint to Novy for investigation. Novy told Heaton that DeVries had contacted him about the situation. Novy also informed Heaton that Novy had not known about Heaton's Spanish and Italian background. When Heaton asked if his racial background mattered, Novy did not respond. About a week after Heaton made the complaint, Novy informed Heaton that Novy let Huber go but hated to do so. Novy had determined Huber made the racially offensive comments, and offered Huber a demotion or early retirement. Huber chose early retirement.

A few weeks after Huber elected to take early retirement, Heaton and Brian Henecke (Henecke) discussed unloading equipment off trucks at a job site for Quaker Oats, where Henecke was project manager. After some disagreement, they agreed a crew composed of ironworkers and millwrights should unload the trucks the next day. Henecke instructed Heaton to go to the Quaker Oats job site the next day. On May 28, 2003, at the Quaker Oats job site, Henecke called Heaton a "spic" during an argument about who was to unload the trucks.

Such jurisdictional disputes rarely result in termination. When Novy learned of the dispute, without waiting to hear Heaton's side of the disagreement, Novy informed Heaton he was terminated because Henecke wanted him fired and because Heaton was "acting like a fucking union steward." Heaton had never been in trouble before at Weitz. Novy already had prepared Heaton's last two paychecks. When Heaton asked if he was being fired due to the Huber complaint, Novy immediately revoked the termination, retracted the checks, and gave Heaton "a second chance." Novy instead told Heaton he would not be allowed to work on projects with Henecke until Heaton apologized to Henecke. Heaton apologized and was again assigned to a job with Henecke.

Heaton started another assignment at the Quaker Oats plant. Without advanced warning to Heaton, Henecke removed two of Heaton's workers from his crew- Heaton's "two right hand men." Henecke stated he removed these men from the job because they could not pass Quaker Oats's background check. However, the two men had worked at the Quaker Oats job site previously. After being terminated from this job, one of the men successfully obtained security clearance at a nuclear power plant. The removal of these two crew members caused Heaton to fall behind schedule.

After Heaton completed the Quaker Oats job, he was supposed to begin working on a project at General Mills. Novy reassigned the General Mills job to a different superintendent. When Heaton asked Novy about the General Mills job, Novy told Heaton that Novy was demoting Heaton to journeyman, or Heaton could choose to be laid off. Heaton asked why he was being demoted, and Novy told Heaton, "Things are catching up to you." Heaton elected to be laid off, because the demotion would leave him with significantly fewer job protections. Novy required Heaton to turn in his company truck, tools and cell phone, even though other superintendents typically retained these items while temporarily laid off. Other superintendents continued to work, even as a slower period ensued, even if the assignments were just doing "busywork." Weitz also keeps superintendents working by having them do odd jobs in its warehouses, such as building shelves or organizing equipment at the Weitz warehouse. Superintendents did not usually do labor, but when the work was slow at Weitz, one superintendent traditionally would be doubled-up with another superintendent, and the former would do labor rather than supervise, in order to avoid layoff.

Heaton again contacted DeVries in Weitz's human resources department, informing her of the situation and stating he felt he was being retaliated against by Novy because Heaton had made the discrimination complaint against Huber. DeVries told Heaton she had been informed that Heaton had been offered work three or four times, but that Heaton had declined the work. Heaton told DeVries this was not true, and rhetorically asked, "Why did Mike Novy have me return my truck if this is true?" DeVries investigated and was told a superintendent named Matt Kula (Kula) offered Heaton the purported work at the Cargill project. Heaton denied this, and specifically informed DeVries, "Henecke is the project manager for Cargill, and Matt Kula is the superintendent. Matt [Kula] has told [another employee] many times that Brian Henecke would not let me work at Cargill." DeVries did not investigate this claim.

Although Heaton had only been offered the multiple-level demotion to journeyman, DeVries did not look into the matter further because, "In [her] opinion, it was work, so [she] didn't get into what kind of work it was." This ignored the fact that, if a superintendent is laid off at Weitz, that employee would normally come back to work after the layoff as a superintendent, and the journeyman position provided little job security, because journeymen were the first to be terminated. After the offer to work as a journeyman, management level positions opened up, but Heaton was not offered those positions. Finally, even though Heaton specifically alleged retaliation from Novy, DeVries assigned Novy to investigate the complaint.

At trial, Heaton testified, following his termination, he felt "inadequate" and had no sense of identity, and his reputation in his business was harmed. Heaton went to a psychologist and to a family counselor for help, and he began taking antidepressant medication, which he continued to take at the time of trial. Heaton eventually found work as a skilled mechanic with another company.

II. DISCUSSION

We review a district court's denial of a motion for judgment as a matter of law de novo. See Moysis v. DTG Datanet, 278 F.3d 819, 824 (8th Cir.2002). We "must affirm the jury's verdict unless, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to [Heaton], we conclude that no reasonable jury could have found in his favor." Id. (citation omitted). "[W]e review the district court's decision to grant or deny judgment as a matter of law with great deference to the jury's verdict." Wilson v. Brinker Int'l, Inc., 382 F.3d 765, 769 (8th Cir.2004) (citation omitted). We "will not set aside a jury verdict unless there is a complete absence of probative facts to support the verdict." Id. (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). "We review the district court's award of attorney fees for abuse of discretion." Ollis v. HearthStone Homes, Inc., 495 F.3d 570, 576 (8th Cir.2007) (citation omitted).

A. Retaliation

Weitz contends the district court erred in denying its motion for judgment as a matter of law on Heaton's retaliation claim, arguing there was insufficient evidence for a reasonable jury to find any...