Hosler v. Fulkroad

• Decision Date: 23 June 2015
• Docket Number: Civil No. 1:13-CV-1153
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Pennsylvania
• Parties: MELINDA HOSLER, Plaintiff v. JAY FULKROAD AND SONS and GERALD E. FULKROAD, SR., Defendants

MELINDA HOSLER, Plaintiff
v.
JAY FULKROAD AND SONS and GERALD E. FULKROAD, SR., Defendants

Civil No. 1:13-CV-1153

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

June 23, 2015

( Magistrate Judge Carlson )

MEMORANDUM OPINION

I. INTRODUCTION

This is an action brought by Melinda Hosler against her former employer, Jay Fulkroad and Sons and its President, Gerald E. Fulkroad, for interfering with her rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act and terminating her employment, and her insurance benefits, while she was out of work after undergoing a laparoscopic hysterectomy in January 2013. The case was tried before a jury on March 16 and 17, 2015, and the jury returned a verdict finding in favor of the plaintiff on her claim that her employer interfered with her rights under the FMLA. The jury awarded the plaintiff $33,260.00 in back pay damages for this interference violation. The jury found in favor of the defendants on the plaintiff's claim that they retaliated against her for exercising her rights under the FMLA.

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The parties subsequently filed multiple post-trial motions seeking additional relief, all of which are now before the Court. In these pleadings, both parties have renewed their trial motions for judgment as a matter of law, with Ms. Hosler seeking to have the Court set aside the jury's determination that she had proven one, but not both, of her FMLA claims, and to declare as a matter of law that the defendants retaliated against her. The defendants, meanwhile, request that the Court set aside the jury's verdict in favor of Ms. Hosler, and to conclude as a matter of law that they did not violate the FMLA either by interfering with Ms. Hosler's rights under the Act, or by retaliating against her for exercising those rights by firing her while she was on leave convalescing after her surgery.

The plaintiffs have also filed a post-trial motion seeking an award of equitable relief based on the defendants' asserted violations of the FMLA and its regulations, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 ("ERISA"), 29 U.S.C. §§ 1001 et seq., and the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986 ("COBRA"), which the plaintiff contends occurred when her employer terminated her employment, and her health insurance, unilaterally and unlawfully, while on FMLA leave, and failed to timely provide her with required notice of her right to purchase health insurance offered through Jay Fulkroad and Sons' plan at her own expense after she had been terminated. The plaintiff argues that the Court should impose a per

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diem monetary sanction for this conduct, and also order the defendant to pay the cost of her medical bills that she incurred for her surgery - costs that would have been covered by Ms. Hosler's insurance had the defendants not taken steps to terminate her insurance coverage without her advance knowledge while she was undergoing surgery. For their part, the defendants, still insisting that there was no violation in the first place, argue that no such equitable relief should be awarded.

The plaintiff has also moved for an award of statutory liquidated damages, which is effectively a doubling of the jury's award, and which are ordinarily to be awarded to a prevailing plaintiff in cases brought under the FMLA, except where the Court finds that the employer had a good-faith belief that an employee was mis-using her FMLA leave. The defendants insist that Gerald Fulkroad had an honest, good-faith belief that Ms. Hosler was abusing her leave from her employment, apparently because in Mr. Fulkroad's own personal opinion the physician letter that Ms. Hosler provided from her surgeon advising Mr. Fulkroad that Ms. Hosler would require an additional period of convalescence was fraudulent, or because the plaintiff failed to sufficiently communicate with Mr. Fulkroad at any point following her surgery. The plaintiff maintains that Mr. Fulkroad's subjective reasons for discounting the veracity of the letter, and the fact that he made no effort even to call the doctor to inquire, or to seek additional information to confirm the letter's provenance, make it clear that

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his own subjective opinion about the letter and about her alleged abuse of her leave rights was not a reasonable good-faith belief that would justify reducing the statutory damages called for under the FMLA.

Finally, the plaintiff has filed a motion seeking an award of front pay of nearly $150,000.00 as an equitable remedy. Ms. Hosler argues that the Court should exercise its discretion and award her five years of salary, based upon the wages that she earned with the defendants in 2012, and offset by the amount of money that she made with her new employer in 2014, and then discounted to a present value dollar figure. Ms. Hosler makes this demand for front pay on a sparse factual record, inspiring the defendants argue that front pay for five years is not justified on the evidence, is speculative, and is simply unfair. The defendants argue that they extended an offer to Ms. Hosler to return to her past job, and that Ms. Hosler has rejected that offer - something that the defendants suggest should undermine her belated claim for front pay as an additional award. Alternatively, the defendants urge the Court to award Ms. Hosler no more than one year of front pay, discounted by the amount of money she earned in her new job.

We will address the motions seriatim.

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II. DISCUSSION

A. Judgment as a Matter of Law

At the close of their opponent's case-in-chief, the parties each moved the Court for entry of judgment as a matter of law pursuant to Rule 50 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The Court denied these motions without prejudice to the parties renewing them after the jury returned its verdict, and the parties have now done so. As noted, the plaintiff argues that the evidence in support of her interference and retaliation claims was overwhelming, and so much so that the jury should not have been permitted to reach a Solomonic verdict when the same facts equally supported both of her FMLA claims for interference and retaliation. The plaintiff submits that the same evidence compelled judgment in her favor on each claim.

For their part, the defendants argue that the evidence presented at trial would not have permitted the jury to conclude that they interfered with Ms. Hosler's exercise of her FMLA protected rights and that the evidence compelled the jury to find that Gerald Fulkroad had a good-faith belief that Ms. Hosler was misusing her FMLA leave, and that his subjective view about that matter should entirely preclude Ms. Hosler from prevailing.

Rule 50(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provides that:

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(a) Judgment as a Matter of Law.

(1) In General. If a party has been fully heard on an issue during a jury trial and the court finds that a reasonable jury would not have a legally sufficient evidentiary basis to find for the party on that issue, the court may:

(A) resolve the issue against the party; and

(B) grant a motion for judgment as a matter of law against the party on a claim or defense that, under the controlling law, can be maintained or defeated only with a favorable finding on that issue.

(2) Motion. A motion for judgment as a matter of law may be made at any time before the case is submitted to the jury. The motion must specify the judgment sought and the law and facts that entitle the movant to the judgment.

The rule "provides one of many procedural safeguards insuring litigants and the system against an improper outcome in a civil case." Princeton Biochemicals, Inc. v. Beckman, No. Civ. A. 96-5541, 2004 WL 1398227, at *7 (D.N.J. June 17, 2004).

In order to prevail on a renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law following a jury trial, the moving party "'must show that the jury's findings, presumed or express, are not supported by substantial evidence or, if they were, that the legal conclusions implied [by] the jury's verdict cannot in law be supported by those findings.'" Pannu v. Iolab Corp., 155 F.3d 1344, 1348 (Fed. Cir. 1998) (quoting Perkin-Elmer Corp. v. Computervision Corp., 732 F.2d 888, 893 (Fed. Cir.

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1984)). In assessing the sufficiency of the evidence, the court is to give the "verdict winner [] the benefit of all logical inferences that could be drawn from the evidence presented, resolve all conflicts in the evidence in his favor, and in general, view the record in the light most favorable to him." Williamson v. Consolidated Rail Corp., 926 F.2d 1344, 1348 (3d Cir. 1991). Thus, the court is not to "weigh the evidence, determine the credibility of witnesses, or substitute its version of the facts for the jury's version." Lightning Lube, Inc. v. Witco Corp., 4 F.3d 1153, 1166 (3d Cir. 1993). A judgment as a matter of law "should be granted sparingly," but a mere scintilla of evidence will not be sufficient to sustain a jury's finding of liability. Walter v. Holiday Inns, Inc., 985 F.2d 1232, 1238 (3d Cir. 1993). Accordingly, "[t]he question is not whether there is literally no evidence supporting the party against whom the motion is directed but whether there is evidence upon which the jury could properly find a verdict for that party." Patzig v....