Kanida v. Gulf Coast Medical Personnel Lp

• Decision Date: 07 April 2004
• Docket Number: No. 02-21149.,02-21149.
• Citation: 363 F.3d 568
• Parties: Loretha KANIDA, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. GULF COAST MEDICAL PERSONNEL LP; Nursefinders Inc., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

363 F.3d 568

Loretha KANIDA, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. GULF COAST MEDICAL PERSONNEL LP; Nursefinders Inc., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 02-21149.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

April 7, 2004.

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Victoria L. Plante (argued), Houston, TX, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Michael Vincent Galo, Jr. (argued), Christine Elaine Reinhard, Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, San Antonio, TX, for Defendants-Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Before JONES, EMILIO M. GARZA and BENAVIDES, Circuit Judges.

EMILIO M. GARZA, Circuit Judge:

Loretha Kanida appeals from a jury verdict in favor of her employers, defendants Gulf Coast Medical Personnel LP ("GCMP") and Nursefinders Inc., which found that the defendants did not retaliate against Kanida in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. 29 U.S.C. § 215(a)(3). Kanida claims that she is entitled to a new trial because the district court refused to include a requested permissive pretext instruction in the jury charge, and also because of two additional jury instructions she requested that the district court refused to give. Kanida also claims that two jury instructions the district court actually gave were improper and require a new trial. Additionally, Kanida challenges the district court's evidentiary rulings limiting or excluding the testimony of five witnesses. Finally, Kanida claims that the district court erred when it concluded that a victim of retaliation cannot recover compensatory and punitive damages under the FLSA. For the following reasons, we affirm the district court.

I

In August 1999, Kanida contacted Mary Beth Parks, the founder and owner of Gulf Coast Medical Personnel ("GCMP"), and requested a meeting. At this meeting Kanida claimed that GCMP owed her unpaid overtime compensation. Parks collected Kanida's employment records, calculated the amount that GCMP owed, and offered payment to Kanida. Kanida refused GCMP's offers, and demanded payment of an amount significantly higher than Parks calculated. Kanida filed a complaint regarding the unpaid overtime compensation with the Department of Labor ("DOL"), which commenced an investigation in November 1999. While this investigation was ongoing, Parks finalized the sale of GCMP to Nursefinders. Parks continued to work for Nursefinders, and Nursefinders assumed any potential liability associated with Kanida's claims. At the conclusion of the DOL's investigation, Nursefinders and Parks attended a conference with the DOL where Parks acknowledged liability for the unpaid overtime. Parks subsequently offered payment of unpaid overtime compensation to all of the affected employees as determined by the DOL. Kanida again declined to accept payment of this amount and retained counsel to pursue the matter. Kanida filed this lawsuit in May 2000, but continued working for Nursefinders until January 2001 when she left voluntarily.

Kanida claimed that Parks, and consequently GCMP and Nursefinders, retaliated against her for filing a complaint with the DOL in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA"). To support her retaliation claim, Kanida produced evidence to show that subsequent to her filing of the DOL claim she was subject to adverse employment actions.¹ In response to Kanida's production of this evidence, GCMP offered legitimate non-discriminatory reasons for the disputed actions.² Kanida then offered evidence to show that GCMP's purported reasons were merely a pretext for actions that were actually retaliation for her DOL complaint. The case was tried to a jury which ruled in favor of GCMP. Kanida moved for a new trial, but the district court denied this motion and entered final judgment awarding Kanida only the overtime pay that the parties stipulated she was entitled to based upon the DOL investigation. This appeal followed.

II

Kanida argues that the district court abused its discretion by refusing to include the permissive pretext instruction she requested in its jury charge.³ A permissive pretext instruction specifically informs jurors that they are permitted to, but need not, infer that an employer's actions regarding an employee were based on a prohibited motivation from evidence that the reasons the employer gave for its actions were mere pretext. See Ratliff v. City of Gainesville, Tex., 256 F.3d 355, 359-60 (5th Cir.2001). This is, however, only an evidentiary instruction, and to prevail employees must prove that the employer's actions were taken because of the prohibited motivation. Id. at 359 n. 3. Kanida claims that our decision in Ratliff requires district courts to give a permissive pretext instruction in employment retaliation cases.

Ratliff considered a permissive pretext instruction within the context of an age discrimination claim under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Id. at 359. As part of his claim, the plaintiff in Ratliff presented evidence to show that the non-discriminatory reasons the employer gave for its actions were actually a pretext for age discrimination. Id. This plaintiff requested a permissive pretext instruction, similar to the one at issue here, and the Ratliff district court also refused to include this instruction in its jury charge. Id. The district court in Ratliff also chose to instruct the jury regarding the plaintiff's burden in that case by using a "pretext plus" jury instruction.⁴ Id. In Ratliff we held that "the district court erred in failing to give an inference instruction and [in] holding jurors to a `pretext plus' standard." Id. at 364. Relying upon Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc., 530 U.S. 133, 148, 120 S.Ct. 2097, 147 L.Ed.2d 105 (2000), we correctly held that district court erred in giving the "pretext plus" instruction because this instruction incorrectly stated the plaintiff's burden of proof. Ratliff, 256 F.3d at 361-62 (citing Reeves, 530 U.S. at 147, 120 S.Ct. 2097, 147 L.Ed.2d 105 (holding that "it is permissible for the trier of fact to infer the ultimate fact of discrimination from the falsity of the employer's explanation") (emphasis in original)). However, in Ratliff we also relied upon Reeves to decide that the district court erred when it refused to give a requested permissive pretext jury instruction in an employment discrimination case. Ratliff, 256 F.3d at 360.

While Reeves clarified the legal burden of production a plaintiff must meet to present their case to a jury, Reeves, 530 U.S. at 146-47, 120 S.Ct. at 2108, it did not address whether a district court must give a permissive pretext jury instruction. Many of our sister circuits do not understand Reeves to require that instruction. See Moore v. Robertson Fire Prot. Dist., 249 F.3d 786, 789 (8th Cir.2001) (failure to include instruction on pretext is not reversible error where the given instructions correctly stated the law because the jury was still free to consider any evidence of pretext); Palmer v. Bd. of Regents of the Univ. Sys. of Ga., 208 F.3d 969, 974-75 (11th Cir.2000) (no reversible error from refusal to include permissive pretext instruction when the rest of the jury instructions correctly stated the law); Fite v. Digital Equip. Corp., 232 F.3d 3, 7 (1st Cir.2000) (finding that although an instruction that the jury can infer discrimination from evidence of pretext is permitted, "we doubt that such an explanation is compulsory, even if properly requested"). We recognize, however, that other circuits agree with our decision in Ratliff. See Ratliff, 256 F.3d at 361 n. 7 (citing Smith v. Borough of Wilkinsburg, 147 F.3d 272, 280 (3d Cir.1998) (requiring that jurors receive a permissive pretext instruction); Cabrera v. Jakabovitz, 24 F.3d 372, 382 (2d Cir.1994) (same)); Townsend v. Lumbermens Mut. Cas. Co. 294 F.3d 1232, 1241 (10th Cir.2002) (requiring permissive pretext instruction when "a rational finder of fact could reasonably find the defendant's explanation false").

Despite this concern, "it is the firm rule of this circuit that one panel may not overrule the decisions of another." United States v. Taylor, 933 F.2d 307, 313 (5th Cir.1991). Therefore, we are required to follow Ratliff. Although Ratliff's decision that the district court erred by refusing to give a permissive pretext instruction in employment discrimination cases was not necessary to reach its decision to reverse the district court, see Ratliff, 256 F.3d at 364 (holding that the "pretext plus" instruction requires reversal), this decision is still binding precedent upon this panel as an alternative holding. See, e.g., United States v. Adamson, 665 F.2d 649, 656 n. 19 (5th Cir.1982) (holding that decisions on issues that were fully presented and litigated, and likely to arise on retrial, are not dictum and are still binding precedent even if the decision was not necessary to support the ultimate ruling, such as an alternative holding).

We are concerned that our permissive pretext jury instruction holding in Ratliff unnecessarily expands the scope of the Reeves opinion for four reasons. First, and most importantly, Reeves was not a jury case. In Reeves, the Supreme Court reviewed the evidence a plaintiff must produce to fulfill their burden and avoid summary judgment or judgment as a matter of law. Reeves, 530 U.S. at 146-47, 120 S.Ct. 2097, 147 L.Ed.2d 105. Reeves considered the plaintiff's burden of production within the context of the burden shifting analysis first articulated in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973). See Reeves, 530 U.S. at 142-47, 120 S.Ct. 2097, 147 L.Ed.2d 105.⁵ In Reeves, the circuit court understood Supreme Court precedent to require plaintiffs to produce evidence that the employer's purported justifications were pretext "plus" additional evidence of actual discrimination, and held that judgment as a matter of law for the defendant was appropriate in that case becau...