Kolstad v. American Dental Ass'n

Decision Date28 May 1997
Docket NumberNos. 96-7030,96-7047,s. 96-7030
Citation323 U.S.App. D.C. 402,108 F.3d 1431
Parties73 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 625, 70 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 44,622, 323 U.S.App.D.C. 402, 65 USLW 2623 Carole KOLSTAD, Appellant/Cross-Appellee, v. AMERICAN DENTAL ASSOCIATION, Appellee/Cross-Appellant.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

Joseph A. Yablonski, Washington, DC, argued the cause and filed the briefs for appellant/cross-appellee.

Bruce S. Harrison, Baltimore, MD, argued the cause for appellee/cross-appellant. With him on the briefs was Elizabeth Torphy-Donzella.

Before: WALD, WILLIAMS and TATEL, Circuit Judges.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge TATEL.

Opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part filed by Circuit Judge WILLIAMS.

TATEL, Circuit Judge:

A jury awarded Carole Kolstad back pay after finding that her employer had violated her rights under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by denying her a promotion because she is a woman. The district court entered judgment against the employer in the amount of the jury award, but denied Kolstad further relief. Because the jury could reasonably find from the evidence that Kolstad's employer intentionally discriminated against her on the basis of sex, we hold that the district court properly denied the employer's motion for judgment as a matter of law, but that it erred in refusing to instruct the jury on punitive damages. We thus remand the case for trial on Kolstad's punitive damages claim and for reconsideration of her claims for further equitable relief and attorney's fees.

I

A Chicago-based professional association, the American Dental Association (ADA) maintains an office in Washington, D.C. to represent its members' interests before Congress and various federal agencies. In September 1992, Jack O'Donnell, the second-highest ranking employee in ADA's Washington office, announced his retirement at year's end. O'Donnell held the dual-titled position of Director of Legislation and Legislative Policy and Director of the Council on Government Affairs and Federal Dental Services. His responsibilities included developing and communicating ADA's positions on federal legislation and regulations affecting its membership, and managing tri-annual meetings of the Council on Governmental Affairs, a policy-making body composed of ADA members.

Upon learning of O'Donnell's retirement, appellant Carole Kolstad, then serving as ADA's Director of Federal Agency Relations, and Tom Spangler, then ADA's Legislative Counsel, each expressed interest in O'Donnell's job. A lawyer, Kolstad had handled federal regulatory issues at ADA for four years, consistently receiving "distinguished" performance evaluations from the Director of ADA's Washington office, a position held in 1992 by Leonard Wheat. Earlier in her career, Kolstad had spent six years in the General Counsel's office of the Department of Defense, where she drafted proposed legislation, prepared testimony for Congressional hearings, and represented the Department's interests on Capitol Hill. Also a lawyer, Spangler had worked at ADA for twenty months, focusing on legislative issues facing the organization. He too had received "distinguished" performance evaluations from Wheat. Prior to joining ADA, Spangler had spent five years lobbying Congress on behalf of the National Treasury Employees Union. Kolstad and Spangler each had experience working with O'Donnell, with Spangler principally supporting his lobbying efforts and Kolstad, his management of the Council.

Although Wheat had the authority to name O'Donnell's replacement, he asked Dr. William Allen, ADA's Executive Director in Chicago, to make the appointment. After consulting with Wheat, Allen drafted a revised "Position Description Questionnaire" for O'Donnell's job that incorporated verbatim many of the job responsibilities recorded on the Position Description Questionnaire that had been used to hire Spangler for the Legislative Counsel position in 1991. In October 1992, three months before O'Donnell's retirement, Wheat signed a performance evaluation of Spangler that listed as one of Spangler's 1993 goals to "provide management and administrative support ... for the Council on Government Affairs," work that O'Donnell was then performing.

Spangler formally applied for O'Donnell's position once it was posted in mid-November 1992. After writing Allen that Wheat had refused for several weeks to meet with her to discuss her interest in the position, Kolstad also applied. Following interviews with both Spangler and Kolstad, Wheat recommended Spangler for the job. Allen then offered Spangler the promotion, which he accepted. Informing Kolstad of the decision, Allen explained that she lacked experience with health care reform and was too valuable to ADA in her current position to take on O'Donnell's job.

After exhausting her administrative remedies before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Kolstad filed suit, charging ADA with unlawful employment discrimination and seeking equitable relief, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(g)(1), and damages, 42 U.S.C. § 1981a (1994). In her complaint, Kolstad demanded a jury trial on all claims. Prior to opening arguments at trial, Kolstad informed the district court that the parties had agreed to try her claims for equitable relief to the court, with the jury rendering an advisory verdict on back pay pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 39(c). The court agreed to try to the bench Kolstad's claim for the equitable remedy of instatement, but declined to rule on whether the jury would render an advisory verdict on the back pay claim. Kolstad proceeded to try her case to the jury, introducing evidence to support an award of back pay. At the close of evidence, the district court denied ADA's motion for judgment as a matter of law, but dismissed Kolstad's claims for compensatory and punitive damages, finding insufficient evidence to support them. With respect to back pay, the court stated, "I am going to put it to the jury and we can leave until after the fact whether it's advisory or binding."

Answering two special interrogatories, one on liability and the other on "damages," the jury found that ADA had unlawfully discriminated against Kolstad on the basis of sex, awarding her $52,718, precisely the amount she sought as back pay. Kolstad then moved for instatement into the position occupied by Spangler and for attorney's fees. ADA renewed its motion for judgment as a matter of law. In a memorandum opinion, the district court denied both motions. Kolstad v. American Dental Ass'n, 912 F.Supp. 13 (D.D.C.1996). After concluding that the jury could properly find unlawful discrimination from the evidence, and that the jury's award of back pay was "conclusive" under Rule 39(c), the court held that Kolstad was not entitled to further equitable relief or attorney's fees because she had failed to prove "to the Court's satisfaction" that she was a victim of sex discrimination. Id. at 14 n. 1, 15-16. The court entered judgment against ADA in the amount of the jury award.

On appeal, Kolstad challenges the district court's refusal to allow the jury to consider an award of punitive damages, as well as the court's denial of her claims for instatement into the Director's job and attorney's fees. ADA cross-appeals the court's denial of its motion for judgment as a matter of law and the court's ruling that the jury's verdict was binding.

II

We begin with ADA's challenge to the district court's denial of its motion for judgment as a matter of law. Reviewing the district court's ruling de novo, we ask whether the evidence was sufficient for a reasonable jury to have reached the challenged verdict. Mackey v. United States, 8 F.3d 826, 829 (D.C.Cir.1993).

Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act provides that:

It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer--

(l) to fail or refuse to hire ... or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to ... compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual's ... sex....

42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a). In McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973), the Supreme Court set forth the basic allocation of burdens and order of proof in Title VII cases alleging discriminatory treatment, as the complaint does in this case. The plaintiff bears the initial burden of proving a prima facie case of discrimination. Id. at 802, 93 S.Ct. at 1824. Where sex discrimination in promotion is alleged, a plaintiff proves her prima facie case by showing that she is female, that she was refused a position for which she applied and was qualified, and that the employer filled the position with a male. See Valentino v. United States Postal Serv., 674 F.2d 56, 63 (D.C.Cir.1982); Bundy v. Jackson, 641 F.2d 934, 951 (D.C.Cir.1981). If established, the prima facie case raises an inference of discrimination that the employer may rebut with evidence of legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons for the plaintiff's rejection. McDonnell Douglas, 411 U.S. at 802, 93 S.Ct. at 1824. The plaintiff then bears the ultimate burden of persuading the jury of intentional discrimination, which she may satisfy by proving that the defendant's proffered reasons were pretexts for unlawful discrimination. Barbour v. Merrill, 48 F.3d 1270, 1277 (D.C.Cir.1995), cert. granted,516 U.S. 1086, 116 S.Ct. 805, 133 L.Ed.2d 752, cert. dismissed,516 U.S. 1155, 116 S.Ct. 1037, 134 L.Ed.2d 113 (1996); see McDonnell Douglas, 411 U.S. at 802-805, 93 S.Ct. at 1824-26.

As in the district court, ADA concedes that Kolstad "met the paper qualifications for the vacancy," Appellee/Cross-Appellant's Br. at 37, and that the jury could have reasonably found that, despite her qualifications, "Kolstad never was in the running" for the Director's job because Executive Director Allen had decided, before...

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