Legg v. Ulster Cnty.

• Decision Date: 29 October 2020
• Docket Number: August Term, 2018,Docket No. 17-2861(L), 17-2863 (XAP)
• Citation: 979 F.3d 101
• Parties: Ann Marie LEGG, Plaintiff-Appellant, Patricia Watson, Plaintiff-Appellant–Cross-Appellee, v. ULSTER COUNTY, Paul J. Vanblarcum, in his official capacity as Sheriff of the County of Ulster, and individually, Defendants-Appellees–Cross-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

979 F.3d 101

Ann Marie LEGG, Plaintiff-Appellant,Patricia Watson, Plaintiff-Appellant–Cross-Appellee,

v.ULSTER COUNTY, Paul J. Vanblarcum, in his official capacity as Sheriff of the County of Ulster, and individually, Defendants-Appellees–Cross-Appellants.^*

Docket No. 17-2861(L), 17-2863 (XAP)

August Term, 2018

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued: September 27, 2018

Decided: October 29, 2020

Stephen Bergstein, Bergstein & Ullrich, LLP, New Paltz, NY, Brendan Klaproth, Esq., Washington, DC, & Joseph Ranni, Esq., Florida, NY, for Plaintiff-Appellant–Cross-Appellee Patricia Watson.

Matthew J. Kelly (Amanda Davis Twinam, on the brief), Roemer Wallens Gold & Mineaux, LLP, Albany, NY, for Defendants-Appellees–Cross-Appellants Ulster County and Paul J. VanBlarcum.

Gillian L. Thomas, Lenora M. Lapidus, Women's Rights Project, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, New York, NY & Elizabeth Morris, Cynthia Thomas Calvert, Center for WorkLife Law, UC Hastings College of the Law, San Francisco, CA, for Amici Curiae American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, et al.

Before: Hall, Lynch, and Carney, Circuit Judges.

Carney, Circuit Judge:

This case—on its second trip to our Court—arises from hostile work environment claims brought by four female employees of the Ulster County Jail, including Plaintiff-Appellant–Cross-Appellee Patricia Watson. After trial in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York (Scullin, J. ), a jury awarded Watson a total of $400,000 on her claims against Defendants-Appellees–Cross-Appellants Ulster County and Paul J. VanBlarcum (together, "the County") under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. , and 42 U.S.C. § 1983. In reliance on the district court's invitation to file its post-trial motions two weeks after receiving trial transcripts, the County filed motions for judgment as a matter of law or, alternatively, for a new trial, under Fed. R. Civ. P. 50(b) and 59(b). These were untimely under the Rules, although not under the district court's invitation. The district court then sua sponte denied the motions based on the restrictions established by Fed. R. Civ. P. 6(b)(2) on extending time for filing such motions. On appeal, we vacated the denial order and remanded, holding that Rules 6(b)(2), 50(b), and 59(b), establish claim-processing, not jurisdictional, rules, and therefore that the court had jurisdiction to consider them on their merits if it determined that objection to untimeliness was waived or forfeited, or if an equitable exception applied. See Legg v. Ulster Cty. , 820 F.3d 67, 79 (2d Cir. 2016).

On remand, the district court found that Watson "constructively waived" her objection to the untimeliness of the County's motions by not objecting when the motions were filed and before the district court sua sponte denied them two days later. It then entered orders reducing her Title VII award to $75,000 and overturning the jury verdict in her favor on her § 1983 claim for want of evidence of an unlawful municipal custom or practice as called for by Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978).

Both Watson and the County now appeal. Watson assails the district court's determination that she "constructively waived" her objection to the motions’ untimeliness, and further challenges the court's rejection of the jury's verdict on her § 1983 claim. For its part, the County urges on cross-appeal primarily that the district court erred by rejecting its motion for judgment as a matter of law on Watson's Title VII claim. It further submits that Watson's acceptance of remittitur on her Title VII claim forecloses entirely her appeal of the judgment.

As to Watson's procedural challenge, we decide that Watson forfeited her right to object to the untimeliness of the County's post-trial motions by failing to raise the issue contemporaneously with the district court's grant of the extension. We further reject the County's position that Watson's acceptance of remittitur on her Title VII claims forecloses her appeal of the judgment insofar as it relates to her § 1983 claim.

As to the merits, we affirm the judgment in Watson's favor on her Title VII claim and reject the County's cross-appeal seeking judgment in its favor on that claim as a matter of law. With regard to Watson's § 1983 claim against the County, we conclude that the district court erred in entering judgment as a matter of law for the County: the jury had a reasonable basis for its finding of sufficient municipal involvement to support its award to Watson. Accordingly, we AFFIRM the court's entry of judgment in Watson's favor on her Title VII claim, VACATE the court's entry of judgment for the County on Watson's § 1983 claim, and REMAND the cause with directions to reinstate the jury's verdict accordingly and, on motion of the parties, to consider the appropriateness of remittitur on Watson's § 1983 damages award.

BACKGROUND¹

I. The work environment at the Ulster County Jail

In 2000, plaintiff-appellant Watson began working as a corrections officer at the Ulster County Jail, leaving her position there in 2010 to retire. In 2009, Watson joined with co-plaintiffs Ann Marie Legg, Patricia Meadors, and Nancy Reyes, each a former corrections officer employed by the Ulster County Jail, to sue the County, asserting hostile work environment and other claims related to the conditions of their employment at the Jail. A 2014 jury trial produced a mixed verdict. The appeal that we address in this Opinion concerns only Watson's hostile work environment claims under Title VII and § 1983, on which the jury found in Watson's favor.² We refer to the testimony of all of the testifying plaintiffs, however, in evaluating Watson's contentions on appeal.³

The plaintiffs’ evidence . At trial, the testifying plaintiffs offered proof of a pervasively sexualized working environment inhospitable to female employees.⁴ During the years from 2007 to 2009, they testified, pornographic magazines circulated freely and openly among male Ulster County Jail officers, and numerous officers—including supervisors—used pornographic screensavers on their work computers.

For instance, as to conditions in 2007 and 2008, Reyes testified as follows:

I saw [male officers] with the magazines of Hustler, Playboy in their hand [or] sometimes in their back pocket. They would have the pictures folded outward instead of inward so you could see what the magazine was. ... [T]here were screen savers with women with their breasts hanging out of their shirts and their short shorts with their bottoms sticking out[.] [On their iPods] they would be playing music [with sexually explicit lyrics].

J. App'x 547–48. Reyes identified individual officers who engaged in this behavior during that time period. Id. She estimated that "at least two to three times a week you would see a supervisor with a new porn magazine in their hand with a sergeant and a corporal looking it over and ... making comments [like] [‘]I'll do that babe anytime.[’]" Id. at 551.

For her part, Legg testified that "going through my desk [drawers]", she found "Playboys, Maxims and occasional[ly] Hustler, which is more graphic," and estimated that she saw such magazines in the possession of certain officers on a weekly basis from February 2007 through November 2008. Id. at 954–57. Watson also reported seeing pornographic magazines such as Maxim and Playboy in her work area from 2007 through 2010, as well as pornographic materials on supervisors’ computers, including "a screen saver of a woman with just a black sash going across her chest and her vagina[l] area." Id. at 994, 996. Reyes testified that, in March or April 2007, she reported the presence of "magazines being right there in plain sight on my work duty station" to two lieutenants, but no action was taken. Id. at 554–57. Plaintiffs also testified about workplace incidents concerning sexual comments and banter, inappropriate touching, and, in Watson's case, male officers’ practice of making "references to my butt [and] references to my chest and what they would like to do sexually." Id. at 995–96.

Watson's testimony confirmed that of her colleagues. Her focus, however, and what distinguished her claim for a hostile work environment from that of the other plaintiffs, lay on two incidents that led her to complain formally about conduct directed at her by Officer Kevin Divorl, one of her non-supervisory colleagues at the Jail. In 2005, Watson was assigned to work in the Jail's intake department, where she was responsible for training Divorl, who was new at the time. She told several officers—including a supervisor, Corporal Ferro—that she couldn't work with Divorl, because he made her feel "very uncomfortable[,] the way he would look at me [and] watch me." J. App'x 996-97. During this training period, Watson testified, Divorl "would come up behind [her], put his hand around [her] chair and have his head right next to [hers], breathing down [her] neck continuously and he would come up behind [her] all the time." Id. at 997.

Watson asked Divorl to stop. He persisted, however, and, in a first formal complaint, she reported his behavior to Corporal Ferro. According to Watson, Ferro spoke with Divorl and then explained to Watson that "[Divorl] was training and needed to watch [her]." Id. (emphasis added). Ferro did nothing more to end Divorl's objectionable conduct, id ., and Watson's assignment was not altered: she continued to train and then work with Divorl.

The second incident between Watson and Divorl that led Watson to make a formal report took place two years later, in 2007. Watson, who was then stationed with Divorl in the Jail's intake department, was experiencing back pain related to a kidney infection. Watson testified that, one day during this period, Divorl brought a massage chair into the office ostensibly to help Watson with her back pain. After Watson declined to use the chair, Divorl...