McGaughy v. Laclede Gas Co.

• Decision Date: 14 April 2020
• Docket Number: No. ED 107498,ED 107498
• Citation: 604 S.W.3d 730
• Parties: Danielle MCGAUGHY, Respondent, v. LACLEDE GAS COMPANY, et al., Appellants.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

604 S.W.3d 730

Danielle MCGAUGHY, Respondent,

v.LACLEDE GAS COMPANY, et al., Appellants.

No. ED 107498

Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, DIVISION ONE.

FILED: April 14, 2020

Motion for Rehearing and/or Transfer to Supreme Court Denied May 21, 2020

Application for Transfer to Supreme Court Denied September 1, 2020

FOR APPELLANT, Mark G. Arnold, Terry Lee Potter, Brittany Marie Falkowski, Scott Daniel Meyers, 190 Carondelet Plaza, Suite 160, Clayton, MO 63105, Booker T. Shaw, One US Bank Plaza, St. Louis, MO 63101.

For Respondent, Edward Emmett Keenan, Sonal Keena Bhatia, 1301 Oak Street, Suite 510, Kansas City, MO 64106, Joan Marie Swartz, 8050 Watson Road, Suite 355, St. Louis, MO 63119, Kelly Clare Frickleton, 3012 West 117^th Street, Leawood, KS 66211, Edward D. Robertson, Jr., 715 Swifts Highway, Jefferson City, MO 65109, Edward D. Robertson III, 11150 Overbrook Road, Suite 200, Leawood, KS 66211.

ROY L. RICHTER, Judge

Laclede Gas Co. ("Appellant") appeals from the judgment of the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis, following a jury trial, awarding Danielle McGaughy ("Respondent") $1.3 million in actual damages and $7.2 million in punitive damages on her claims for race discrimination and retaliation. We affirm. We also remand to the trial court to determine the appropriate attorneys’ fees award.

I. Background

Based on our applicable standard of review, we review the evidene "in the light most favorable to the result reached by the jury, giving the plaintiff the benefit of all reasonable inferences and disregarding evidence and inferences that conflict with that verdict." Giddens v. Kansas City S. Ry. Co., 29 S.W.3d 813, 818 (Mo. banc 2000).

Respondent is an African-American woman born and raised in St. Joseph, Missouri. After finishing high school in 1989, she alternated between going to college and working before eventually graduating from what is now Missouri Western State University with a paralegal certificate and two-year associate degree in legal studies, in 1996.

After graduating, Respondent began a career in the legal field. First, she went to work for the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office, working in the anti-drug "COMBAT" unit. In this position she performed administrative duties, drafted interrogatories, served search warrants, performed searches in the field, and prepared documents for discovery. After five years with the prosecutor's office, Respondent went to work as a legal assistant for the Jackson County Family Court. In that position she obtained information from confidential informants, prepared documents for discovery, performed legal research and writing, prepared witnesses for testimony, and issued subpoenas for hospital records. Next, an attorney Respondent knew at the Kansas City Public School District ("KCPSD") recruited her to work there. In that role she conducted on-site investigations, investigated complaints about teachers, spoke with witnesses, wrote reports, and debriefed her attorney supervisor. Respondent later went to work with a trademark firm in Atlanta, Georgia, handling discovery matters, before returning to Missouri to work as a municipal court clerk, where she managed pretrial and traffic dockets.

In 2004 Respondent went to work for Missouri Gas Energy ("MGE"), which was later acquired by Appellant. Respondent testified at trial that she took that position because she felt this was "a company that I would retire at." Initially she worked in the legal department at the Kansas City office as a legal assistant. In 2006 she became a full-time gas supply specialist, participating in Sarbanes-Oxley audits, monitoring federal gas tariffs, storage contracts, gas pipeline and supplier contracts, and performing administrative duties. However, the long commute between St. Joseph and Kansas City took away from the time Respondent could spend with her son, whom she raised as a single-mother. Thus, in 2008 she transferred to the St. Joseph office and became an engineering technician.

Once Respondent started working in the St. Joseph office, she immediately began experiencing what she would eventually describe as the "toxic" work environment in that office. She was the only African-American in the St. Joseph office. Her first day in the office, she heard two Caucasian co-workers discussing how "blacks don't take pride in their work, where they live, or anything." The woman who was supposed to train her, Diane Munsell ("Munsell"), provided only minimal training. Respondent testified that when she was out of the office, Munsell would go through her desk, making it "her mission ... to find something to go tell and complain about." When Respondent's co-worker Steve Gard ("Gard"), a Caucasian man, confronted Munsell about why she was not adequately training Respondent, Munsell replied, "I don't want my job taken by a n****r."

Things only got worse for Respondent when Robert Hart ("Hart"), became her supervisor roughly two years after she transferred to St. Joseph. Hart reported to Gary Williams ("Williams"), who presided over both the Kansas City and St. Joseph offices. Respondent called multiple witnesses at trial who testified, over Appellant's objection, to hearing Hart repeatedly use the word "n*****r," and using the terms "n****r-rigged" and "jigaboo." In addition to Hart, fellow employees Barb Labass ("Labass") and Bill Martin ("Martin") contributed to the toxic environment. Respondent testified that Labass, whose office was next door to hers, prominently displayed Paula Deen magazines on her desk after the scandal leaked that Deen had used the word "n****r" in reference to an African-American employee. The magazines were not there before the scandal broke. Additionally, Respondent once found an email Labass was photocopying and circulating in the office. She testified that the email said "that the blacks and Mexicans were taking over," and that "Obama was going to bankrupt and close all the banks...."

Bill Martin ("Martin") was also a central figure in the racially charged environment in the St. Joseph office. Martin would mockingly sing in the office, "Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we're free at last like these m****r f*****s are." One of Respondent's witnesses at trial also testified that he heard Martin use the n-word "too many times to count."

Eventually, Respondent had enough. In 2013 she filed a human resources complaint about racial discrimination in the St. Joseph office with Clarence Moran ("Moran"), a Human Resources officer. Her HR complaint pointed to, inter alia , Hart and Martin's conduct in the office. Respondent met with Williams, Moran, and Hart the following Monday. Instead of addressing Respondent's complaint, Williams accused her of having an intimate relationship with Gard, a Caucasian co-worker. Moran followed Williams by telling Respondent that she needed to look at herself and see why people treated her the way they did. The panel then alleged that Respondent was not helpful to her co-workers, and that a number of them were complaining about her. Respondent noted that her recent performance review had not mentioned anything about co-workers complaining about her.

After that meeting, Respondent called the company's HR hotline and filed a complaint with the third-party Appellant used to administer HR complaints. On April 17, 2013, Respondent drafted a formal memo outlining her complaint in further detail, and sent the Memo to Williams, Moran, Hart, and HR Vice President, Deborah Hayes (HR VP). Williams then called her, said "you got their f*****g attention" and hung up the phone. The third-party investigator who spoke with Respondent confirmed there was no evidence of her co-workers complaining about her performance, but the investigation eventually concluded that there was no discrimination. Hart was eventually transferred to Kansas City, where he remained in a management role, and continued the conduct about which Respondent complained. He was also allowed to keep his company car. Before his transfer, Hart told Williams that Respondent did not have enough work to keep her busy, so Respondent was given an additional workload without an increase in pay.

The toxic environment in the St. Joseph office continued after Respondent's HR complaint, despite the company ordering a diversity training. In February 2014, Martin barged into Respondent's office, joined by two other men, and began shouting at Respondent. Martin yelled "[y]ou don't know a f*****g thing and you don't do a f*****g thing. You're a nothing and a nobody." Martin also warned Respondent that she needed to "f*****g leave me off your radar." Respondent complained to Moran, but again, nothing was done.

The Claims Supervisor Position

Around the time of the incident with Martin, Appellant posted an opening for a claims supervisor position. By that time Respondent had a bachelor's degree in legal studies and was pursuing a master's degree. Because she had prior experience in the legal field, and this position would provide a substantial raise, Respondent applied for the position. Respondent was eventually interviewed by a panel consisting of Nicole Fondren ("Fondren"), an African-American HR employee, Mike Smith ("Smith") one of Appellant's in-house lawyers, and Joe Gallagher ("Gallagher"), the Claims Manager. When Respondent emerged from this interview as the top candidate, Gallagher decided he wanted to interview more people. Smith then approached Laura Garcia ("Garcia"), who is Caucasian and worked for Williams, to apply despite the fact that she had not applied for the position. A new round of interviews was held, except this time Fondren, the lone African-American on the original panel, was replaced by Cindy Dove ("Dove"), a Caucasian woman who performed HR investigations for Appellant in Kansas City. Garcia was hired for the position.

Transfer to Kansas City

In May 2014, with roughly one week's notice, Williams ordered Respondent to begin commuting the 63 miles to the Kansas City...