Miller v. Kenworth of Dothan Inc., No. 00-10554

• Decision Date: 02 January 2002
• Docket Number: No. 00-10554
• Citation: 277 F.3d 1269
• Parties: (11th Cir. 2002) BRADLEY MILLER, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. KENWORTH OF DOTHAN INC., a Corporation, Defendant-Appellant
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 1269

277 F.3d 1269 (11th Cir. 2002)

BRADLEY MILLER, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. KENWORTH OF DOTHAN INC., a Corporation, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 00-10554

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS ELEVENTH CIRCUIT

January 2, 2002

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Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama

Before TJOFLAT and BIRCH, Circuit Judges, and VINING^*, District Judge.

TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge:

The appeal in this Title VII case presents two issues: (1) whether the plaintiff made out a hostile work environment claim sufficient for the jury, and (2) whether the evidence showed that the employer acted with actual malice or reckless indifference to the plaintiff's federally protected rights. We resolve the first issue in favor of the plaintiff, and the second in favor of the employer.

I.

A.

The employer is Kenworth of Dothan, Inc. ("Kenworth"). Its owner and president is Robert Mitchell, who also owns and manages Kenworth of Birmingham, Inc. Both companies are tractor-trailer dealerships. They are supervised by the following officers, stationed in Birmingham: Andy Thurmond, Director of Operations; Jeff Weaver, Director of Parts and Services; and Laura Box, Sales Manager. Weaver and Box alternately travel from Birmingham to Dothan to supervise the dealership there. The only managers located in Dothan on a permanent basis are Tommy Davenport, manager of the Parts Department, and David Brooks, manager of the Service Department. Both of these managers report directly to Weaver.

Bradley Miller, a Mexican-American, was employed in Dothan's Parts Department as the back counter parts salesman from September to December 22, 1997, when Mitchell fired him. During that time his job duties consisted of distributing parts to the service technicians in the Service Department. The Service Department consisted of eight technicians and one shop foreman, Randy Galpin, who was hired in November 1997.

Shortly after Miller came to work in September, his coworkers in the two departments gave him several nicknames, principally "Julio," "Chico," and "Taco." Miller did not complain about his coworkers' use of these nicknames until Galpin came to work, and started calling him "Wetback," "Spic," and "Mexican Mother F-----." He told Brooks, Galpin's direct supervisor, "to tell [Galpin] . . . to watch what he says to me." Brooks knew what Galpin was doing; his office was located in the shop, where much of the name-calling occurred, and on some occasions he was actually present. Although he had the authority and responsibility to intervene, Brooks did nothing; he neither disciplined Galpin nor reported the matter to Weaver.

When, during a visit to the Dothan location, Box overheard another employee refer to Miller as "Julio" or "Taco," she immediately reported the incident to Weaver, who, in turn, reported the problem to Mitchell. In response, Mitchell instructed Thurmond to review the company's anti-discrimination policies¹ with the employees in Dothan at the November safety meeting, to be held the following week.

Brooks, Galpin, and Miller were among those present at that meeting. Focusing on the use of ethnic slurs, Thurmond warned the employees that anyone using such slurs would be terminated immediately, and instructed them to report any such incidents. After the meeting, Miller's coworkers stopped using the derogatory nicknames, except for Galpin. Thurmond's warning notwithstanding, he persisted in calling Miller "Wetback," "Spic," or "Mexican Mother F-----" until Miller was fired, on December 22, 1997.

B.

After filing a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and obtaining a right to sue letter, Miller brought this suit against Kenworth, under 42 U.S.C. § 2000(e)(1)-(17), and 42 U.S.C. § 1981. Claiming that Kenworth had subjected him to an ethnically hostile work environment and had retaliated against him for complaining about it, Miller sought legal relief in the form of compensatory and punitive damages and equitable relief. Answering Miller's complaint, Kenworth denied (1) that Miller had been subjected to ethnic discrimination sufficient to create a hostile work environment; (2) that, even assuming a hostile work environment, it had notice thereof; and (3) that it terminated Miller's employment for discriminatory reasons. It terminated his employment, Kenworth asserted, because of his poor work performance and his "vengeful attitude towards management."

The case proceeded to trial on Miller's claims. At the close of the plaintiff's evidence, Kenworth made an oral motion for judgment as a matter of law pursuant to Rule 50(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The court did not rule on the motion, and, at the close of all of the evidence, Kenworth moved once again for judgment as a matter of law pursuant to Rule 50(a). The court reserved ruling on the motion and submitted the case to the jury under special interrogatories.² The jury found against Miller on his retaliatory discharge claim, but found for him on his hostile environment claim, awarding him $25,000 in compensatory damages.³ The jury also found that Kenworth had acted with malice and reckless indifference in creating the ethnically hostile work environment and therefore awarded Miller $50,000 in punitive damages.

The district court thereafter addressed Kenworth's Rule 50(a) motion for judgment as a matter of law and denied it.⁴ Kenworth now appeals.

II.

We review a district court's denial of a motion for judgment as a matter of law de novo. See Mendoza v. Borden, Inc., 195 F.3d 1238, 1244 (11th Cir. 1999). We therefore "review all of the evidence in the light most favorable to, and with all reasonable inferences drawn in favor of, the non-moving party." Walker v. NationsBank of Florida, N.A., 53 F.3d 1548, 1555 (11th Cir. 1995).⁵ We will uphold the district court's denial if we determine that "reasonable and fair-minded persons in the exercise of impartial judgment might reach different conclusions." Id. We will reverse that denial only if we conclude that "the facts and inferences point overwhelmingly in favor of [the moving party], such that reasonable people could not arrive at a contrary verdict." Combs v. Plantation Patterns, 106 F.3d 1519, 1526 (11th Cir. 1997) (citation omitted).

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discriminating "against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin." 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1). A hostile work environment claim under Title VII is established upon proof that "the workplace is permeated with discriminatory intimidation, ridicule, and insult, that is sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of the victim's employment and create an abusive working environment." Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc., 510 U.S. 17, 21, 114 S. Ct. 367, 370, 1126 L. Ed. 2d 295 (1993). This court has repeatedly instructed that a plaintiff wishing to establish a hostile work environment claim show: (1) that he belongs to a protected group; (2) that he has been subject to unwelcome harassment; (3) that the harassment must have been based on a protected characteristic of the employee, such as national origin; (4) that the harassment was sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the terms and conditions of employment and create a discriminatorily abusive working environment; and (5) that the employer is responsible for such environment under either a theory of vicarious or of direct liability. See, e.g., Mendoza, 195 F.3d at 1245 (applying these factors in the context of a hostile environment sexual harassment claim). Kenworth does not dispute that Miller belongs to a protected group (Mexican-Americans), or that the offensive comments were based on Miller's national origin and were unwelcome. Rather, Kenworth asserts that Miller failed to present substantial evidence to support findings in his favor on the fourth and fifth elements. We consider these elements in turn.

A.

Kenworth contends that Miller failed to present substantial evidence that the harassing conduct of Galpin was sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the terms or conditions of his employment. This requirement, as defined by the Supreme Court, contains both an objective and a subjective component. See Harris, 510 U.S. at 21-22, 114 S. Ct. 367, 370-71. Thus, to be actionable, this behavior must result in both an environment "that a reasonable person would find hostile or abusive" and an environment that the victim "subjectively perceive[s] . . . to be abusive." Id. Kenworth argues that Miller failed to carry his burden with respect to both criteria, and, as such, the district court erred in refusing to grant its motion for judgment as a matter of law.

In evaluating the objective severity of the harassment, we consider, among other factors: (1) the frequency of the conduct; (2) the severity of the conduct; (3) whether the conduct is physically threatening or humiliating, or a mere offensive utterance; and (4) whether the conduct unreasonably interferes with the employee's job performance. Allen v. Tyson Foods, 121 F.3d 642, 647 (11th Cir. 1997) (citing Harris, 510 U.S. at 23, 114 S. Ct. at 371). Kenworth argues that in failing to show how Galpin's conduct unreasonably interfered with his work performance, Miller necessarily failed to satisfy the objectiveness prong of the Allen test. In focusing on this single factor of the Allen analysis, Kenworth loses sight of the totality of the circumstances approach which we have adopted. See, e.g., Mendoza, 195 F.3d at 1246. Employing this approach, and considering all of the evidence in the light most favorable to Miller, we conclude that fair-minded jurors could have reasonably concluded that Miller suffered severe and pervasive harassment sufficient...