Munoz v. Oceanside Resorts Inc.

• Citation: 223 F.3d 1340
• Decision Date: 25 August 2000
• Docket Number: Nos. 99-12360,99-13346,s. 99-12360
• Parties: (11th Cir. 2000) Benigno MUNOZ, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. OCEANSIDE RESORTS, INC. and Miami Beach Resorts, Inc., Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (11th Circuit)

Page 1340

223 F.3d 1340 (11th Cir. 2000)

Benigno MUNOZ, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. OCEANSIDE RESORTS, INC. and Miami Beach Resorts, Inc., Defendants-Appellants.

Nos. 99-12360, 99-13346.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

Aug. 25, 2000.

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. (No. 96-03132-CV-SH), Shelby Highsmith, Judge.

Before EDMONDSON, BARKETT and KRAVITCH, Circuit Judges.

KRAVITCH, Circuit Judge:

In these consolidated appeals, we decide as an issue of first impression in this circuit whether an employer which demonstrates only that it eliminated an age discrimination plaintiff's former position satisfies its burden of proving that it legitimately would have terminated said plaintiff, thus precluding an award of front pay. We consider additionally: whether, following a jury verdict for the plaintiff, the district court improperly denied defendants' motion for judgment as a matter of law; whether the district court adequately instructed the jury regarding the plaintiff's evidentiary burden; and whether the damages award was excessive.

I. BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Plaintiff-Appellee Benigno Munoz, prior to his termination at age sixty-four, worked as a room service waiter at the Holiday Inn Oceanside Resort, owned and operated by Defendants-Appellants Oceanside Resorts, Inc. and Miami Beach Resorts, Inc. (collectively, the "Resort"). During his twenty-seven years of employment at the Resort, Munoz received numerous performance awards and, excepting the day of his termination, no official reprimands. On May 10, 1995, however, Manuel Gonzalez, the Resort's General Manager, issued Munoz a written reprimand¹ after observing Munoz kissing Susan Eddy, a female co-worker, on the cheek the day before. Gonzalez instructed Munoz not to discuss his reprimand with anyone. Although Munoz does not specifically admit to the incident for which he was reprimanded, he concedes that he often greeted female co-workers with a kiss on the cheek, as is customary among individuals of Cuban decent. He qualifies, however, that such has been his practice throughout the duration of his employment; that the Resort's management was aware, yet previously never objected to, this practice; and that no female employee ever has complained of this practice.

The ensuing events are in dispute. The Resort claims, but Munoz denies, that Munoz confronted Mercedes Rea, Gonzalez's secretary, whose signature appeared on the reprimand, and chided her for her complicity. Rea allegedly reported this confrontation to Gonzalez, who ordered Munoz's discharge. Jorge Antonio, another Resort manager, informed Munoz that the Resort was terminating him for insubordination, or more specifically, for having defied Gonzalez's instruction not to discuss his reprimand. Antonio directed a security guard to escort Munoz from the Resort.

The Resort replaced Munoz with Luis Salas, who at that time was over forty years of age, but twenty-three or twenty-four years younger than Munoz. Salas's disciplinary record reveals that prior to his reassignment to Munoz's former position, Salas received at least three written reprimands, yet was not terminated.

After complying with the prerequisite administrative protocol, Munoz filed against the Resort a complaint in which he alleged age discrimination in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (the "ADEA"), 29 U.S.C. 621-634, and the Florida Civil Rights Act (the "FCRA"), Fla. Stat. ch. 760. Following a three-day trial, the jury rendered a verdict in Munoz's favor and awarded him $208,838 in damages: $58,838 in back pay and $150,000 in compensatory damages for emotional distress and dignitary injury. Additionally, the district court, on a separate motion, awarded Munoz $58,838 in liquidated damages² and $22,449.80 in front pay, bringing Munoz's total damages award to $290,125.80.

II. ANALYSIS

Pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 50(b) and 59, the Resort filed a renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law or, alternatively, for a new trial or remittitur, all of which the district court denied. The Resort appeals these denials.³ Specifically, the Resort asserts: (1) it was entitled to a judgment as a matter of law because Munoz failed to rebut sufficiently its nondiscriminatory explanation for Munoz's termination; (2) a new trial is warranted because the district court inadequately instructed the jury and because the jury's damages award was excessive; and (3) the district court erred in not remitting the excessive damages award. We consider each assertion in turn. For the sake of concision, we treat the damages issues together.

A.The Resort's Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law

We review de novo the district court's denial of the Resort's Rule 50(b) motion, applying the same standard as the district court. See Boeing Co. v. Shipman, 411 F.2d 365, 374 (5th Cir.1969) (en banc).⁴ In considering the evidence presented at trial, we draw all factual inferences and resolve all credibility determinations in the favor of the nonmoving party. See id. A Rule 50(b) motion should only be granted where "reasonable [jurors] could not arrive at a contrary verdict." Id.

Munoz concedes that he has no direct evidence of the Resort's intent to terminate him because of his age. Relying instead on circumstantial evidence, Munoz alleged his age discrimination claim within the analytical framework outlined in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 1824, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973). See Turlington v. Atlanta Gas Light Co., 135 F.3d 1428, 1432 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, 525 U.S. 962, 119 S.Ct. 405, 142 L.Ed.2d 329 (1998) (applying the McDonnell Douglas framework to an ADEA claim). Once Munoz established a prima facie case of discrimination, an intermediate burden of production shifted to the Resort to proffer a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for Munoz's termination. See id. The Resort satisfied that burden by explaining that it terminated Munoz for insubordination. Munoz was then obliged to introduce evidence demonstrating that the Resort's proffered reason was pretextual, see id., which the Resort contends Munoz failed to do. We disagree. At trial, Munoz presented a substantial quantum of evidence from which a reasonable jury could infer that the Resort's proffered explanation for his termination was pretextual.⁵ We focus on the evidence most critical to Munoz's satisfaction of this burden: Munoz's assertion that he did not engage in insubordinate conduct.

Munoz testified that he never confronted Rea in defiance of Gonzalez's instruction not to discuss his reprimand.⁶ Munoz's testimony directly contradicted that of Rea,⁷ creating a factual conflict properly resolved by the jury. The jurors could have credited the testimony of either Munoz or Rea, as such determinations are within their province, and neither the district court nor this court may substitute its judgment for theirs. See Boeing, 411 F.2d at 375. The Resort, however, contests the relevance of whether or not the confrontation actually occurred; in its own words, "[a]ll that matters is whether Rea told, truthfully or not, Gonzalez of the alleged confrontation."⁸ In the Resort's view, Gonzalez's subjective belief that the confrontation occurred justified his decision to terminate Munoz. The Resort, however, underestimates the effect that impugning Rea's credibility might have had on the jury. Rea was the Resort's only witness at trial⁹ and therefore the only person to testify that she informed Gonzalez of a confrontation. If the jury rejected Rea's testimony concerning the alleged confrontation, it likewise could reject her further testimony regarding the reporting of that incident. A reasonable jury accordingly could accept Munoz's theory of events: that Gonzalez concocted a scheme that included both a bogus reprimand and a subsequent false accusation of insubordination to cover his discriminatory desire to discharge an older employee.

The Resort contends that even if Munoz produced sufficient evidence suggesting pretext, it nonetheless was entitled to judgment as a matter of law because Munoz failed to introduce any evidence of the Resort's intent to discriminate against him on the basis of his age. Essentially, the Resort argues that Munoz may not survive its motion merely by discrediting the Resort's proffered reason for the termination. In Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc., --- U.S. ----, 120 S.Ct. 2097, 2109, 147 L.Ed.2d 105 (2000), however, the Supreme Court held to the contrary, explaining that "a plaintiff's prima facie case, combined with sufficient evidence to find that the employer's asserted justification is false, may permit the trier of fact to conclude that the employer unlawfully discriminated." Although the Resort is correct that under the McDonnell Douglas framework, a plaintiff shoulders the ultimate burden of proving that age motivated the adverse employment action, see Texas Dep't of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 256, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 1095, 67 L.Ed.2d 207 (1981), the plaintiff may satisfy this burden indirectly by undermining the legitimacy of the employer's proffered reason. To require otherwise would impose on the plaintiff the encumbrance of producing direct evidence of discrimination within an evidentiary framework specifically designed for situations in which no such evidence is available.

B.The Resort's Challenge to the Adequacy of the Jury Instructions

The Resort asserts that it is entitled to a new trial because the district court inadequately instructed the jury of Munoz's evidentiary burden both for establishing his prima facie case and for demonstrating that the Resort's proffered reason for his termination was pretextual. We review a district court's instructions to a jury as outlined in Pesaplastic, C.A. v. Cincinnati Milacron Co., 750...