Park v. City of Chicago
| Decision Date | 22 July 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 01-2760.,No. 01-1552.,01-1552.,01-2760. |
| Citation | 297 F.3d 606 |
| Parties | Yu Jung PARK, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CITY OF CHICAGO, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Paul B. McCarthy (argued), Chicago, IL, Tracy L. Bradford, McCarthy & Bradford, Chicago, IL, for plaintiff-appellant.
Emily K. Paster (argued), Office of the Corporation Counsel Appeals Division, Ronald S. Safer, Schiff, Hardin & Waite, Chicago, IL, for defendant-appellee.
Before POSNER, RIPPLE and DIANE P. WOOD, Circuit Judges.
In February 1999, the Chicago Police Department ("CPD") terminated Yu Jung Park on the ground that she had abused her use of leave time from work. Soon after this decision, Ms. Park filed this action against the City of Chicago ("the City"). She alleged that the CPD terminated her because of her race and national origin in violation of Title VII and 42 U.S.C. § 1981. These claims proceeded to trial, and a jury returned a verdict for the City. Ms. Park now appeals and alleges that the district court made several erroneous rulings that affected the outcome of the trial. For the reasons set forth in the following opinion, we affirm.
In May 1998, Ms. Park, an Asian-American of Korean ancestry, graduated from the CPD's police academy. Although the CPD still considered Ms. Park a probationary police officer ("PPO"), it assigned her for field training in the Thirteenth District, a precinct on Chicago's west side. During her probationary period, Ms. Park generally received solid evaluations from her primary field training officer ("FTO"), Officer Miguel Reyes. A second officer who served as Ms. Park's temporary FTO for a two-week period provided a harsher critique of Ms. Park's performance. In particular, the temporary FTO, Officer Lily St. Pierre, noted deficiencies in Ms. Park's attitude and attention to detail.
Sergeant Bryon Uding of the Thirteenth District, at the direction of his watch commander, reviewed the negative evaluation with Ms. Park. The conversation became heated, and Ms. Park expressed in colorful terms her displeasure with Officer St. Pierre's training methodology. The sergeant's report of this incident prompted the commander of the police academy not only to counsel Ms. Park concerning her attitude but also to extend her probationary period. Throughout the autumn and winter months of 1998, Ms. Park spent several days on the medical roll, nearly depleting her leave time with the CPD.
In early 1999, citing an alleged abuse of leave time, the CPD convened a Field Evaluation Review Board ("FERB") to assess Ms. Park's performance. During the meeting, the FERB considered various materials, including the FTOs' evaluations of Ms. Park's performance, Sergeant Uding's report concerning his encounter with Ms. Park and information concerning Ms. Park's use of the medical roll. After considering these materials, the FERB unanimously recommended Ms. Park's termination; she learned of this action several days later.
In January 2000, almost one year after her termination, Ms. Park requested to review her CPD personnel file pursuant to the Illinois Personnel Record Review Act ("the Illinois Record Act" or "the Act"), 820 ILCS 40/1 to 40/12. In general terms, this state statutory scheme permits an employee to inspect personnel documents "used in determining [his] qualifications for employment, ... discharge or disciplinary action." 820 ILCS 40/2. If an employer fails to abide by the Act, an aggrieved employee may seek not only compliance but also sanctions against the employer through administrative, and in some cases, judicial channels. See 820 ILCS 40/2, 40/12. In particular, if an employer withholds personnel records from the employee, the Illinois Record Act prohibits the employer from using these documents against the employee in a judicial proceeding unless a judge determines that: (1) the failure to turn over the documents was unintentional; and (2) the employee has had a reasonable time to review the documents prior to trial. See 820 ILCS 40/4. In this case, the City responded to Ms. Park's request and turned over what it represented to be the entire contents of her personnel file.
After inspecting her personnel file, Ms. Park filed this action against the City. She alleged that the CPD terminated her because of her race and national origin in violation of Title VII and 42 U.S.C. § 1981. The district court promptly scheduled a trial date and established a stringent discovery schedule. The parties, however, quickly became embroiled in discovery disputes. In particular, on July 24, 2000, Ms. Park, through counsel, filed the first of several motions to compel the production of documents retained by the City. The City contested the motion on the ground that it had disclosed several thousand pages of documents in compliance with Ms. Park's discovery requests. Dissatisfied with this response, the district court entered judgment against the City on liability, but stayed the order to provide the parties with an opportunity to resolve the dispute. Although the City produced additional documents over the next two weeks, some of Ms. Park's discovery requests remained unfulfilled.
On August 10, the parties appeared before the district court. Although acknowledging that the City had disclosed thousands of records, Ms. Park's counsel emphasized that she had not received "performance evaluation[s] or disciplinary histor[ies], attendance records, the core documents ... need[ed] to prove [her] case in this matter." Tr.26-2 at 14. In response, the City stressed that it had responded to Ms. Park's broad discovery requests in "a very short period of time with very tight manpower" constraints. Id. at 6. Moreover, the City noted that it would continue its efforts to comply with Ms. Park's discovery requests. The district court, however, lifted the stay on its order and entered a judgment on liability in favor of Ms. Park. Several days later, on its own motion, the district court reversed course and entered the following order: "The court ... vacates its entry of judgment on liability for plaintiff as premature since discovery does not close until 9/5/00."1 R.22.
Over the next several months, the district court continued to work with the parties to resolve the remaining discovery disputes. Although granting Ms. Park's third motion to compel production of a small class of additional documents, the district court expressed concern that "this case is being over discovered." Tr.101-2 at 7. In December 2000, Ms. Park filed an additional motion to compel, seeking, among other things, the performance reviews of several additional police officers. In addition, Ms. Park's counsel expressed frustration with the City's failure to produce other documents and noted that she was Tr.101-5 at 4. Once again, the City reiterated that it had attempted vigorously to comply with the document requests and had produced, "substantially all that [it was] required to produce." Tr.101-5 at 2. The City indicated that many of the unproduced documents had been destroyed or could not be located. After considering the parties' positions, the district court again granted the motion to compel, but declined implicitly to impose sanctions on the City. The district court also instructed the City to provide Ms. Park with a formal response detailing the precise documents that had been lost or destroyed.
Shortly before trial, citing the missing and destroyed documents, Ms. Park requested that the district court provide the jury with an adverse inference instruction. In particular, Ms. Park submitted that a jury could infer from the City's failure to produce these records that the documents contained information adverse to its case. The district court, however, declined to give the instruction.
Prior to trial, Ms. Park also filed a motion in limine seeking the exclusion of certain documents ("the contested documents") from trial pursuant to the sanction provision of the Illinois Record Act. In July 2000, the City disclosed numerous documents relating to Ms. Park's termination from the CPD. However, some of these records — the contested documents — had been absent from Ms. Park's personnel file when she inspected it in January 2000. According to Ms. Park, the City had withheld intentionally these documents in January 2000 in violation of the Illinois Record Act. Ms. Park contended that the district court was obligated to exclude the documents in accordance with the sanction provision of the Illinois statute.
In addition, one week before trial, Ms. Park sought leave to amend her complaint to include a claim that the City had violated the Act. Again, she requested that the district court enforce the sanction provision of the statute and exclude the contested documents from trial.
The district court denied both motions. In particular, the court rejected Ms. Park's contention that the exclusionary provision of the state statute controlled in this federal question litigation. Moreover, the court noted that, even if the Act controlled, Ms. Park had failed to establish that the City intentionally withheld the contested documents — the necessary showing needed to trigger the sanction provision. Similarly, the court denied the motion to amend on the grounds that such an amendment would be futile and untimely. In particular, Ms. Park had failed to follow the administrative procedures necessary before a personal suit could be instituted under the Act, thereby rendering her amendment futile. In the alternative, the district court noted that Ms. Park knew of the potential violation of the Act in July 2000, but had waited until the eve of trial to...
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