Rivera-Torres v. Ortiz Velez

• Citation: 341 F.3d 86
• Decision Date: 26 August 2003
• Docket Number: No. 02-2539.,No. 03-1074.,02-2539.,03-1074.
• Parties: Santos RIVERA-TORRES; Daisy Nazario-Santana; Conjugal Partnership Rivera-Nazario; Yasira Rivera-Nazario, Minor; Zahira Rivera-Nazario, Minor, Plaintiffs, Appellees, v. Miguel G. ORTIZ VELEZ, Mayor of the Municipality of Sabana Grande; Municipality of Sabana Grande, Defendants, Appellants.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (1st Circuit)

341 F.3d 86

Santos RIVERA-TORRES; Daisy Nazario-Santana; Conjugal Partnership Rivera-Nazario; Yasira Rivera-Nazario, Minor; Zahira Rivera-Nazario, Minor, Plaintiffs, Appellees, v. Miguel G. ORTIZ VELEZ, Mayor of the Municipality of Sabana Grande; Municipality of Sabana Grande, Defendants, Appellants.

No. 02-2539.

No. 03-1074.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard June 4, 2003.

Decided August 26, 2003.

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Johanna M. Emmanuelli Huertas, with whom Jorge Martínez-Luciano, and Law Offices of Pedro E. Ortiz-Alvarez, were on brief, for appellants.

Francisco R. Gonzalez for appellees.

Before SELYA, Circuit Judge, RICHARD S. ARNOLD, Senior Circuit Judge,^* and LIPEZ, Circuit Judge.

LIPEZ, Circuit Judge.

On February 21, 2001, plaintiffs Santos Rivera-Torres ("Rivera"), his wife (Daisy Nazario-Santana), and two daughters (Yasira Rivera-Nazario and Zahira Rivera-Nazario),¹ brought this claim against the municipality of Sabana Grande and four municipal officers pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Rivera alleged that he was the victim of adverse employment actions motivated by political animus, in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. After a series of preliminary orders removing three of the four individual defendants from the action, the trial began on December 3, 2002, against the municipality of Sabana Grande and Miguel Ortiz Velez ("Ortiz"), the mayor of Sabana Grande, who was sued in both his individual and official capacities. At the conclusion of the four-day trial, the jury found that "protected political activity was a substantial or motivating factor in the defendant's decision to politically discriminate against the plaintiff," and awarded Rivera $60,000 in lost wages and benefits,² $125,000 in compensatory damages, and $250,000 in punitive damages. The jury also awarded compensatory damages in the amount of $75,000 to plaintiff's wife, and $30,000 to each of plaintiff's daughters. With several alterations, the court entered judgment on the jury's verdict, and the defendants filed these timely appeals.

Defendants raise a plethora of objections to the proceedings below, challenging inter alia the court's denial of qualified immunity, its refusal to stay proceedings pending the resolution of an attempted interlocutory appeal, various evidentiary rulings at trial, the court's interrogation of a defense witness, and the validity of the jury's damage award. After careful review of the record, we reject defendants' challenges and affirm the judgment.

I.

In 1980, Rivera was hired by the mayor of Sabana Grande to work in various capacities at the municipal gym.³ Plaintiff's duties included training boxers and weight lifters, teaching self-defense classes for children, and organizing weight lifting, boxing, gymnastics, and karate competitions at locations around Sabana Grande. Most municipal jobs in Puerto Rico are sub-classified as "career positions" (akin to civil service jobs) or "trust positions" (political appointments). Municipal employees are similarly designated "career" or "trust" employees. At all times, Rivera was a career employee, and his job was designated a career position. In 1992, twelve years after plaintiff was hired, the incumbent mayor promoted him to "be in charge of the gymnasium." Although this managerial post was originally a "trust position," the municipality reclassified it as a career job to facilitate plaintiff's promotion.

At the time of the promotion, Rivera was a member of the Popular Democratic Party ("PDP"), though his allegiances were gradually shifting to the New Progressive Party ("NPP"). Over the next six years, from 1992 to 1998, Rivera's tenure as manager of the municipal gym was uneventful, and the record indicates that he received only positive employment evaluations. In December 1998, plaintiff formally joined the NPP, and local party leaders asked him to run as the NPP candidate for mayor of Sabana Grande. One week later, plaintiff publicly accepted the party's mayoral nomination at an NPP "plebiscite" (caucus).

Rivera's candidacy created a potentially awkward work environment. His opponent in the mayoral election was incumbent mayor Miguel Ortiz Velez, who also happened to be plaintiff's boss by virtue of being mayor. Rivera testified at trial that his relationship with Ortiz changed dramatically after he announced his candidacy. That month, after returning from a three-week vacation, plaintiff discovered that the telephone had been removed from his office in the gymnasium. Rivera also learned that the mayor was requesting daily reports on his work habits from other coworkers stationed at the gym. In March 1999, the mayor observed Rivera outside his "area" during working hours, and ordered his secretary to make notations on plaintiff's time card documenting his absence from work. When plaintiff confronted the vice-mayor of Sabana Grande over the incident, he received a thirty-day suspension for "being disrespectful to the vice-mayor." Rivera appealed this suspension to the Commonwealth's Board of Appeals for the Personnel Administration System ("JASAP"), which reversed his suspension and awarded Rivera thirty days' back pay. The Board's decision was affirmed on appeal to the Commonwealth's Court of Appeals, and the Puerto Rico Supreme Court denied certiorari.

In the aftermath of the JASAP proceedings, Rivera continued to experience harassment at work. The locks on the gym were changed to inhibit his access, and on one occasion Rivera found a stack of his personal and office documents torn up next to a trash can near his office. He was stripped of authority to direct the activities of subordinates at the gym, and he had several prolonged arguments with Ortiz at the gymnasium. On one occasion, the mayor ordered him to complete maintenance tasks that were not within the scope of his duties. The defendants did not seriously dispute these incidents at trial.

In May 2000, Rivera sought and received an offer of state-level employment at the Commonwealth Department of Sports and Recreation in nearby Mayaguez. At the time, the head of the Sport Administration Department was Eric Labrador, a fellow member of the NPP. Because Puerto Rico law prohibits individuals from simultaneously holding state and municipal-level employment, Rivera petitioned the municipality for a transfer. However, Mayor Ortiz refused to approve Rivera's transfer. Rivera testified that the mayor's secretary informed him that "the mayor would not sign unimportant papers."

Rivera was anxious to accept the state-level position before the November 2000 elections, anticipating that the employment offer would be rescinded if a PDP administration were elected into office. Thus, on June 5, 2000, Rivera submitted an irrevocable letter of resignation to the municipality. The consequences of resigning in lieu of obtaining a transfer were severe. Plaintiff stood to sacrifice the twenty years of seniority he had accumulated since 1980 for salary and benefit purposes. However, even this initiative proved unavailing when Ortiz refused to accept Rivera's resignation, citing an ongoing investigation into Rivera's excessive absenteeism over the previous five months. Mayor Ortiz testified at trial that under Puerto Rico law, a municipality loses the authority to discipline a municipal employee once that employee has been transferred to a state agency. Hence, it was critical to delay plaintiff's transfer request until the administrative investigation into his absenteeism had been resolved.

Rivera insisted that his absences were due to work-related illnesses, and he instructed his doctor, Silva Cherena, to submit medical reports to the municipality documenting his symptoms. Indeed, Dr. Cherena had sent plaintiff's medical information to the municipality on July 1, 2000. However, Mayor Ortiz's office claimed not to have received the doctor's letter until October 31, 2000. Two weeks later, Mayor Ortiz finally accepted Rivera's irrevocable resignation, nearly five-and-a-half months after it was tendered. In the intervening period, the NPP party had been voted out of key Commonwealth positions, and the job offer at the Commonwealth Department of Sports and Recreation was no longer available. Rivera was unable to find other work, and his family suffered significant financial and emotional hardship as a result.

In the opinion accompanying its November 26, 2002 order granting partial summary judgment to defendants, the district court distilled Rivera's accusations into five discrete allegations of political discrimination:

1) In January 1999, Defendants removed the phone from Plaintiff's office;

2) In January 1999, Defendant Ortiz ordered Arenas, another employee of the Municipality, to take on Plaintiff's job duties, supervise Plaintiff, and track his movements;

3) In March 1999, Defendants falsely accused and unjustly suspended Plaintiff for leaving his work-area and being absent from work;

4) In April 2000, Defendant Ortiz refused to approve Plaintiff's transfer to the Commonwealth's Sports and Recreation Department in Mayaguez;

5) On June 28, 2000, Defendant Ortiz declined to accept Plaintiff's resignation and then intentionally deferred the decision, accepting the resignation only after the elections.

The defendants conceded that Rivera had properly preserved allegations 4 and 5, but argued that the first three allegations were time-barred. The district court agreed, and dismissed allegations 1, 2 and 3 in its partial order of summary judgment on November 26, 2000. Of particular relevance to this case, the district court's November 26 order also denied Mayor Ortiz's request for qualified immunity. On December 3, 2002, the case proceeded to trial on Rivera's two preserved allegations of discrimination. The jury delivered its verdict on December 9, and these appeals followed.

II.

A. Pre-Trial Rulings

1. Denial of Summary Judgment

The...