Ryduchowski v. Port Auth. NY and NJ

• Decision Date: 01 August 1999
• Docket Number: Docket No. 99-7397
• Citation: 203 F.3d 135
• Parties: (2nd Cir. 2000) DANUTA RYDUCHOWSKI, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. THE PORT AUTHORITY OF NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY, Defendant-Appellee
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Page 135

203 F.3d 135 (2nd Cir. 2000)

DANUTA RYDUCHOWSKI, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. THE PORT AUTHORITY OF NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY, Defendant-Appellee.

Docket No. 99-7397

August Term, 1999

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

SECOND CIRCUIT

Argued: Oct. 19, 1999

Decided: Feb. 8, 2000

Appeal from a judgment as a matter of law entered in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Gleeson, J.) setting aside a jury verdict in favor of plaintiff in an action brought under the Equal Pay Act, the court having found no basis for the jury's determination that the pay differential between the female plaintiff and a similarly situated male colleague was not the result of a valid merit system.

Reversed and remanded.

THOMAS F. BELLO, Staten Island, NY, (Demetrios G. Melis, of counsel) for Plaintiff-Appellant.

ANNE M. TANNENBAUM, New York, NY, (Milton H. Pachter, Arthur P. Berg, & Megan Lee, New York, NY, on the brief), for Defendant-Appellee.

Before: KEARSE, MINER, and LEVAL, Circuit Judges.

MINER, CIRCUIT JUDGE:

Plaintiff-Appellant Danuta Ryduchowski ("Ryduchowski") appeals from a judgment as a matter of law entered in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Gleeson, J.) setting aside a jury verdict in her favor on a claim asserted under the provisions of the Equal Pay Act of 1963 ("EPA"), 29 U.S.C. 206(d), 215(a)(2). The court found no basis for the jury's determination that Ryduchowski's former employer, defendant-appellee The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey ("Port Authority"), had not established a valid merit system defense. Three claims were tried to the jury: (1) a Title VII claim based on alleged unlawful failure to promote in 1995, see Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq.; (2) an EPA claim based on Ryduchowski's 1994 pay increase; and (3) an EPA claim with regard to Ryduchowski's 1995 pay increase. The EPA claims alleged that Ryduchowski received impermissibly lower pay increases in 1994 and 1995 than a male counterpart. The jury's verdict was favorable to the Port Authority with respect to all of Ryduchowski's claims except the 1995 EPA claim, the jury having determined by a special finding that the Port Authority did not establish its affirmative defense of a valid merit system. Thereafter, the Port Authority moved for judgment as a matter of law. The district court granted the motion, finding that although Ryduchowski and her co-worker, Jeffrey Lopez ("Lopez"), were similarly situated, they had received justifiably different performance evaluations pursuant to a valid merit system, which explained the differences in their 1995 salary increases.

For the reasons that follow, we reverse the judgment of the district court and reinstate the jury verdict. We remand to the district court so it may assess plaintiff's damages.

BACKGROUND

The States of New York and New Jersey created the Port Authority by compact in 1921. Its purpose is to develop public transportation, terminal, and other facilities of commerce within the statutorily defined Port District that spans the two states. The Port Authority currently owns and/or operates thirty-three facilities within the Port District.

Ryduchowski is a woman of Polish origin who has a Masters of Science and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Warsaw. During the twenty years following her educational training, she gained practical experience and eventually became a licensed engineer in both New York and New Jersey. Between 1988 and 1995, she worked for the Port Authority as an engineer. In September 1995, plaintiff was terminated from her position with the Port Authority.

On November 14, 1996, Ryduchowski brought this action against the Port Authority. She alleged that the Port Authority had discriminated against her on the basis of her gender and national origin. She claimed that, while working at the Port Authority, she was subjected to insults, jokes, and harassment related to her gender and national origin. She asserted that as a result of this discrimination, the Port Authority failed to promote her and terminated her employment in violation of Title VII, and paid her less than a similarly situated male colleague in violation of the EPA.

The district court granted partial summary judgment to the Port Authority on November 19, 1998, rejecting every aspect of Ryduchowski's Title VII claim except the challenge to Lopez' 1995 promotion. With respect to Ryduchowski's EPA claims, the court granted summary judgment dismissing the 1993 EPA claim, but denied summary judgment as to the 1994 and 1995 EPA claims.

The Trial

On November 30, December 1, and December 2, 1998, the remaining claims were tried to a jury: (1) the Title VII failure to promote claim; (2) the 1994 EPA claim; and (3) the 1995 EPA claim. Ryduchowski prevailed solely upon the 1995 EPA claim. The evidence with respect to that claim, which we take in the light most favorable to Ryduchowski, focused on two principal issues: (1) Ryduchowski's job skills and performance evaluations and (2) the Port Authority's compensation system.

A. The Evidence

(1) Ryduchowski's Job Skills & Performance Evaluations

Ryduchowski testified that when she was hired as an engineer in the Engineering Audit Division at the Port Authority, she was the only female of the approximately twenty engineers in the Division. Her duties required her to perform structural evaluations of various Port Authority bridges and buildings. She reviewed drawings and specifications, performed final inspections at construction sites, and drafted reports of her findings on any given project for submission to a senior engineer, who was responsible for a final report. During her first year, no one at the Port Authority complained about her written reports or her communications skills. In fact, she received a letter from her Manager, Mr. Rao ("Rao"), indicating that he and Mr. Buttling ("Buttling"), her supervisor,¹ were most pleased with her performance.

At the close of her second year of employment, in the summer of 1990, Ryduchowski received a more formal performance evaluation consisting of an evaluation sheet with multiple sections and corresponding ratings for each section. She also received in her yearly salary a merit increase that was tied to her overall rating on this evaluation. Her 1990 performance evaluation indicated that her reports were understandable and contained good thoughts, "but require[d] some editing and rewriting." With regard to this comment on her evaluation, Ryduchowski testified that she believed it was acceptable to submit draft reports that required editing and rewriting because sometimes the reports had to be prepared within a very short time frame. This view was supported by Rao, who testified that it was acceptable for a staff engineer's reports to require a little editing and rewriting. Ryduchowski's overall rating on the 1990 evaluation was "[c]ompetent and dependable level of performance," the third highest rating out of six.

During 1990, Ryduchowski's Division was moved from the Treasury Department to the Risk Management Division, resulting in the loss of its responsibility for plan reviews and final inspections. According to Rao, this affected Ryduchowski's work by placing an increased emphasis on writing.

During the 1991 evaluation period, Ryduchowski worked very closely with the senior engineer on her projects, Mr. Woods ("Woods"). During this time, Woods and Ryduchowski became very friendly. However, after Woods commented to her that the moments they spent together were the happiest of his life, Ryduchowski became concerned that Woods was interested in pursuing a romantic rather than professional relationship, and sought to "withdraw" from the situation.

When Ryduchowski received her evaluation for 1991, she had been marked lower in the Oral Expression category, from "understandable" and "organized" to "lacks clarity and conciseness." Likewise in the "Initiative/Dependability" category, she received a lower rating than she had in the 1990 evaluation. Most importantly, her overall rating had fallen in the 1991 evaluation to "acceptable," in contrast to her prior rating of "[c]ompetent and dependable."

"[S]hocked and surprised" by this "sudden change in [her] performance evaluation," Ryduchowski complained to her supervisor, Buttling. Buttling submitted her complaints to Rao, who then met with Ryduchowski. Ryduchowski told Rao that she felt she had been marked lower because of comments from Woods, who harbored ill will towards her because of a "personal situation." She also told Rao that she felt she was being discriminated against on the basis of her gender and national origin, which had resulted in her not being given an opportunity to perform independent engineering evaluations. According to Ryduchowski, Rao told her that the evaluation would be upgraded and that she "should forget about th[e] situation."

After Ryduchowski's meeting with Rao, her 1991 overall rating was restored to the 1990 rating of "[c]ompetent and dependable." Rao testified that he changed her rating because an engineer's performance rating should not be lowered unless a supervisor had first spoken to the engineer and previously had made a written record of his concerns. He further explained that it was his practice to ask his supervisors to put written comments regarding an employee in the employee's personal file, so he could use them for future reference. The Port Authority never produced any written comments regarding Ryduchowski's performance apart from her performance evaluations.

Ryduchowski indicated that during the 1991-92 and 1992-93 evaluation years, as a result of her rejection of Woods, he excessively edited her reports, failed to give her enough time to complete her reports, and made inappropriate comments regarding her writing skills. Woods confirmed that in an effort to speed up the report process, he...