Spencer v. Stuart Hall Co., Inc.

• Decision Date: 12 April 1999
• Docket Number: No. 98-1832,98-1832
• Citation: 173 F.3d 1124
• Parties: 79 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1289 Vernon E. SPENCER, Appellee, v. STUART HALL COMPANY, INC., a Missouri corporation; Newell Company, a Delaware corporation, Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 1124

173 F.3d 1124

79 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1289

Vernon E. SPENCER, Appellee, v. STUART HALL COMPANY, INC., a Missouri corporation; Newell Company, a Delaware corporation, Appellants.

No. 98-1832.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Nov. 18, 1998.

Filed April 12, 1999.

George A. Hanson, Kansas City, MO, argued (John R. Phillips and David C. Trowbridge, Kansas City, MO, on the brief), for Appellants.

Rik N. Siro, Kansas City, MO, argued, for Appellee.

Before: McMILLIAN, WOLLMAN, and HANSEN, Circuit Judges.

HANSEN, Circuit Judge.

Vernon Spencer received a favorable jury verdict on the age discrimination claim he brought against Stuart Hall Company, Inc., and Newell Company (collectively Stuart Hall) after he was terminated during a reduction in force (RIF). Stuart Hall appeals from the district court's ¹ denial of its motion for judgment as a matter of law (JAML). We affirm.

I.

Because this is an appeal from the denial of a motion for JAML, we consider the facts in the light most favorable to the winning party, construing any ambiguities and making any reasonable inferences in favor of the verdict. See Ballard v. River Fleets, Inc., 149 F.3d 829, 831 (8th Cir.1998). Viewed in this light, the relevant facts are as follows.

Spencer worked for Stuart Hall ² for 25 years, most recently as a production supervisor. In May 1995, Wal-Mart canceled a large order, costing Stuart Hall 40 percent of its sales. Within a month, Stuart Hall shut down its third shift, laying off 100 of 325 production workers and 3 of 10 production supervisors. Gordon Kirsch, Vice-President of Manufacturing, was responsible for the final layoff decision regarding the supervisors, with input from Ed Schweikhardt and Ernie Mautino, two plant managers. In addition to the three supervisors originally laid off, Stuart Hall terminated a fourth supervisor, Jim Wallace, a week after the layoff. Stuart Hall laid off one supervisor from each of the three production lines, though it claims that it laid off supervisors by comparing all ten and laying off the four worst performers (Stuart Hall contends that Wallace was part of the RIF). Spencer, age 54 at the time of the layoff, was on the envelope line. The envelope line supervisors who were not laid off were Don Ponak, age 38, and Brett Broadaway, age 33.

Stuart Hall claimed that it based its layoff decision on each supervisor's two most recent performance evaluations. Spencer had two "provisional" ratings; ³ according to Stuart Hall, no other supervisor had ratings as low as Spencer did. Though Stuart Hall claimed that Ponak had only one provisional rating, there was evidence that he actually had two provisional ratings and that Stuart Hall failed to produce the evaluation from that rating, using a less recent rating of "good" in its place. Two of the three supervisors who were laid off were over age 40 and were the oldest of all the supervisors; the third laid off supervisor was age 29.

Spencer brought this age discrimination claim under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), 29 U.S.C. §§ 621-634 (1994). The district court initially granted Stuart Hall's motion in limine and excluded evidence of statements allegedly made by prior managers indicating age bias. However, the district court reversed its ruling during trial and admitted the evidence. The jury returned a verdict in favor of Spencer, finding that Stuart Hall's actions were willful. The district court awarded Spencer back pay of $39,573, front pay of $12,499, liquidated damages of $39,573, and attorney's fees and costs of $57,607. Stuart Hall moved for JAML, or in the alternative, for a new trial. The district court denied Stuart Hall's motion and Stuart Hall now appeals.

II.

We review de novo the denial of a motion for JAML, applying the same standards applied by the district court. See Ballard, 149 F.3d at 831. In so doing, we must "(1) resolve direct factual conflicts in favor of [Spencer]; (2) assume as true all facts supporting [Spencer] which the evidence tended to prove; (3) give [Spencer] the benefit of all reasonable inferences; and (4) affirm the denial of the motion if the evidence so viewed would allow reasonable jurors to differ as to the conclusions that could be drawn." Id. (citation and internal quotations omitted).

A. Violation of the ADEA

An ADEA claim can arise either as a pretext claim, as a mixed motives claim, or as a RIF claim. Each type of ADEA claim has slightly different elements. Cf. Bevan v. Honeywell, Inc., 118 F.3d 603, 609 n. 1 (8th Cir.1997). To prove his RIF claim, Spencer must show that: (1) he was within the protected class (over age 40); (2) his performance met his employer's legitimate expectations; (3) he was discharged; and (4) there was an additional showing of age as a factor in the discharge decision. See Cramer v. McDonnell Douglas Corp., 120 F.3d 874, 876 (8th Cir.1997). Our focus in an appeal from the denial of a JAML motion following a jury verdict is whether Spencer met his ultimate burden of showing intentional age discrimination, which requires more than merely discrediting Stuart Hall's proffered reason for the adverse employment decision. Spencer must also prove that the proffered reason was a pretext for age discrimination. See Nelson v. Boatmen's Bancshares, Inc., 26 F.3d 796, 801 (8th Cir.1994).

The evidence at trial presented two possible scenarios regarding the RIF decisional process. Stuart Hall claims that it laid off the four worst performing supervisors. There was also evidence, however, that only three supervisors were laid off as part of the RIF, one from each of the three production lines. Kirsch, Mautino, and Schweikhardt all changed their testimony at trial from the testimony they gave during depositions and through affidavits. Kirsch testified during his deposition that he first ranked the ten supervisors according to their two most recent performance evaluations (Spencer was ranked worst) and that he then discussed each supervisor's performance with Mautino and Schweikhardt to confirm that Spencer was in fact the worst of the ten. Mautino and Schweikhardt corroborated this testimony in their summary judgment affidavits. At trial, however, all three changed their stories to say that they first met to discuss and rank the managers based on their experiences with the supervisors and then, after determining that Spencer was the worst, reviewed the performance evaluations to confirm their initial inclinations. Where conflicting evidence is presented at trial, it is the jury rather than this court which assesses the credibility of the witnesses and decides which version to believe. See Curtis v. Electronics & Space Corp., 113 F.3d 1498, 1502 (8th Cir.1997). Based on these inconsistencies, which were brought out during trial, the jury could have discredited the Stuart Hall managers' testimony and the basis they gave for laying off Spencer.

While we deem it a close call, we conclude that the evidence in this case was sufficient to support the jury verdict. From all of the evidence, the jury reasonably could have found that Stuart Hall laid off one supervisor from each of the three production lines, rather than basing the decision on the overall performance of all ten supervisors. Spencer was the oldest supervisor in his department with significantly greater experience and seniority than either Ponak or Broadaway, the other two supervisors in Spencer's department. Of the three supervisors initially laid off, two were the oldest of all the supervisors. There was evidence that younger employees received preferential shift assignments and were not written up for disciplinary problems similar to those for which Spencer was written up. However, there was also evidence that older workers were given favorable shift assignments while younger workers were given unfavorable assignments. We cannot say the evidence points all one way.

In addition to this circumstantial evidence of age discrimination, Stuart Hall's layoff policy required employees of equal qualifications to be laid off based on seniority. The performance evaluations used in the layoff decision for Ponak, who had less seniority than Spencer, were from January 1992 (good) and January 1994 (provisional). Though no evaluation from early 1995 was ever produced for Ponak, payroll records reflected that Ponak did not receive a raise in February 1995 because of a provisional rating. This evidence, which we must read in the light most favorable to the verdict, supports a jury finding that Ponak had received two provisional ratings, as had Spencer, but that Stuart Hall ignored Ponak's most recent provisional rating to avoid following its seniority based tie breaker layoff policy in order to lay off the older Spencer. ⁴ We hold that reasonable jurors could differ as to the conclusions to be drawn from all of the evidence and agree with the district court that the evidence supports the jury's verdict finding Stuart Hall liable for age discrimination under the ADEA.

B. Liquidated Damages Under the ADEA

An improperly dismissed employee is entitled to a double recovery, called liquidated damages, if he proves that his employer willfully violated the ADEA. See 29 U.S.C. § 626(b). The standard for proving willfulness "is simply whether 'the employer either knew or showed reckless disregard for the matter of whether its conduct was prohibited by the statute.' " See Brown v. Stites Concrete, Inc., 994 F.2d 553, 559 (8th Cir.1993) (en banc) (quoting Hazen Paper Co. v. Biggins, 507 U.S. 604, 617, 113 S.Ct. 1701, 123 L.Ed.2d 338 (1993)). This showing does not require any heightened quantum or quality of evidence beyond that already established as long as all the evidence satisfies the distinct standard for willfulness. Id. at 560. "A violation of the ADEA does not require any particular mental state, but the award of liquidated damages under the ADEA does." Glover v. McDonnell Douglas...