U.S. v. Big D Enterprises Inc., 98-2861

• Decision Date: 10 March 1999
• Docket Number: No. 98-2861,98-2861
• Citation: 184 F.3d 924
• Parties: (8th Cir. 1999) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, APPELLEE, v. BIG D ENTERPRISES, INC.; DR. EDWIN G. DOOLEY, APPELLANTS. Submitted:
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 924

184 F.3d 924 (8th Cir. 1999)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, APPELLEE, v. BIG D ENTERPRISES, INC.; DR. EDWIN G. DOOLEY, APPELLANTS.

No. 98-2861

U.S. Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit

Submitted: March 10, 1999

Filed: July 09, 1999

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc

Denied Sept. 10, 1999

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas. [Copyrighted Material Omitted]

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Counsel who presented argument on behalf of the appellant was Edwin G. Dooley, Jr. of Fort Smith, Arkansas. Also appearing on the brief was James B. Pierce.

Counsel who presented argument on behalf of the appellee was Jennifer Levin of Washington, D.C. Also appearing on the brief were Bill Lann Lee and Jessica Dunsay Silver.

Before Richard S. Arnold, Floyd R. Gibson, and Hansen, Circuit Judges.

Hansen, Circuit Judge.

Following a trial in district court,¹ a twelve-person jury found that Big D Enterprises, Inc., and Dr. Edwin G. Dooley (collectively appellants) violated the Fair Housing Act (FHA) when they denied rental housing to applicants based on race. The jury awarded $1,000 in compensatory damages and $100,000 in punitive damages to three victims of appellants' discrimination. Big D Enterprises and Dr. Dooley appeal. We affirm.

I. FACTS

Dr. Dooley owns three apartment complexes in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Dr. Dooley is also the president, sole officer, and sole shareholder of a corporation known as Big D Enterprises which manages the three apartment complexes, one of which is called Oak Manor. In October 1994, Richard Batts and Janet Poole sought to rent a two-bedroom apartment at Oak Manor. Cynthia Williams also sought to rent an apartment at Oak Manor. Although one of Big D's property managers, Carol Ragan, initially told Batts, Poole, and Williams that one or more apartments were available, all three applicants were later denied an opportunity to rent an apartment at Oak Manor. The rejection of Batts and Poole's and Williams' rental applications occurred after Big D executives discovered the race of the prospective tenants. Both Batts and Poole are black. Williams is white, but she is the mother of a biracial child. Big D later rented the apartment that Batts, Poole, and Williams were seeking to a white man.

Following the denial of her rental application, Williams filed a complaint with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in which she alleged that Big D denied her housing based upon the race of her son. Ragan also filed a complaint with HUD in which she averred that Big D denied Batts and Poole an opportunity to rent at Oak Manor pursuant to Dr. Dooley's personal policy that forbade property managers from renting to black applicants. Ragan also informed HUD that Big D refused to rent to Williams because she is the mother of a biracial child and her ex-husband is black.

After investigating Ragan's and Williams' complaints, HUD found that appellants' acts of impermissible discrimination were not limited to Batts, Poole, and Williams. Rather, HUD determined that Big D and Dr. Dooley engaged in a pattern and practice of discriminating against minority housing applicants. The agency found that Dr. Dooley, his ex-wife, Elizabeth, and his stepdaughter, Tricia Turner, intentionally violated the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 3601-3631 (1994), when they ordered Big D property managers not to rent to prospective black tenants.

Upon completion of HUD's investigation, the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice (government) filed the instant action in district court against the appellants on behalf of Batts, Poole, and Williams. A trial ensued. Throughout the trial, Dr. Dooley continued to deny that he or Big D ever discriminated against a housing applicant based on the applicant's race. The jury rejected Dr. Dooley's denial defense and awarded damages to the three aggrieved applicants. Appellants moved for judgment as a matter of law, a new trial, or a remittitur of the punitive damage award. The district court denied appellants' motion in full and they now appeal.

On appeal, appellants contend that the jury's verdict contravenes the weight of the evidence, insufficient evidence exists to support the jury's verdict, the district court should have given a mixed motive instruction, the punitive damage award is excessive in relation to the compensatory damage award, the district court erred when it excluded certain evidence, the action is barred by the statute of limitations, and the district court abused its discretion when it sanctioned appellants for failure to comply with discovery orders.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Sufficiency and Weight of the Evidence

Appellants contend that the jury's verdict contradicts the weight of the evidence. They argue that the majority of the evidence introduced at trial supports their position that they did not discriminate against black applicants. Appellants also assert that the government failed to show by sufficient evidence that either Dr. Dooley or Big D engaged in a pattern or practice of impermissible discrimination as defined by the FHA. Appellants' assertions lack merit.

A party seeking to obtain a new trial based upon the weight of the evidence or a posttrial judgment as a matter of law based on the sufficiency of the evidence faces an onerous burden. We conduct de novo review of a district court's decision to deny a motion for judgment as a matter of law based on sufficiency of the evidence. See Denesha v. Farmers Ins. Exch., 161 F.3d 491, 497 (8th Cir. 1998), cert. denied, 119 S. Ct. 1763 (1999). In conducting our review, we view the evidence in a light most favorable to the verdict and we will not reverse a jury's determinations unless we find "that no reasonable juror could have returned a verdict for the non-moving party." Rockwood Bank v. Gaia, 170 F.3d 833, 840-41 (8th Cir. 1999) (internal quotations omitted). In addition, we must (1) evaluate the evidence in a light most favorable to the nonmoving party; (2) assume that all conflicts were resolved in the nonmoving party's favor; (3) assume as proved all facts tended to be proven by the nonmoving party's evidence; (4) give the nonmoving party the benefit of all reasonable inferences that may be gleaned from the proved set of facts; and (5) affirm the district court unless the evidence conclusively favors the moving party and is susceptible to no reasonable inference that will sustain the nonmoving party's position. See id. at 841. In contrast, we review a district court's decision to deny a motion for a new trial based upon the weight of the evidence under an abuse of discretion standard. See Pulla v. Amoco Oil Co., 72 F.3d 648, 656-57 (8th Cir. 1995). Hence, we will not disturb a district court's decision to deny a motion for a new trial unless we find that the jury's verdict contravenes the great weight of the evidence to such an extent that allowing the verdict to stand will result in a miscarriage of Justice. See Denesha, 161 F.3d at 497.

Proving a practice or pattern of discrimination requires the government to show that the defendant engaged in discriminatory activity as a matter of standard operating procedure. See International Bhd. of Teamsters v. United States, 431 U.S. 324, 336 (1977). Isolated or sporadic acts of discrimination are insufficient to prove a pattern or practice under the FHA. See United States v. Balistrieri, 981 F.2d 916, 929 (7th Cir. 1992), cert. denied, 510 U.S. 812 (1993).

In this case, the government has more than satisfied its burden of proof. Several of Dr. Dooley's apartment managers testified that Dr. Dooley personally instructed them not to rent to black applicants or as Dr. Dooley referred to black applicants " niggers." Some of the managers testified that, initially, they unwittingly rented to black applicants. When Dr. Dooley discovered his employees' actions, however, he angrily ordered them to tell black apartment seekers that no vacancies existed. Pursuant to Dr. Dooley's directives, the Big D employees repeatedly lied to black applicants who inquired about the availability of an apartment.

The managers testified that Dr. Dooley's ex-wife and stepdaughter often supervised their assignment of apartments in order to ensure that Dr. Dooley's exclusionary plans were implemented. In addition to Dr. Dooley, Elizabeth Dooley and Tricia Turner frequently referred to black people as "niggers" and vigilantly enforced Big D's "no blacks allowed" policy. Elizabeth Dooley explicitly told one manager not to rent to black people, anyone with a "raggedy car[,] or Vietnamese that looked like they couldn't pay the rent." (Trial Tr. Vol. 1, at 246.) Elizabeth Dooley told another manager that "she did not want any niggers or people that had ugly cars" or "anyone that was handicapped [who would] drag[] their feet across and ruin her carpet." (Trial Tr. Vol. 2, at 580.) Following Dr. Dooley's orders, managers utilized staff meetings to communicate the Dooley family's goal of excluding black applicants in an effort to "clean the place up and get a better class of people." (Trial Tr. Vol. 1, at 178.)

When Richard Batts and Janet Poole initially applied for an apartment at Oak Manor, Carol Ragan testified that she was inclined to rent an apartment to them despite Dr. Dooley's orders. Ragan explained that Batts and Poole earned a combined income of $1,400 a month, and she believed that the couple would keep the apartment clean. When Ragan asked Tricia Turner for permission to rent to Batts and Poole, Turner responded by emphatically declaring, "No, no niggers whatsoever." (Trial Tr. Vol. 2, at 582).

Appellants' targeted discrimination extended beyond Batts and Poole. When Cynthia Williams applied to rent an apartment from Big D, she told Carol Ragan that she was the mother of a biracial child. Ragan responded by indicating that a biracial child may present a problem for...