Vance v. Southern Bell Tel. and Tel. Co.

• Decision Date: 23 January 1989
• Docket Number: No. 87-3625,87-3625
• Parties: 50 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 742, 48 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 38,626 Mary Ann VANCE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SOUTHERN BELL TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY, a Georgia Corporation, Defendant-Appellee, Joyce Foskey, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 1503

863 F.2d 1503

50 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 742,

48 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 38,626

Mary Ann VANCE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SOUTHERN BELL TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY, a Georgia Corporation, Defendant-Appellee Joyce Foskey, et al., Defendants.

No. 87-3625.

United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit.

Jan. 23, 1989.

Charles Cook Howell, III, Michael S. O'Neal, Gardner Davis, Scott Fortune, Jacksonville, Fla., for plaintiff-appellant.

Guy O. Farmer, II, Jacksonville, Fla., Daniel J. Thompson, Atlanta, Ga., for defendant-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Before HILL and FAY, Circuit Judges, and DAVIS ^*, District Judge.

FAY, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiff-appellant Mary Ann Vance appeals the district court's order granting the defendant Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict ("JNOV") and in the alternative for a new trial. Vance v. Southern Bell Tel. and Tel. Co., 672 F.Supp. 1408 (M.D.Fla.1987). A jury awarded Vance compensatory and punitive damages after a four day trial based on the plaintiff's claim that her employer, Southern Bell, discriminated against her on the basis of race in violation of 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1981 (1982). The district court judge found that reasonable jurors could not have arrived at a verdict for the plaintiff, and granted the defendant's motion for JNOV. In addition, the court held that had it not granted the JNOV, it would have granted the defendant a new trial, because the relief provided by the jury was contrary to the great weight of the evidence, and because the damages awarded were grossly excessive. On appeal, the plaintiff contends that the JNOV and the alternative grant of a new trial were improper, because the jury verdict was supported by substantial evidence. After a thorough review of the record, we reverse the order granting the defendant's motion for JNOV. However, we affirm the district court's alternative holding granting a new trial.

I. Background

Plaintiff Mary Ann Vance, a black woman, began working for Southern Bell in March, 1972, as a switchboard operator. Thereafter, she held various jobs at other Southern Bell locations throughout Jacksonville, Florida. Although Vance missed some time from work due to illness, she generally had a good employment record. In 1984, Vance bid for a job at Southern Bell's Western Way facility in Jacksonville as a material services coordinator. The job provided higher pay, but was considered a step down in job classification because it entailed work in a warehouse. Prior to her transfer to Western Way, Vance had never complained of any racial discrimination at Southern Bell.

Vance began work at the Western Way facility on August 13, 1984 in the CONECS department under the supervision of Paul Wagner, a first-level supervisor. About a week after Vance began work in this department, she found what appeared to be a noose hanging from the light fixture above her work station. At the time of this incident there were several "imports," or temporary personnel working at Western Way. At trial, Vance testified that Clyde Oliver, a white co-worker, saw the noose and told one of the imports to take the noose down. When the defendant called Oliver as a witness, he denied ever having seen the noose. On rebuttal, Vance called a black co-worker, Roland Ball, who said that Vance had brought him to see the noose, that Oliver had seen it also, and that Ball took it down and discarded it. Two days later, the plaintiff again found the noose hanging from her light fixture. This time, she removed it herself and threw it in the trash. Neither Vance nor Ball reported the incidents to any Southern Bell official at that time.

Mrs. Vance first mentioned the noose incidents to management on January 9, 1985, over four months later, at a grievance hearing concerning a separate incident. At trial, there was greatly conflicting testimony as to what statements were made at this hearing. Vance mentioned the noose incidents to Nancy Murray, Southern Bell's Personnel Manager, and Murray then asked Bert Sellars, the manager of the Western Way warehouse, whether he knew anything about the noose. Both Vance and Levi McClendon, a black union steward who was present at the hearing, testified at trial that Sellars responded that Paul Wagner had done it "to increase productivity." ¹ Notes taken by Nancy Murray at the meeting stated, "In CONECS she found a noose. Paul probably did ..." (R.7-173) However, Sellars denied having made the statement, and Nancy Murray maintained that it was Vance, not Sellars, who mentioned Wagner's name in connection with the noose. At trial, Wagner testified that he had constructed a device which looked like a noose made of hemp rope with a braided loop on one end, but that it had been designed to desheathe cable to increase productivity.

On September 9, 1984, Vance was transferred from the CONECS department to the Repair and Returns department where her first-level supervisor was Walter Stembridge. Vance alleged that during this time, Stembridge and some of Vance's co-workers discriminated against her by purposefully denying her the training necessary to do her job. She testified that Joyce Foskey Blackwood, the "working leader" of the group who was responsible for training Vance, refused to answer Vance's questions as to how to do her job. Vance also claimed that some of her work had been sabotaged by an unknown employee. Stembridge, however, testified that Vance had received essentially the same training as everyone else. Twice Stembridge brought in outside people to train the entire section. Vance further testified that she wrote a letter to the warehouse manager, Bert Sellars, asking to be transferred, but she was not moved. Sellars admitted that he had heard of Vance's complaints of inadequate training.

On September 18, 1984, Tommy Lee Sampson, a black manager of employment and selections, contacted Vance about an allegation that she had omitted information on an employment questionnaire concerning a traffic violation that had occurred three years earlier. Vance explained that she had misunderstood the form, believing that a traffic ticket did not count as a "conviction" which had to be reported. Although he testified that he was unable to determine whether or not Vance's omission was intentional, Sampson suspended Vance for two days without pay. He eventually reduced the suspension to a warning entry on Vance's record, but she was not reimbursed for the two days' pay. Vance alleged that several other black employees were suspended for similar omissions, but that Clyde Oliver, a white employee, was treated differently because of his race. Oliver received a written warning for failing to report a conviction for stealing gasoline when he was sixteen years old. Sampson explained that he did not suspend Oliver for this omission because the crime had occurred about twenty years earlier.

On October 16, 1984, a grievance hearing was held concerning the discipline Vance received for the traffic ticket omission. At this hearing, Vance became upset and cried. Upon returning to her work station at the Repair and Returns department, Vance had an altercation with Joyce Foskey Blackwood. Once again, there is conflicting testimony as to what was said and done, but it is clear that Vance struck Blackwood during the argument. Bert Sellars and Walt Stembridge suspended both women for one and one-half days without pay. Vance testified that she told Sellars that there was a "black-white situation" between her and Blackwood, and that Sellars responded by saying, "I'm giving you a direct order. Do not repeat that again." (R.7-298-99). Both Blackwood and Vance grieved their suspensions. After investigating the incident, Sellars and Stembridge decided to rescind Blackwood's suspension and give her back pay. Vance's discipline was not rescinded. The defendant maintains that its investigations showed that Vance had struck Blackwood, but that Blackwood had not struck Vance, and that this was the reason for the disparate treatment. Vance testified that the investigation was biased because the investigators relied solely on the account of the incident given by Norma Brown, a good friend of Blackwood, who told the investigators that Vance had been at fault. Brown was the only eyewitness to the altercation. Vance told the investigators that Blackwood had struck her first, and claims that the investigators discounted her story, despite the fact that Brown's credibility should have been suspect because there had been bad blood between Vance and the two women.

On November 15, 1984, Vance suffered an anxiety attack shortly following an incident in which Vance claimed that someone had sabotaged a pay phone which she was repairing. She testified that her body went numb from the waist down and she collapsed in the ladies room. Thereafter, Stembridge, a co-worker Mary Smith, and a paramedic entered the ladies room to assist her. Vance said that Smith had spoken to Vance's doctor, Dr. Rosin, who told Smith to have Vance brought to the emergency room at Baptist Hospital as soon as possible. Vance claims that Smith had relayed this information to her while Stembridge was with them in the restroom. Stembridge drove Smith and Vance to Memorial Hospital instead, which Vance claims was an act of racial harassment. Vance testified that she asked Stembridge several times in the car to take her to Baptist, but that Stembridge intentionally ignored her. Stembridge denied having heard Vance or anyone else ask him to go to Baptist instead of Memorial, and claimed that he took Vance to Memorial because he believed it was the facility that the company normally utilized for emergency treatment of employees.

About a week before this anxiety attack, Dr. Rosin wrote a letter to Southern Bell concerning the "undue pressure and harassment on her job" which she had told...