Vance v. Union Planters Corp., 01-60216.

• Decision Date: 10 January 2002
• Docket Number: No. 01-60216.,01-60216.
• Citation: 279 F.3d 295
• Parties: Yvonne E. VANCE, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. UNION PLANTERS CORP., et al., Defendants, Union Planters Bank, N.A., Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

279 F.3d 295

Yvonne E. VANCE, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. UNION PLANTERS CORP., et al., Defendants Union Planters Bank, N.A., Defendant-Appellant.

No. 01-60216.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

January 10, 2002.

Samuel Thomas Rayburn (argued), Rayburn Law Firm, Oxford, MS, Jim D. Waide, III, Waide & Associates, Tupelo, MS, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Lester F. Sumners, Thad James Mueller (argued), Sumners & Carter, New Albany, MS, for Defendant-Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi.

Before JONES and DeMOSS, Circuit Judges, and FELDMAN,^* District Judge.

DeMOSS, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiff Yvonne Vance sued Union Planters Bank, N.A. under Title VII, alleging gender discrimination. A jury awarded her $30,000 for lost wages and benefits, $20,000 for emotional distress, and $390,000 in punitive damages. The district court later reduced the compensatory and punitive damage awards to $300,000 to comply with Title VII's statutory limits on employer liability. 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(b)(3)(D).

On appeal by Union Planters, we affirmed the district court's judgment as to liability. Vance v. Union Planters Corp., 209 F.3d 438, 447 (5th Cir.2000) [Vance I]. However, because we determined that the record was not sufficiently developed to determine the amount of the applicable damage cap, we vacated the damages award and remanded to the district court for further discovery and an evidentiary hearing.

On remand, the district court set a time period for discovery and a briefing schedule for the parties to submit evidence and arguments to the court. After reviewing the parties' voluminous submissions, the court concluded again that the judgment was subject to a $300,000 Title VII cap. Union Planters then brought this appeal. Because we determine that $100,000, rather than $300,000, is the applicable statutory cap, we modify the damages portion of the district court's judgment.

I. THE DAMAGES CAP

The limitations on Title VII compensatory and punitive damages is found in 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(b), which provides:

(3) Limitations

The sum of the amount of compensatory damages awarded under this section for future pecuniary losses, emotional pain, suffering, inconvenience, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, and other nonpecuniary losses, and the amount of punitive damages awarded under this section, shall not exceed, for each complaining party —

(A) in the case of a respondent who has more than 14 and fewer than 101 employees in each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year, $50,000;

(B) in the case of a respondent who has more than 100 and fewer than 201 employees in each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year, $100,000; and

(C) in the case of a respondent who has more than 200 and fewer than 501 employees in each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year, $200,000; and

(D) in the case of a respondent who has more than 500 employees in each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year, $300,000.

42 U.S.C. § 1981a(b)(3). For purposes of this statute, we have held that the "current year" refers to the year in which the discriminatory act took place, not the year of judgment. See Vance I, 209 F.3d at 446; cf. Dumas v. Town of Mount Vernon, 612 F.2d 974, 979 n. 4 (5th Cir.1980).

The statute limits allowable damages based on the number of employees employed by the employer in the current year, but it is silent about how to identify the relevant employer. Thus, when there is more than one entity involved, either through a parent/subsidiary or a joint-employer relationship, the question becomes: Which entities' employees are counted for purposes of calculating the damages cap? Pertinent to this inquiry is the question of whether the complaining employee in a particular case was denied a new job with a new employer (i.e., a "failure to hire" claim), or whether the complaining employee was denied a transfer to another nominally independent, but sufficiently interrelated, entity (i.e., a "failure to promote" claim).

In Trevino v. Celanese Corp., we provided some direction on how to identify the relevant entity or entities in these types of cases:

Ordinarily, promotion is perceived as occurring within a single company or organization. It is clear, however, that an employee may also be promoted, or denied promotion, from one to another nominally independent entity, provided these two entities' activities, operations, ownership or management are sufficiently interrelated. Whether transfer from one workforce to another constitutes a "promotion" or a "hiring" depends on the facts of each particular case; however, the degree of interrelatedness between companies required before an employee will be considered to have been "promoted" as he transfers from one to the next cannot reasonably be said to exceed that degree of connexity which the courts require for a finding of joint employer or integrated enterprise status.

701 F.2d 397, 403 (5th Cir.1983). Factors we consider to determine if distinct entities constitute an integrated enterprise are (1) interrelation of operations, (2) centralized control of labor relations, (3) common management, and (4) common ownership or financial control. Id. at 404. "Courts applying this four-part standard in Title VII and related cases have focused on the second factor: centralized control of labor relations." Id. "This criterion has been further refined to the point that `[t]he critical question to be answered then is: What entity made the final decisions regarding employment matters related to the person claiming discrimination?'" Id.

II. BACKGROUND

Whether two employers are engaged in an integrated enterprise for purposes of Title VII is a fact intensive determination. Id. at 403. Thus, a review here of the relevant facts, some of which are already set forth in our Vance I opinion, is necessary. Union Planters Corporation (UPC), which already owned 100% of First National Bank of New Albany (FNB) and 100% of United Southern Bank (USB), agreed in July 1994 to purchase 100% of Grenada Sunburst Bank (Sunburst) effective December 31, 1994. Vance I, 209 F.3d at 440.

Following UPC's purchase of Sunburst, Sunburst's name was changed to Union Planters Bank of Mississippi (Sunburst/UPBMS); USB's name was changed to Union Planters Bank of Northwest Mississippi (USB/UPBNW); and FNB's name was changed to Union Planters Bank of Northeast Mississippi (FNB/UPBNE). Id. UPC appointed Pat Davis, who had previously been the president of FNB, to run FNB/UPBNE. Id. Because both Sunburst/UPBMS and USB/UPBNW had branches in Oxford, UPC decided that these branches were to be consolidated into FNB/UPBNE's Oxford branch.¹ Id. Davis was charged with hiring a president for this newly consolidated Oxford bank branch. Id.

Yvonne Vance, the plaintiff, had been president of Sunburst's branch in Oxford, Mississippi, for seven years and she applied for the position of president of the new consolidated branch. Id. However, on March 15, 1995, Davis hired Tom Carroll instead of Vance to fill this position.² Id. Vance sued Davis, UPC, Sunburst/UPBMS, USB/UPBNW, and FNB/UPBNE for gender discrimination. After conducting depositions, Vance agreed that all defendants should be dismissed except UPC and FNB/UPBNE. In January 1998, the district court also dismissed UPC, concluding that UPC and FNB/UPBNE did not constitute a single integrated enterprise. Thus, the only remaining defendant was FNB/UPBNE. Later in 1998, Sunburst/UPBMS, USB/UPBNW, and FNB/UPBNE merged with Union Planters Bank, N.A. (UPBNA). Consequently, UPBNA was substituted as the defendant for FNB/UPBNE.

The trial was finally held, and the jury concluded that Davis had engaged in illegal gender discrimination in passing up Vance for this position. Id. at 439. It awarded Vance $30,000 for lost wages and benefits, $20,000 for emotional distress, and $390,000 in punitive damages. UPBNA argued to the district court that the punitive and compensatory damages should be reduced to $100,000 because FNB/UPBNE only employed approximately 140 people at the time the discriminatory act occurred. See 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(b)(3) (capping damages at $100,000 for employers with "more than 100 and fewer than 201 employees in each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year"). However, the district court concluded that the date of judgment, rather than the date of the discriminatory act is the date on which the employee count is relevant under § 1981a. Then it noted that UPBNA, the newly consolidated bank and the substituted defendant, had well over 500 employees on the date of judgment. Alternatively, the court suggested that "no single subsidiary" could realistically be considered Vance's would-be employer; thus, the "discriminatory act was done on behalf of a large corporation." Accordingly, it capped the compensatory and punitive damages at $300,000, the relevant cap for employers with more than 500 employees. See 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(b)(3)(D).

The bank appealed, and this Court affirmed as to liability. Vance I, 209 F.3d at 440. However, we disagreed with the district court's conclusion that, for purposes of § 1981a's cap on damages, the employer's size is measured at the date of the verdict. Id. at 446. Instead, we explained, the year of the discriminatory act is the correct measure. Id. Thus, we remanded for the district court to determine the relevant employer and employer size on the date the discriminatory act occurred.

On remand, the district court focused on March 15, 1995, as the date the discrimination took place. It then concluded that Sunburst/UPBMS was the relevant employer at this time for purposes of counting employees to apply the damage cap. The court began by noting that Carroll, the person hired instead of Vance, remained on Sunburst/UPBMS's payroll until ...