Williams v. Runyon

• Decision Date: 28 November 1997
• Docket Number: No. 97-5035,97-5035
• Citation: 130 F.3d 568
• Parties: 75 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 772, 72 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 45,090, 39 Fed.R.Serv.3d 378 Davon WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. Marvin T. RUNYON, Postmaster General; United States Postal Service, Agency, Harvey Bryant; Jane Doe, Officer, John Doe; United States Of America
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

Page 568

130 F.3d 568

75 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 772,

72 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 45,090, 39 Fed.R.Serv.3d 378

Davon WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. Marvin T. RUNYON, Postmaster General; United States Postal Service, Agency, Harvey Bryant; Jane Doe Officer, John Doe; United States Of America

No. 97-5035.

United States Court of Appeals Third Circuit.

Argued Nov. 4, 1997.

Decided Nov. 28, 1997.

Karol C. Walker (argued), St. John & Wayne, L.L.C., Newark, NJ, for Appellant.

Faith S. Hochberg, United States Attorney, Joseph Braunreuther, Chief, Civil Division, R. Andrew German, Managing Counsel, Legal Policy Section, Office of the United States Attorney, Newark, NJ, Lori J. Dym (argued), United States Postal Service, Washington, DC, for Appellee.

Before: BECKER, ROTH and GARTH, Circuit Judges.

OPINION OF THE COURT

GARTH, Circuit Judge:

This is an appeal from a post-trial order of the district court. The jury had returned a verdict for the plaintiff Williams in the sum of $44,000. The defendant Postmaster General Marvin T. Runyon's Rule 50(b) motion was then granted on the ground that the plaintiff Ms. Davon Williams had failed to exhaust her administrative remedies in a timely manner, thereby denying the plaintiff any recovery. We will reverse and remand.

I.

Plaintiff Ms. Davon Williams, a former postal employee, filed a complaint under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 in federal court on July 6, 1994 against Postmaster General Marvin T. Runyon ("the Postmaster"). ¹ Ms. Williams alleged in her complaint that when she was a postal worker, she was the victim of sexual discrimination, sexual harassment, a hostile work environment, constructive discharge, and retaliation in response to her complaints.

Before the district court, the Postmaster filed a motion to dismiss, or in the alternative, for summary judgment. The Postmaster argued that the complaint should be dismissed because Williams had not exhausted the administrative remedies required in Title VII actions in a timely manner. In particular, counsel for the Postmaster maintained that Williams did not satisfy 29 C.F.R. § 1614.105(d) because her administrative complaint was not filed until December 1, 1993, well beyond the 15 day window that complainants are allowed to file their complaints after being notified of their right to do so by an EEO Counselor. ²

According to the Postmaster, Ms. Williams had been sent a written notice of a final interview and a notice of her right to file a complaint by certified mail on September 14, 1993. When the letter was returned unclaimed, EEO Counselor John Morrison sent a second letter on October 6, 1993. On October 21, 1993, Williams' newly hired counsel, William K. Fugee, Esq., informed Morrison that he was representing Williams and that all correspondence should be directed to Fugee. Morrison sent Fugee a third notice of a final interview and a notice of right to file an individual complaint, which he received on November 1, 1993. According to the Postmaster General's motion to dismiss, November 1, 1993 was the day that the 15 day filing period was triggered. Because Williams' complaint was not filed until December 1, 1993, a month later, the Postmaster argued that the complaint was not timely filed and that Williams' action in federal court had to be dismissed. ³

In her brief in opposition, Williams maintained that she had not been notified of the filing requirements on November 1, 1993. Although it was uncontroverted that a letter from Morrison was received by Fugee on that day, Williams argued that there was no evidence that the letter included a notice of right to file. In addition, Williams claimed that even if a notice was sent, the mailings had been insufficient to make Fugee aware that the 15 day filing period had been triggered. Williams maintained that the 15 day filing period had not begun until November 22, 1993, when Fugee received a letter in response to his inquiries informing him in specific language that the 15 dayfiling period had begun. At the very least, Williams maintained, there was a genuine issue of material fact as to whether she had exhausted her remedies. Mr. Fugee had since died, and important facts relating to whether and when he was put on notice were not known.

On April 24, 1996, some four months before trial, the district court denied the Postmaster's motion for dismissal for failure to exhaust. As the court explained:

It's like scrambled eggs to know who did what when, and whether it was done properly.... [T]his case is not going to be decided on exhaustion of administrative remedy, and, who got the mail on a given date; what letter was enclosed, wasn't it enclosed. [We have] a lawyer who is now no longer available, he's deceased; did a letter to him clarify what his obligation was for his client? It's really no way to fairly decide this case[.] So I'm going to deny your application on administrative grounds and exhaustion grounds. It's really not a complex case once we can get it under way.

Subsequently, a jury was impaneled, and the case went to trial. Williams put on her case, but did not offer evidence concerning the issue of administrative exhaustion. At the end of the plaintiff's case, the Postmaster moved for a directed verdict pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(a). The Postmaster did not specifically address Williams' failure to offer evidence relating to exhaustion: instead, counsel made the broad statement that "there is no legally sufficient evidentiary basis for a reasonable jury to find for the Plaintiff on any of the issues that counsel have set forth in this case." ⁴ The district court denied the Postmaster's motion for a judgment as a matter of law pursuant to Rule 50(a). The Postmaster then put on the defense's case. Like Williams, the Postmaster did not offer any evidence concerning whether Williams had exhausted her administrative remedies.

On August 28, 1996, the jury returned a verdict in favor of Williams on the one count of sexual harassment, and against Williams on the remaining counts. The Jury awarded Williams $44,0000 in compensatory damages and back pay for a four month period. The district court also ordered that Williams be reinstated. Following the jury verdict, counsel for the Postmaster filed a motion for a partial new trial, or in the alternative, for a judgment as a matter of law pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 50(b). On page 38 of its 39-page motion, counsel for the Postmaster renewed the exhaustion argument, writing that "[a]lthough the Court has previously rejected this argument, defendant respectfully reasserts his argument and relies on his Motion for Summary Judgment and Trial Brief as if they were fully incorporated herein."

Williams responded to the motion for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict by addressing the merits of the exhaustion claim. At that time, however, she did not oppose the motion on the ground that the exhaustion issue had not been specifically raised in the Postmaster's Rule 50(a) motion for a directed verdict.

On December 24, 1996, the district court granted the Postmaster's motion for judgment as a matter of law. Revisiting the issue of whether Williams had exhausted her administrative remedies, the court announced that it now appeared "unquestionably clear" that the 15 day period had begun on November 1, 1993, and that Williams had thus failed to exhaust her administrative remedies in a timely manner. Although the district court had before it the same record that it had evaluated earlier, the district court concluded that any statement that Williams had exhausted her administrative remedies would be "untenable as a matter of law." Consequently, the district court entered judgment as a matter of law in favor of the Postmaster.

Williams timely appealed.

II.

The first issue we address on appeal is whether the Postmaster had waived his right to a renewed judgment as a matter of law on exhaustion grounds by not specifically raising that issue in the original motion for a judgment as a matter of law. Fed R. Civ. P. 50(a)(2) requires that a motion for a judgment as a matter of law "shall specify the judgment sought and the law and the facts on which the moving party is entitled to judgment." According to Williams, the Postmaster failed to reserve the right to renew the motion for judgment as a matter of law on exhaustion grounds because counsel for the Postmaster failed to identify exhaustion as a basis for the motion for a judgment as a matter of law. Insofar as this issue raises a legal question, our scope of review is plenary. See Lester H. v. Gilhool, 916 F.2d 865, 869 (3d Cir.1990).

Under normal circumstances, a defendant's failure to raise an issue in a Rule 50(a)(2) motion with sufficient specificity to put the plaintiffs on notice waives the defendant's right to raise the issue in their Rule 50(b) motion. See 9A Charles Alan Wright & Arthur R. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 2533 (1995) (citing cases);Orlando v. Billcon Int'l Inc., 822 F.2d 1294, 1297-98 (3d Cir.1987); Perdoni Bros., Inc. v. Concrete Sys., Inc., 35 F.3d 1, 3 (1st Cir.1994) ("The law is crystal clear that a party may not base its motion for a judgment n.o.v. on a ground that was not argued in its motion for directed verdict.") (internal quotations omitted). It is clear that the Postmaster did not raise the exhaustion issue in his motion for a directed verdict: his blanket statement that "there is no legally sufficient evidentiary basis for a reasonable jury to find for the Plaintiff or any of the issues that counsel have set forth in this case" is obviously insufficient. Thus, under normal circumstances, the Postmaster would not be entitled to relief on exhaustion grounds in his Rule 50(b) motion for judgment as a matter of law.

However, this issue did not arise under normal circumstances in that Williams did not raise her waiver objection to the defendants' Rule 50(b) motion before the district court. Instead, Williams attacked the...