Williams v. Trader Publishing Co.

• Decision Date: 24 July 2000
• Docket Number: No. 99-20179,99-20179
• Citation: 218 F.3d 481
• Parties: (5th Cir. 2000) SHARON M. WILLIAMS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. TRADER PUBLISHING COMPANY, Defendant-Appellant
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 481

218 F.3d 481 (5th Cir. 2000)

SHARON M. WILLIAMS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. TRADER PUBLISHING COMPANY, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 99-20179

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT

July 24, 2000

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Appeal from the United States District Court For the Southern District of Texas

Before JONES, BARKSDALE, and DENNIS, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

Defendant-Appellant Trader Publishing Company ("Trader") appeals from the district court judgment based on a jury verdict in favor of Plaintiff-Appellee Sharon M. Williams ("Williams") finding Williams had been discharged by Trader due to gender discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, et seq. Trader challenges the jury's finding of gender discrimination and compensatory damages, the award and amount of punitive damages, and the award and amount of attorney's fees and interest. For the reasons assigned, we affirm in part and reverse in part the judgment of the district court.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Williams was hired by Trader on April 27th, 1989 as a sales representative. From 1989 through 1995, Williams assumed multiple positions for Trader, during which time she received several raises and performance based bonuses. In 1993, Williams served as acting general manager for the Houston office of Trader. Although Williams applied for the position of full-time general manager of the Houston office, in 1994 Trader hired Ron Haas to fill the position on a permanent basis. In 1995 Trader fired Williams and she brought this suit.

Williams contends that Haas treated male employees more favorably than female employees in the Houston office of Trader. For example, she contends that Haas criticized female employees' style of dress and made recommendations to change it during visits by his supervisor. In addition, Williams contends that Haas acted friendlier to male employees than female employees. Specifically, Haas discussed problems with male employees' work openly and informally. On the other hand, he confronted female employees with criticisms of their work in formal conference room meetings. Haas disputes that he treated employees differently on the basis of gender.

Trader contends that Williams was discharged due to a pattern of unacceptable behavior rather than because of gender. Specifically, Trader contends that Williams impaired office morale by disparaging fellow employees. For example, Trader contends that Williams called a co-worker a "bitch" and that she often addressed Haas, her supervisor, as "Ron, Ron, the leprechaun." In addition, Trader contends that Williams circulated rumors about her impending dismissal that further caused dissension in the Houston office and falsified an examination score of a fellow employee. Trader contends that it was in response to a pattern of such disruptive behavior that Williams was dismissed.

In response to Trader's accusations of "disruptive behavior", Williams introduced evidence of similar behavior by other employees that had not resulted in summary dismissal. Several former co-workers, both male and female, testified that they had called the same co-worker a "bitch" without being terminated. In addition, Williams introduced evidence that a male employee had discussed rumors of his dismissal and challenged Haas's authority, but was not immediately terminated; rather, Haas confronted the employee and offered him an opportunity to respond to the allegations. It was only after this employee admitted to the behavior that he was dismissed. Williams also introduced Trader's employee manual that stated as a general policy that employees should receive an oral warning and then a written reprimand for disruptive behavior prior to dismissal -- and that while male employees were given the benefit of this procedure, she was not.

Trader argues that the situations were different in that Williams had developed a pattern of disruptive behavior which required an immediate discharge in deviation from Trader's standard procedures. On cross-examination, however, Haas admitted that generally the only disruptive behavior severe enough to justify an immediate termination by Haas rather than by his superior, Sunny Sonner (who had the ultimate authority to fire employees of Williams's level), was drunkenness at work or some other similarly severe disruption. However, Trader contends that Haas actually did not fire Williams, but that Haas reported Williams's disruptive behavior to Sonner and that Sonner (who is a woman) authorized the discharge. Williams testified that Haas fired her directly without following Trader's policy or procedure and without obtaining his supervisor's prior approval. Williams further testified that Haas did not afford her the same opportunity to admit or deny allegations against her, as Haas had given to an accused male employee, and that Haas had her escorted out of the building by security guards immediately after discharging her.

Williams filed the present suit in October 1996. After a jury trial she was awarded damages for back pay in the amount of $106,000, future earnings of $27,160, compensatory damages for pain and suffering of $100,000, and punitive damages of $100,000. In addition, the district court ordered prejudgment interest on back pay and compensatory damages at a rate of ten percent and post-judgment interest at the rate of 5.407%, as well as attorney's fees of $61,479.54. Trader timely filed a notice of appeal.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

In Title VII cases, once the plaintiff has established a prima facie case and the case been decided on the merits, the only factual review available at the appellate level is whether, taking all inferences and evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence points so strongly in favor of the defendant-appellant that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See Deffenbaugh-Williams v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 156 F.3d 581, 588 (5th Cir. 1998), reh'g en banc granted and opinion vacated 169 F.3d 215, opinion reinstated 182 F.3d 333 (5th Cir. 1999) ("after a case has been fully tried on the merits, we no longer focus on the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting rubric; the inquiry becomes whether the record contains sufficient evidence to support the jury's ultimate finding of [gender] discrimination"). Accordingly, if the evidence is sufficient to uphold a jury verdict under Title VII, the appellate court should affirm both the verdict and the award of damages. See Smith v. Berry Co., 165 F.3d 390, 394 (5th Cir. 1999).

III. DISCUSSION

A.

To prove discrimination, a plaintiff may use circumstantial evidence that she has been treated differently than similarly situated non-members of the protected class. See Polanco v. City of Austin, Texas, 78 F.3d 968, 977 (5th Cir. 1996). Trader contends that to satisfy the "similarly situated" requirement, the situations of the non-protected class members must be more than "similar", they must be "nearly identical." See Mayberry v. Vought Aircraft Co., 55 F.3d 1086, 1090 ("[t]o establish a prima facie case in this manner, Mayberry must show that white employees were treated differently under circumstances 'nearly identical' to his") (citing Little v. Republic Ref. Co., 924 F.2d 93, 97 (5th Cir. 1991)). In the present case, Trader contends that the circumstances of the male employees' treatment introduced by Williams were not "nearly identical" to Williams's treatment because (1) there was no evidence that the supervisors knew of the male employees' conduct and (2) that the men had not established a pattern of disruptive behavior as Williams had. In support, Trader cites a recent decision by this circuit holding that a non-tenure track professor is not "similarly situated" to a tenure track professor. See Krystek v. University of So. Mississippi, 164 F.3d 251, 257 (5th Cir. 1999).

Although Trader contends on appeal that the evidence pertaining to these male employees is not admissible because they were not in situations "nearly identical" to that of Williams, Trader itself introduced the same evidence to show that it had fired male employees for disruptive behavior in support of its motion for summary judgment. Evidence may only be introduced at the summary judgment phase of a trial if the evidence would be admissible at trial. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e) ("Supporting and opposing affidavits . . . shall set forth such facts as would be admissible in evidence). Thus, by introducing the evidence relating to these male employees, Trader took the position before the district court that the evidence would be relevant and admissible at trial to show its parity of treatment of employees of both genders.

After introducing this evidence in support of its motion for summary judgment, Trader has argued in its motion in limine and on appeal that the evidence cannot be introduced properly by Williams to show that the similarly situated male employees were afforded pre-termination reprimands or hearings that she was denied as proof of gender discrimination. However, because Trader offered the same comparables for purposes of its motion for summary judgment, it cannot persuasively argue that those employees were not similarly situated to Williams. The trial court did not err in admitting the evidence.

B.

Trader contends that Williams failed to establish a prima facie case of gender discrimination under Title VII because she could not prove that she was replaced by a member of a non-protected class. However, it is well settled that, although replacement with a non-member of the protected class is evidence of discriminatory intent, it is not essential to the establishment of a prima facie case under Title VII. See Hornsby v. Conoco, Inc., 777 F.2d 243, 246 (5th Cir. 1985) ("This court has previously held that the single fact that a plaintiff is replaced by someone within the protected class does not negate the possibility that...