Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Pape Lift, Inc.

115 F.3d 676, 97 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 4129, 97 Daily Journal DAR 6923, 1997 U.S. App. LEXIS 12631, 70 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 44,781, 73 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1870
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedJune 2, 1997
DocketNos. 94-35603, 94-35654
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 115 F.3d 676 (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Pape Lift, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Pape Lift, Inc., 115 F.3d 676, 97 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 4129, 97 Daily Journal DAR 6923, 1997 U.S. App. LEXIS 12631, 70 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 44,781, 73 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1870 (9th Cir. 1997).

Opinion

D. W. NELSON, Circuit Judge.

Appellant Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) instituted this action against Appellee Pape Lift (“Pape”), alleging that Pape violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA”) when it discharged Bill Waters, a Pape employee. At the conclusion of the jury trial, the jury returned a verdict for the EEOC, finding that Pape terminated Waters because of his age, and awarding back pay and front pay. Moreover, because the jury found that the violations were willful, it awarded liquidated damages.

Pape then filed a motion for judgment as a matter of law and alternative motions for a new trial and remittitur. The district court granted the motions in part, eliminating the award of front pay and liquidated damages. The court also issued an order reducing the costs to be awarded to the EEOC. The [679]*679EEOC and Pape now appeal. We affirm in part, and reverse in part.

BACKGROUND

Bill Waters was in Ms 24th year of employment with the Hyster Sales Company, a retail outlet for forklift trucks, when Pape purchased the company in August 1990. Waters worked as a general parts and service manager in one of the company’s branch offices; Ms responsibilities included supervising the managers of the parts and service departments. After the purchase, Pape installed Denrns Brown as the new general manager to supervise Waters. In February 1991, Brown told Waters that the company would be eliminating the position of parts and service manager and gave him the option of managing either the parts or the service department. Waters chose the parts department.

Philip Hill, Waters’ former supervisor who had been promoted to vice-president for marketing after the Pape purchase, testified that Brown had attempted to transfer Waters from Brown’s department to a corporate position under Hill’s supervision. Hill maintained that Brown said that “[Waters] was old and burnt out [and] that he was hurting the store image, meaning [Brown’s] branch, because [he] did not fit the Pape mold of a young, aggressive type manager like they had in most other management positions.” Hill also alleged that Brown told him that age was affecting Waters’ memory and that Brown felt Waters was too old to change. When asked whether Brown had told him of any specific problems with Waters, Hill testified that he did not, but that “[h]e just kept saying, T don’t think Bill fits the mold of the young, aggressive manager.’ ” Hill testified that since “[Waters] had done an excellent job for me for 20 years,” he was “puzzled” by Brown’s criticisms, and that he did not understand “why just with the flip of a switch [Waters was] so incompetent.” Hill told Brown that he would not interview Waters for the available corporate position because he “viewed [that] job as a potential stepping stone” to his job, and Waters was close to retirement. In addition, the EEOC introduced evidence that Brown had made age-related comments about Waters on other occasions, at different times referring to him as an “old geezer” and “old fart.”

Brown terminated Waters on August 7, 1991. He alleges that he came to that decision only as a result of attending the company’s mid-year meeting, when he realized that Waters was “not going to change enough to meet the marketing goals of the company.” A secretary in the parts department testified that after Waters left Pape, she heard Brown tell the company president “I finally forced Bill Waters out.”

Waters then filed an age discrimination complaint with the EEOC. In response to the charge, Pape’s personnel service manager, Lee Wood, sent a letter to the EEOC explaining the reasons for Waters’ termination; the reasons she gave, however, were inconsistent with those provided by Brown.

After Ms termination, Waters checked the want ads for new work, but did not, according to the district court and Pape, actively look for work until July 1993. He sent out six letters with resumes and received a response from the manager of a lift truck company interested in hiring Waters as a parts manager. The job would have entañed “several hours waiting on customers” and paid about half of what Waters made at Pape; Waters testified that he “avoided the job.” The record suggests that Waters made little effort to seek employment after the fall of 1993.

At trial, the EEOC introduced evidence that called into question both Brown’s and Woods’ explanations of Waters’ termination. In addition, whüe Pape argued that Waters had fañed to mitigate Ms damages, and presented evidence of avafiable employment op-portumties, the EEOC’s employment expert challenged the suitability of those positions. The jury returned a verdict for Waters, and awarded back pay, front pay, and liquidated damages. The district court then partially granted Pape’s motion for judgment as a matter of law, eliminating the front pay and liquidated damages awards, and reducmg the costs to be awarded to the EEOC. Both parties now appeal.

[680]*680 STANDARD OF REVIEW

A district court’s decision to grant judgment as a matter of law is reviewed de novo. Montiel v. City of Los Angeles, 2 F.3d 335, 342 (9th Cir.1993). A district court’s decision concerning a motion for a new trial is reviewed for an abuse of discretion. Browning-Ferris Indus. of Vermont, Inc. v. Kelco Disposal, Inc., 492 U.S. 257, 278, 109 S.Ct. 2909, 2921, 106 L.Ed.2d 219 (1989). Although the court’s ruling on an alternative motion for a new trial involves the exercise of some discretion, “a stringent standard applies when the motion is based on insufficiency of the evidence.” Venegas v. Wagner, 831 F.2d 1514, 1519 (9th Cir.1987). A motion will be granted on this ground only if the verdict “is against the ‘great weight’ of the evidence, or ‘it is quite clear that the jury has reached a seriously erroneous result.’ ” Id. (quoting Digidyne Corp. v. Data Gen. Corp., 734 F.2d 1336, 1347 (9th Cir.1984), cert. denied, 473 U.S. 908, 105 S.Ct. 3534, 87 L.Ed.2d 657 (1985)).

A district court’s award of costs is reviewed for an abuse of discretion. National Info. Servs., Inc. v. TRW, Inc., 51 F.3d 1470, 1471 (9th Cir.1995). Evidentiary rulings are reviewed for an abuse of discretion and should not be reversed absent some prejudice. City of Long Beach v. Standard Oil Co., 46 F.3d 929, 936 (9th Cir.1995).

DISCUSSION

I. Willfulness of the ADEA Violation

In Hazen Paper Co. v. Biggins, 507 U.S. 604, 617, 113 S.Ct. 1701, 1709, 123 L.Ed.2d 338 (1993), the Supreme Court held that a willful violation of the ADEA would be shown where the defendant “knew or showed reckless disregard” for the matter of whether its conduct was prohibited. In so holding, the Court recognized the continuing vitality of the definition of willfulness adopted in TWA, Inc. v. Thurston, 469 U.S. 111

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115 F.3d 676, 97 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 4129, 97 Daily Journal DAR 6923, 1997 U.S. App. LEXIS 12631, 70 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 44,781, 73 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1870, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/equal-employment-opportunity-commission-v-pape-lift-inc-ca9-1997.