Little Forest Medical Center v. Ohio Civil Rights Commission

631 N.E.2d 1068, 91 Ohio App. 3d 76, 1993 Ohio App. LEXIS 4886, 64 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1661
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 6, 1993
DocketNo. 16136.
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 631 N.E.2d 1068 (Little Forest Medical Center v. Ohio Civil Rights Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Little Forest Medical Center v. Ohio Civil Rights Commission, 631 N.E.2d 1068, 91 Ohio App. 3d 76, 1993 Ohio App. LEXIS 4886, 64 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1661 (Ohio Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

Reece, Judge.

Appellant, Little Forest Medical Center of Akron (“Little Forest”), appeals an order of the Summit County Court of Common Pleas that determined the amount of back pay Little Forest owed Rayferd Lawson as damages for gender discrimination in its refusal to hire Lawson as a nurse’s aide. We affirm.

This is the second time this case is before this court. See Little Forest Med. Ctr. of Akron v. Ohio Civ. Rights Comm. (Apr. 11, 1990), Summit App. No. 14312, unreported, 1990 WL 42262, reversed (1991), 61 Ohio St.3d 607, 575 N.E.2d 1164. Accordingly, a brief synopsis of the prior proceedings is necessary before we can review the issues on this appeal.

On June 19, 1986, Rayferd Lawson was denied a position as a nurse’s aide at Little Forest’s skilled nursing facility for the elderly. Little Forest rejected Lawson for the position because he was male and a portion of his duties would involve close, intimate contact with the residents, most of whom were female.

On October 29, 1986, Lawson filed a gender discrimination charge with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission (“the commission”). On January 5,1987, while the commission proceedings were pending, Lawson enrolled as a full-time student at Southern Ohio College (“SOC”). During the period he was a full-time student, Little Forest offered Lawson a custodial maintenance position which paid $.70 per hour more than the nurse’s aide position. Lawson rejected the maintenance position because it was not related to the health care field. Lawson continued as a full-time student at SOC until March 21, 1988.

*79 ■ On August 18, 1988, Lawson was hired as a nursing assistant at the Stow Glen Retirement Village. Two months later, on October 18, 1988, Lawson ended his employment with Stow Glen when he refused to change a patient’s colostomy bag.

On October 6, 1988, the commission released its findings concerning Lawson’s complaint. The commission found that Little Forest had discriminated against Lawson based on his gender and ordered Little Forest to offer Lawson the nurse’s aide position and pay him back pay from the date he was denied employment. Little Forest sought review of the commission’s order in the common pleas court. On September 27, 1989, the common pleas court affirmed the commission’s decision.

This court affirmed in part and reversed in part the decision of the common pleas court. We found that the decision of the commission was not supported by reliable, probative, and substantial evidence and that Little Forest’s liability for back pay ended when Little Forest offered Lawson substantially similar employment in its maintenance department. Little Forest (1990), supra, at 6-8.

The Ohio Supreme Court reversed. The Supreme Court found that Little Forest failed to establish a bona fide occupational qualification exception to justify its discriminatory hiring criteria. Little Forest Med. Ctr. v. Ohio Civ. Rights Comm. (1991), 61 Ohio St.3d 607, 614-615, 575 N.E.2d 1164, 1170-1171. The court also held that the maintenance position Little Forest offered Lawson was not substantially similar to the nurse’s aide position and therefore the offer did not toll the accrual of the back pay period. Id. at 615, 575 N.E.2d at 1170-1171. Consequently, the judgment of the commission was reinstated and the case was remanded to the common pleas court for a determination of Little Forest’s back pay liability. Immediately after the Supreme Court’s decision, Little Forest offered Lawson the nurse’s aide position on September 5,1991. Lawson rejected the offer.

On remand in the common pleas court, the parties entered stipulations of fact. The court found that Little Forest’s claims for offsets and reductions in the back pay award were not applicable and awarded Lawson $17,760 as stipulated by the parties. The court also awarded prejudgment interest from the date of Little Forest’s refusal to hire Lawson to the date of Lawson’s employment at Stow Glen. Little Forest appeals the court’s back pay determination, asserting six assignments of error.

Assignments of Error 1 and 3

“1. The court of common pleas erred when it ruled that appellee was entitled to receive back pay during the time he was enrolled as a full-time college student.”

*80 “3. The court of common pleas erred when it granted appellee back pay when the uncontroverted facts show that appellee was unsuited for employment in the job upon which the back pay was predicated.”

Little Forest in its first and third assignments of error argues that the common pleas court erred in determining the back pay award because it did not factor in the time Lawson was enrolled as a full-time student and did not consider Lawson’s short-lived tenure as a nursing assistant at Stow Glen. Little Forest did not raise either of these issues during the common pleas court’s first review of the commission’s order in 1989. Likewise, Little Forest did not raise either of these issues as assignments of error in its first appeal to this court in 1990.

A fundamental rule of appellate review is that an appellate court will not consider any error that could have been, but was not, brought to the trial court’s attention. Schade v. Carnegie Body Co. (1982), 70 Ohio St.2d 207, 210, 24 O.O.3d 316, 317-318, 436 N.E.2d 1001, 1003-1004. Thus, a party has waived the right to appeal an issue that was in existence prior to or at the time of trial if that party did not raise the issue at the appropriate time in the court below. See State v. Awan (1986), 22 Ohio St.3d 120, 123, 22 OBR 199, 202-203, 489 N.E.2d 277, 279, 280; Van Camp v. Riley (1984), 16 Ohio App.3d 457, 463, 16 OBR 539, 544-545, 476 N.E.2d 1078, 1084.

The issues Little Forest seeks to have reviewed, Lawson’s full-time college enrollment and his employment at Stow Glen, were both in existence at the time of the proceedings below. The issue of Lawson’s college enrollment could have been raised during the commission’s final hearing on Lawson’s complaint on May 24, 1988. In addition, after the commission’s decision on October 6,1988, Little Forest could have moved under Ohio Adm.Code 4112-3-11 to have the commission reconsider its order based on either or both of these issues. Finally, Little Forest could have raised these issues in the common pleas court in 1989 by invoking the court’s power to accept additional evidence and modify an order of the commission. Miller Properties v. Ohio Civ. Rights Comm. (1972), 34 Ohio App.2d 113, 120, 63 O.O.2d 169, 172-173, 296 N.E.2d 300, 304; Ohio Civ. Rights Comm. v. David Richard Ingram, D.C., Inc. (Aug. 19, 1992), Wayne App. No. 2713, unreported, at 5, 1992 WL 204790, appeal pending in No. 92-2059.

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631 N.E.2d 1068, 91 Ohio App. 3d 76, 1993 Ohio App. LEXIS 4886, 64 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1661, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/little-forest-medical-center-v-ohio-civil-rights-commission-ohioctapp-1993.