MacDONALD v. CORPORATE INTEGRIS HEALTH
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MacDONALD v. CORPORATE INTEGRIS HEALTH
2014 OK 10
Case Number: 111717
Decided: 02/25/2014
THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA
Cite as: 2014 OK 10, __ P.3d __
GUINDELEE MacDONALD, Plaintiff,
v.
CORPORATE INTEGRIS HEALTH and INTEGRIS HEALTH, Defendants.
FEDERAL CERTIFIED QUESTION
¶0 On August 20, 2012, plaintiff filed suit against her former employer in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. Plaintiff alleged employer violated both federal law and the Oklahoma Anti-Discrimination Act (OADA), 25 O.S.2011, §§ 1101 through 1706, in terminating her employment. More particularly, she alleged employer discriminated against her on the basis of her age and gender. In addition to relief provided by federal law, plaintiff alleged she was entitled to the full range of normal tort damages, including punitive damages, on her state law claim. Anticipating employer's defense that § 1350 of the OADA limits damages for discrimination claims, plaintiff alleged the damage limitations in the OADA are unconstitutional under Oklahoma's prohibition against special laws. Citing the lack of Oklahoma precedent on this issue, the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma certified to this Court the question of whether the damage provisions in § 1350 of the OADA are unconstitutional under Article V, §§ 46 and 59 of the Oklahoma Constitution. On May 30, 2013, this Court accepted the certified question and the parties completed briefing on August 30, 2013. Upon review, we hold the damage provisions in § 1350 are not unconstitutional under Article V, §§ 46 and 59.
CERTIFIED QUESTION ANSWERED.
Mark Hammons, Amber L. Hurst, HAMMONS, GOWENS & ASSOCIATES, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma for Plaintiff,
Leonard Court, Courtney K. Warmington, CROWE & DUNLEVY, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma for Defendants.
¶1 This Court is asked to decide whether the damage provisions in section 1350 of the Oklahoma Anti-Discrimination Act (OADA), 25 O.S.2011, §§ 1101 through 1706, violate the special law prohibitions in Article 5, §§ 46 and 59 of the Oklahoma Constitution. This issue arose in a case filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. The plaintiff alleged her former employer terminated her employment in violation of both federal law and the OADA. Unlike the "all detriment" common law damage remedy for wrongful termination, section 1350 of the OADA limits damages to back pay and liquidated damages. Plaintiff has contended that section 1350 is a special law because it provides different relief to victims of discrimination-based termination than the relief provided for victims of other terminations in violation of Oklahoma public policy. In essence, Plaintiff believes this difference in relief for "wrongful terminations" is the type of inequality in the treatment of tort victims that the Oklahoma Constitution forbids in Article 5, §§ 46 and 59. Citing the absence of Oklahoma precedent on this issue as well as the need to determine plaintiff's remedies for her state law claim, the federal court certified this constitutional question to this Court.
¶2 The federal court's certification order sets forth the factual background for this controversy. The certification order relates (1) plaintiff was an employee of the defendants from August 1998 through May 4, 2012; (2) plaintiff was 56 years old at the time of her termination; (3) plaintiff was one of the oldest employees in her department at the time of her termination; (4) plaintiff's supervisor made ageist and gender-based comments; (5) after plaintiff's supervisor was elevated to Director of Radiology, he began to terminate older employees and replace them with younger employees; (6) plaintiff was replaced by a younger female who was approximately in her twenties; (7) plaintiff was told she was terminated for bullying a coworker; and (8) plaintiff filed her federal court complaint on August 20, 2012, alleging violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(3), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 29 U.S.C. § 626(c), and the Oklahoma Anti-Discrimination Act, 25 O.S.2011, §§ 1101 through 1706.
¶3 In addition to this background, the parties' federal court pleadings further frame the controversy over the relief plaintiff may recover in the event she succeeds on her state court claim. Plaintiff's complaint and amended complaint both allege plaintiff was the victim of age and gender discrimination. They also assert that "the OADA damage caps are unconstitutional under Oklahoma's prohibitions against special laws, and that Plaintiff is entitled to the full range of normal tort damages." These pleadings further claim that "Plaintiff is entitled to an award of punitive damages under both federal and Oklahoma law." In their answers to these complaints, defendants maintain: "Any damages available to plaintiff under state law for age and/or gender discrimination are limited to those enumerated in 25 O.S. § 1350."
¶4 Section 13501 became effective November 1, 2011, and was in effect on May 4, 2012, the date of plaintiff's termination. This statute expressly creates a cause of action for employment-based discrimination and abolishes common law remedies for such wrong. In the place of common law remedies for employment-based discrimination, section 1350 authorizes a court (1) to enjoin unlawful discrimination employment practices, (2) to grant affirmative relief such as reinstatement, (3) to award back pay, and (4) to award an additional amount for liquidated damages. While this relief is certainly more limited than the "all detriment" common law remedy provided for most non-discrimination based wrongful termination claims, that difference alone does not make section 1350 a special or non-uniform law forbidden by Article 5, §§ 462 and 593 of the Oklahoma Constitution. The test is "whether the statute operates on an entire class of actionable claims that are similarly situated." Reynolds v. Porter, 1988 OK 88, ¶ 18, 760 P.2d 816, 823.
¶5 To demonstrate that section 1350 fails the Reynolds test, plaintiff argues that all victims of wrongful termination are a similarly situated class of tort victims in the same way all victims of negligence were recognized to be in Wall v. Marouk, 2013 OK 36, 302 P.3d 775, and Zeier v. Zimmer, Inc
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2014 OK 10, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/macdonald-v-corporate-integris-health-okla-2014.