Reynolds v. USX Corp.

56 F. App'x 80
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedJanuary 15, 2003
Docket01-3941
StatusUnpublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 56 F. App'x 80 (Reynolds v. USX Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reynolds v. USX Corp., 56 F. App'x 80 (3d Cir. 2003).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

SCIRICA, Circuit Judge.

USX Corporation appeals from an order denying its motion for judgment as a mat-.. ter of law under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50(a). We will affirm.

I.

Plaintiff Deborah Reynolds, an African-American female, was hired in 1988 by defendant USX. From 1990 until her final day on the job, July 17, 1998, Reynolds worked in the cold reduction department of the defendant’s steel mill. She was a member of the United Steel Worker’s Union of America and was paid at an hourly rate. In October 1995, Reynolds filed her first allegation of racial and gender discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. Reynolds subsequently filed two more complaints with the EEOC and PHRC in 1997 and 1998. The complaints charged USX with discriminatory treatment on the basis of Reynolds’ race and gender, in addition to retaliation for her previous filings with the EEOC and PHRC. All of the allegations in Reynolds’ agency complaints were eventually dismissed.

Reynolds’ civil complaint alleged violations under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e-l to 2000e-17 (amended 1991) (“Title VII”), and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, Pa. Stat. Ann. tit. 43, §§ 951-963 (amended 1991) (“PHRA”). 1 At trial, the jury found in favor of USX on Reynolds’ claims of retaliation and racial and gender discrimination. But the jury awarded Reynolds $70,000 in compensatory damages on her hostile work environment claim. After denying USX’s Rule 50(a) motion, the District Court ordered USX to pay Reynolds $54,853.50 for attorney’s fees.

On appeal, USX contends the adverse jury verdict should be overturned because: (1) the evidence was insufficient as a mat *82 ter of law to establish a hostile work environment claim; (2) the alleged offensive epithets were made by fellow union employees, therefore Reynolds did not establish respondeat superior liability; and (3) Reynolds failed to notify a member of USX’s management of the epithets as required by its sexual harassment policy. With respect to the award of attorney’s fees, USX contends that the lodestar amount should be reduced to reflect the failure of Reynolds’ claims for retaliation and discrimination.

II.

We review whether the District Court erred as a matter of law under a plenary standard, while viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to Reynolds. Kunin v. Sears Roebuck and Co., 175 F.3d 289, 293 n. 4 (3d Cir.1999) (citing Shade v. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co., 154 F.3d 143, 149 (3d Cir.1998)). The central question is whether there was “insufficient evidence from which a jury reasonably could find liability.” Kunin, 175 F.3d at 293 n.4 (internal quotation marks omitted).

A claim for hostile work environment consists of five elements: (1) intentional discrimination on the basis of race or gender; (2) pervasive and regular discrimination; (3) detrimental effect to the plaintiff; (4) detrimental effect to a reasonable person of the same race or gender in the same position; and (5) respondeat superior liability. Id. at 293 (citing Andrews v. City of Philadelphia, 895 F.2d 1469, 1482 (3d Cir.1990)).

USX contends that Reynolds did not satisfy the fourth element of the Andrews test because the conduct to which she was exposed was not objectively hostile. The salient indicia of proof by which the fourth element is measured “include the frequency of the discriminatory conduct; its severity; whether it is physically threatening or humiliating, or a mere offensive utterance; and whether it unreasonably interferes with an employee’s work performance.” Harris v. Forklift Sys., Inc., 510 U.S. 17, 23, 114 S.Ct. 367, 126 L.Ed.2d 295 (1993). Viewing the disputed facts in the light most favorable to Reynolds, we cannot conclude that the jury acted unreasonably. Reynolds began recording what had been said and done to her in a personal journal in January 1995. By July 1998, Reynolds recorded having been called a “bitch” at least six times by various union “team leaders” under whom she worked in the steel mill. Reynolds’ co-worker testified that on one occasion Reynolds’ team leader referred to her as a “dumb black bitch.” Another co-worker corroborated Reynolds’ allegation of continuous verbal hostility testifying that she heard team leaders call Reynolds “the N word, the C word [and] the B word.” Reynolds offered evidence that she was taunted with nude pictures from a men’s magazine. Finally, Reynolds testified that she was repeatedly disciplined and denied training opportunities by team leaders and members of USX’s management on account of racial or gender animus. In view of this evidence, the jury verdict was not unreasonable. See Aman v. Cort Furniture Rental Corp., 85 F.3d 1074, 1082 (3d Cir.1996) (observing that “a plaintiffs ability to prove discrimination indirectly, circumstantially, must not be crippled ... because of crabbed notions of relevance or excessive mistrust of juries”) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).

USX also contends that Reynolds did not established respondeat superior liability because the team leaders were coworkers, not supervisors. See Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, 524 U.S. 775, 802, 118 S.Ct. 2275, 141 L.Ed.2d 662 (1998) (holding that an employer can be held vicariously liable for harassing conduct of a *83 supervisor “made possible by the abuse of his supervisory authority”). USX correctly observes that team leaders are, like Reynolds, union employees who earn an hourly wage and lack the authority to formally discipline another union employee. Reynolds, however, testified that members of management as well as team leaders were sometimes present when co-workers told her, among other things, that “women don’t belong in the mill.” Reynolds also presented evidence that members of management took tangible adverse employment actions against her by changing her work assignments, denying her training opportunities, issuing her disciplinary suspensions and ultimately issuing her a disciplinary discharge. See Burlington Indus., Inc. v. Ellerth, 524 U.S. 742, 760, 118 S.Ct. 2257, 141 L.Ed.2d 633 (1998) (recognizing that every Federal Court of Appeals has imposed vicarious liability where “a discriminatory act results in a tangible employment action”); Cardenas v. Massey,

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