Tramill v. United Parcel Service

10 F. App'x 250
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedMarch 12, 2001
DocketNos. 99-6297, 99-6298
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 10 F. App'x 250 (Tramill v. United Parcel Service) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tramill v. United Parcel Service, 10 F. App'x 250 (6th Cir. 2001).

Opinions

SILER, Circuit Judge.

Defendant, United Parcel Service (“UPS”), appeals the jury verdict and the judgment for plaintiff, Robert A. Tramill, in this employment action under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Tramill cross-appeals the damages. We affirm the jury verdict and remand the damages question.

[253]*253BACKGROUND

While delivering packages for his employer, UPS, Tramill suffered an injury to his left foot. After undergoing surgery, he was restricted in walking and standing. He requested from UPS an accommodation based on his disability. When UPS refused, he filed two charges of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and three grievances with the labor union. He then sued UPS under the ADA, 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq., and for retaliation based on its refusal to place Tramill in any of the part-time positions for which he applied.

In a bifurcated proceeding, the jury concluded that UPS had violated Tramill’s rights under both of his causes of action. The district court then awarded Tramill back pay in the amount of $81,616.89, compensatory damages based on emotional distress in the amount of $7,500, and punitive damages in the amount of $50,000. The district court further ordered that Tramill be reinstated to his “full-time position ... as a package car driver, with [ ] reasonable accommodations.... ” In the event this position was not possible, UPS was required to offer him a suitable part-time position with reasonable accommodations.

STANDARDS OF REVIEW

The court shall review the jury verdict to determine if it is supported by substantial evidence. See Coal Res., Inc. v. Gulf & W. Indus., Inc., 954 F.2d 1263, 1266 (6th Cir.1992). The issue of reinstatement and the amount of damages as determined by the district court are reviewed for an abuse of discretion. See Hudson v. Reno, 130 F.3d 1193, 1198 (6th Cir.1997).

DISCUSSION

A. The Verdict

UPS challenges the jury’s verdict on the grounds that it is not supported by substantial evidence. Tramill presented testimony that an accommodation of an automatic shift truck would have assisted him in returning to his package car driver position. Such an accommodation was recommended to Supervisor Reggie Ross, but rejected by UPS. Jerry Froelich, vice president and business representative for the union, testified that at the time of Tramill’s injury, no one at the UPS facility was working with an ADA accommodation, and that UPS would not accommodate Tramill with any of Froelich’s suggestions because it did not want to set a precedent. Froelich further testified that the collective bargaining agreement does not specifically state that full-time employees could not bid on part-time positions.

The clerks who held or were currently holding part-time positions similar to those sought by Tramill testified as to what their positions physically encompassed. Both Dr. Beazley, Tramill’s treating physician, and Tramill testified that Tramill was capable of performing these part-time positions.

The evidence produced at trial is sufficient to sustain the jury verdict as to both the ADA claim and the retaliation claim.

B. The Award

1. Health and Welfare Benefits

Tramill seeks to reverse the district court’s decision denying an award for his out-of-pocket expenses he allegedly incurred to maintain his health and welfare benefits from March 19, 1995 to March 15, 1997.' His own testimony and an unauthenticated, unsworn letter written by him to his expert witness regarding the amount [254]*254allegedly paid were introduced as evidence at trial.

However, a plaintiff who is successful in an employment discrimination suit may recover the value of his insurance fringe benefits regardless of whether the plaintiff has purchased substitute coverage or incurred out-of-pocket medical expenses. See Blackwell v. Sun Elec. Corp., 696 F.2d 1176, 1185 (6th Cir.1983). Blackwell supports awarding Tramill the value of the insurance coverage he would have received from UPS, so long as Tramill can provide evidence of what this amount would have been. See id. at 1185-86. Tramill relies on Article 34 of the collective bargaining agreement, which was in the record before the district court, to prove the value of the insurance coverage he would have received from UPS.

The district court ruled that Tramill was entitled to comparable compensation for pension benefits that UPS would have paid, holding that the collective bargaining agreement, “constitute^] sufficient proof as to the amount of pension contributions to which Plaintiff is entitled.” The provisions in the collective bargaining agreement regarding pension benefits and health and welfare benefits are the same. Furthermore, Tramill did not allege or prove a specific amount for his pension benefits, nor did the district court calculate a specific amount. The district court simply held that UPS was required to pay directly into Tramill’s pension fund, “an amount equal to the pension contributions Defendant would have contributed to the Central States Pension Fund on his behalf had he remained employed at UPS____”

The district court awarded pension benefits to Tramill based on the collective bargaining agreement. It similarly should have awarded health and welfare benefits to Tramill, on the basis of our decision in Blackwell and because Tramill relied on a specific portion of the collective bargaining agreement (the same one supporting his award of pension benefits) to prove the amount to which he is entitled. Therefore, we remand the issue of health and welfare benefits and order the district court to award Tramill the amount of health and welfare benefits to which he would have been entitled under the collective bargaining agreement had he remained employed at UPS (1) at full-time pay for forty hours per week from October 14, 1994 through January 25, 1995, and (2) at part-time pay for twenty hours per week from January 26,1995 through July 31,1998.

2. Calculation of Back Pay

The district court awarded Tramill $81,616.89 in back pay, finding that he would have worked forty hours per week at the hourly rate of either $18.87, as UPS suggests, or $17.09, as Tramill asserts, from October 14, 1994 to January 25, 1995 when he could no longer perform his duties as a full-time package car driver. It further awarded back pay at $17.09 as a part-time rate between January 26, 1995 and July 31, 1998 the date after which he failed to mitigate this portion of his compensatory damages. Because the district court reinstated him to a full-time position, Tramill states that the calculation for back pay should have been based on the appropriate full-time rate for the entire period.

The court cannot determine whether the district court abused its discretion in calculating Tramill’s back pay between October 14, 1994 and January 25, 1995 as it is unclear from the judgment exactly how the district court calculated TramilTs award.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cox v. True North Energy, LLC.
524 F. Supp. 2d 927 (N.D. Ohio, 2007)
Voyles v. Louisville Transportation Co.
136 F. App'x 836 (Sixth Circuit, 2005)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
10 F. App'x 250, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tramill-v-united-parcel-service-ca6-2001.