Witherspoon v. City of Waukegan
Witherspoon v. City of Waukegan
Opinion of the Court
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
Michael Witherspoon sued the City of Waukegan for race discrimination and retaliation in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1981 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. A jury returned a verdict in favor of defendant on Witherspoon’s discrimination claim and in favor of Witherspoon on his retaliation claim and awarded him $10,000.00 in compensatory damages. Before the Court is plaintiffs request for equitable relief. When plaintiff seeks both legal and equitable relief, “the Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial requires that the legal claims be tried first, to a jury.” OhioSealy Mattress Mfg. Co. v. Sealy, Inc., 585 F.2d 821, 844 (7th Cir. 1978) (citing Beacon Theatres v. Westover, 359 U.S. 500, 79 S.Ct. 948, 3 L.Ed.2d 988 (1959)).
After a trial on the legal issues, any issues necessarily and actually decided by the jury are foreclosed under settled principles of collateral estoppel from subsequent reconsideration by the district court. The court may not make findings “contrary to or inconsistent with the jury’s resolution ... of that same issue as implicitly reflected in its general verdict ... on the damages claim.”
Id. (quotation and alterations omitted). In deciding whether equitable relief is appropriate the Court may make its own factual findings as long as they are not inconsistent with the jury verdict. Miles v. State of Indiana, 387 F.3d 591, 599 (7th Cir. 2004).
The jury found defendant retaliated against plaintiff in one or more of the following ways:
-sending Plaintiff home on August 17, 2005;
-assigning Plaintiff menial tasks;
-making Plaintiff wear a uniform;
-requiring Plaintiff to obtain a commercial driver’s license (“CDL”)
The same conclusion applies to the belated imposition of a CDL requirement on plaintiff. On August 12, 2005, plaintiff received a memorandum from Johnston stating that he was required to obtain a CDL by September 13, 2005. (Trial Tr. vol. 1, 66-68, June 22, 2010.) Although defendants testified that Maintenance Worker I employees were required to have a CDL, plaintiff testified that when he was hired no one ever asked him if he had one or told him that he was required to get one. That the jury would credit such testimony is not surprising as he had been working for five years without a CDL before he was told that he was required to obtain one and given only thirty days to do so. (Id.) Plaintiff also testified that he thought it would take six months to obtain a CDL, and that he did not think it was possible to obtain it in a month. (Trial Tr., vol. 2, 158, 161.) In an attempt to rebut any inference of retaliation, Matson testified that he discovered plaintiff did not have a CDL only because he reviewed plaintiffs grievance shortly after making a list of employees with CDLs to be randomly drug tested as required by the U.S. Department of Transportation and noticing that plaintiffs name was not on it. (Trial Tr., vol. 3, 456, June 24, 2010.) Given that it took defendant five years to discover that plaintiff lacked this “qualification” for the position he held, and that he was then given only thirty days to cure the deficiency, the jury could clearly have rejected Matson’s explanation and found that the CDL requirement was imposed as retaliation.
Even if the jury rejected Matson’s testimony on this point in its entirety, however, it does not follow that there is a link between the CDL requirement and any loss of income. While plaintiff arguably lost earnings as a result of being sent home on August 17, 2005, the CDL requirement was not mentioned during the interaction that culminated in that action. Furthermore, the timing of events suggests that there is no relationship between the two. Defendant told plaintiff on August 15, 2007 that he had thirty days to obtain a CDL. Why then, only two days later, would defendant send plaintiff home because he did not have a CDL? This just doesn’t make sense. Nor is there any other evidence of any action taken against the defendant that resulted in any pecuniary loss to him for his failure to possess or obtain a CDL even after the September 13, 2005 deadline.
Plaintiff is left with only one possible basis for establishing pecuniary loss due to defendant’s retaliatory acts, the defendant’s actions in sending him home on
The evidence does not justify a finding that plaintiff was sent home on August 17, 2005 in retaliation for his complaints of discrimination. Plaintiffs theory is that he was sent home on August 17, 2005 because he wore a knee brace to work, while employees who had not complained of discrimination were allowed to work with braces. But the evidence shows that plaintiff was sent home on that date because the restrictions in his doctor’s notes were such that he could not, in conformance with those restrictions, perform the ordinary duties of his job as a Maintenance Worker 1 and defendant had no light duty jobs for people with work restrictions. Human Resources Director Katherine Schwarz testified that there were numerous employees who worked with medical braces similar to plaintiffs brace. As long as they were allowed and able to do their work without restrictions, the braces were of no concern. However, there were none working with medical restrictions because the public works department had no light duty jobs available. (Trial Tr., vol. 3, 368-69, 379-80, June 24, 2010.) The plaintiff himself testified he was allowed to work for a month while wearing the knee brace. Larry Matson testified that it was the policy of the department that there was no light duty work. He also testified that he himself was not allowed light duty work after being placed on medical restrictions on several occasions during his employment with the Human Resources Department. Thus the evidence establishes that defendant’s actions were in conformance to a policy and not in retaliation for plaintiffs protected conduct.
On October 10, 2007, plaintiff was terminated from his employment. Prior to that, plaintiff never advised the defendant that his medical restrictions had been lifted and he could return to work without restrictions. On the contrary, sometime in September or October 2007, plaintiff informed defendant that his restrictions were permanent. The Court finds the evidence does not support a finding that the defendant sent plaintiff home on August 17, 2005 as retaliation for his complaints of discrimination.
For the reasons given above, the Court finds for the defendant and against the plaintiff on the plaintiffs demand for equitable relief.
SO ORDERED.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Michael WITHERSPOON v. CITY OF WAUKEGAN
- Status
- Published