MISSOURI EMPLOYERS TAKE HEED - SEXUAL HARASSMENT CASE RAISES THE LIABILITY STAKES

The risk to employers in the state of Missouri just got higher with a jury verdict in Jackson County. The consequences to employers that fail to heed the call for policy reviews could result in damages paid in multi-millions of dollars.

In 2003, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled in Diehl v. O’Malley that Plaintiffs had a right to a jury trial in state courts on human right act claims. With the possibility of a jury verdict there came a potential for much larger damage awards. Lawyers from around the state have been watching and waiting for the first cases to conclude so that they can see the real impact of presenting Human Rights Violations cases to a jury. Well, the results are in and employers had better brace themselves!

On the age discrimination front, two recent cases were handed down. In St. Louis County a January 14, 2005 case resulted in an award of $225,000.00 in compensatory damages and $1.05 million in punitive damages (Brady v. Curators of the University of Missouri). In December 2005, a jury in Jackson County awarded a policy officer $700,000.00 in actual damages and $2 million in punitive damages for age discrimination. The potential risk to employers is getting clearer.

On January 13, 2006 a verdict was delivered by a Jackson County jury in the case of Lynn v. TNT Logistics. In order to understand how these cases might be more relevant to most employers than they might think, let’s take a moment to look at the facts of the Lynn case before we reveal the verdict.

Kendra Lynn worked for TNT Logistics as a parts sequencer from August 20, 2002 until she was discharged on January 30, 2004. In her 17 months of employment she reported to her supervisors several incidents of her immediate supervisor making comments about her body and about things he would like to do with it. He also made comments about his own body measurements. On one occasion the supervisor struck her on the buttocks with his belt. Lynn complained to another supervisor who brought the matter to the attention of the operations manager who allegedly responded by saying “Don’t worry about it, it will go away.” It didn’t. The company admitted that they did not interview the accused supervisor and they did not interview Ms. Lynn. There was essentially no investigation and no discipline procedure imposed on the wrongdoer. All of these events occurred after August 2003.

In settlement negotiations the Plaintiff’s final demand was for $150,000.00. The employer made a final offer of $50,000.00. The jury found the employer liable for $50,000.00 in actual damages and also liable for punitive damages and evidence was presented to determine the appropriate amount. The jury awarded $6.75 million for punitive damages.

The movement of these cases away from Federal Court and into State Courts has allowed more Plaintiff-favorable procedural issues, not the least of which is avoidance of the $300,000.00 cap on damages in Federal Court.

TNT Logistics overlooked reported incidents, failed to have human resource professionals handle the matter and further made no effort at training their supervisors about harassment and discrimination. The result was a Court order to pay $6.8 million.

It is time for employers to review their policies, provide some training, and to never assume a complaint is just going to go away.

Article by R. Thomas Spalding www.spaldingpartnership.com . ( Reprint rights granted provided this credit appears with the article.)

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