William Kaempffer, Register Staff 07/23/2005
NEW HAVEN — The city is still on the hook for a $1.4 million jury award to a retired firefighter who claimed she was run off the job by gender discrimination and a hostile workplace.
The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals this week upheld the verdict for Sheryl P. Broadnax, rejecting the city’s appeal and leaving City Hall to consider whether to continue the fight or pay up.
"They fought a good fight, but I think the fight is over," said Norman A. Pattis of New Haven, Broadnax’s attorney. "It’s a decisive victory in my view. I think what the city ought to be doing is going to a bank and securing the money. My expectation is that the light of reason will dawn on City Hall."
City Corporation Counsel Thomas W. Ude Jr. said the city was disappointed by the ruling and was considering its options.
"We thought there were weaknesses and gaps in the evidence. That was the focus of the appeal," said Ude. "A large part of that had to do with the lost earnings award, but the 2nd Circuit disagreed with us."
The only way to appeal is to the U.S. Supreme Court and those petitions rarely are granted, Ude said.
In 2003, a federal jury awarded Broadnax $1.4 million, including $965,571 in lost wages, in a civil rights lawsuit.
She claimed she was the target of gender discrimination, retaliation, a hostile work environment and had her rights to equal protection and free speech violated.
The city’s appeal focused on what it cast as two errors in the trial: that the jury should not have been permitted to consider future earnings and that Broadnax failed to show she made any effort to seek other, comparable employment. Both could have affected the amount of lost wages granted.
Attorneys for the city had argued that the district court erred by permitting the jury to consider future earnings.
Typically, that’s an issue for the court, not a jury, to decide and the city asked the appeals court to overturn the award.
In the decision, the 2nd Circuit judges concluded that the city attorney could have, but failed to, object during the trial, in essence giving a tacit waiver for the jury to decide the issue.
Likewise, the appeals court ruled that it was the city’s burden, not the plaintiff’s, to show that Broadnax used "reasonable diligence" to pursue other employment. Since the city’s attorney failed to raise the issue during the original trial, it forfeited the right to make the argument afterward, the decision stated.
Contacted Friday, Broadnax referred comment to Pattis.
In February 2002, the Board of Fire Commissioners fired Broadnax, then the department’s drillmaster, for her role in copying a master personnel list from the deputy chief’s computer.
The state labor board reduced the termination to a six-month suspension and a Superior Court judge later vacated that.
After winning her job back, Broadnax retired because "she couldn’t take it anymore," she said in court.
Broadnax had been an outspoken member of the department through her active role with the Firebirds, a fraternal organization for minority firefighters. The group and its members have filed a number of successful lawsuits over the last two decades over the department’s promotional practices and on discrimination claims.
İNew Haven Register 2005