A $650,000 compensatory award was affirmed by the 6th Circuit recently (in an unpublished decision) where a plaintiff prevailed on a Title VII retaliation claim. Fischer v. UPS. The court rejected the defendant’s argument that the award was too high given that the plaintiff did not present expert medical proof as to emotional distress or mental harm. Acknowledging the large size of the award, the court held that the jury’s compensatory damage award did not clearly exceed the maximum that a jury could reasonably find to be compensatory for the plaintiff’s loss.

Also, the 6th Circuit reinstated an award of punitive damages to the plaintiff. The jury’s award of 1.3M in punitive damages was reduced to Title VII’s statutory cap of $300,000. In a post-trial motion, the defendant convinced the district court that the jury’s award of punitive damages was improper. The 6th Circuit reversed the district court’s decision finding that the jury could have reasonably concluded that the defendant did not engage in good faith efforts to implement its anti-discrimination/anti-retaliation policies.

This is a fantastic decision on many levels. The 6th Circuit panel hearing the case was compromised of Judges Cook, Sutton and Suhrheinrich. The panel was appropriately deferential to the jury in this case, which is a nice to see at the appellate level. Thanks to my friend Nashville attorney Wade Cowan for bringing this case to my attention.

On July 1, 2010, we (Donati Law Firm and the Nichols Kaster firm) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota against Multiband Corporation under the Fair Labor Standards Act seeking unpaid overtime compensation on behalf of satellite tv installers, who have been treated as independent contractors by Multiband.

Click on link to access a copy of the Complaint

The case is getting some press. Click here and here.

If you believe you have been improperly classified by a company as an “independent contractor”, and thus denied overtime compensation in work weeks in which you worked in excess of forty hours, please contact my law firm at 901-278-1004 for a free consultation.