Membery v. Javelina Cantina Sedona et al

Filing 45

ORDER granting 37 Motion to Amend/Correct; ruling for Defendant 40 Motion for Ruling. Signed by Judge David G Campbell on 1/16/2014.(DGC, nvo)

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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

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FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA

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Samantha Membery,
Plaintiff,

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No. CV-13-08095-PCT-DGC
ORDER

v.

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Hale’Aina Mekiko, LLC, et al.,

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Defendant.

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Plaintiff Samantha Membery has filed a motion to amend her complaint. Doc. 37.

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Plaintiff and Defendant Hale’Aina Mekiko, LLC have also filed a joint motion for a

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ruling regarding the application of the damages caps set forth in 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(b)(3).

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Doc. 40. The motions are fully briefed and no party has requested oral argument. For the

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reasons that follow, the Court will grant Plaintiff’s motion to amend and rule for

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Defendant on the damages cap.

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I.

Background.

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Plaintiff brought this action against her former employer, Javelina Cantina Sedona.

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She alleges that she was denied a promotion on February 12, 2012 because she is female

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and has two young children. Doc. 40 at 3. She also claims that she was retaliated against

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for filing an EEOC complaint in April 2012, that she was discriminated against because

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of a diagnosed mental health condition in violation of the Americans with Disabilities

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Act (“ADA”), and that she was terminated in June 2012 so that the manager could rehire

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a former employee who had sexually harassed her. Id. at 4-5. Plaintiff filed a second

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EEOC claim on June 4, 2012. Id. at 5. Plaintiff’s first amended complaint asserts two

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claims for violation of the Arizona Civil Rights Act, a Title VII retaliation claim, and an

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ADA claim. Doc. 18, ¶¶ 33-54.

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II.

Leave to Amend.

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“[L]eave to amend ‘should be granted unless amendment would cause prejudice to

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the opposing party, is sought in bad faith, is futile, or creates undue delay.’” Madeja v.

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Olympic Packers, LLC, 310 F.3d 628, 636 (9th Cir. 2002) (citing Yakima Indian Nation

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v. Wash. Dep’t of Revenue, 176 F.3d 1241, 1246 (9th Cir. 1999)). Plaintiff requests leave

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to amend her complaint to add a new Title VII sex discrimination claim, remove the two

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state law claims, and fix typographical errors. Docs. 37, 37-1. Defendant consents to all

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amendments except the Title VII sex discrimination claim. Doc. 38 at 2. Defendant

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argues that Plaintiff did not include the February 12, 2012 incident in either of the two

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charges she filed with the EEOC, and that even if she did include this incident in her first

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charge, her claim is now time-barred because she failed to bring it within 90 days of her

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receipt of a Notice of Rights. Id. at 3-4. Plaintiff responds that sex discrimination is

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clearly included in her second EEOC charge (Doc. 39-2 at 4) and that “[i]t is well

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established in federal case law that an EEOC charging document must be liberally

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construed by the courts.” Doc. 39 at 10. The Court concludes that further factual

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development is needed before the Court can determine whether Plaintiff’s claim was

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properly asserted before the EEOC and is timely. The Court will therefore grant the

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motion to amend. Defendant may raise its objections at the summary judgment stage.

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III.

Damages Cap.

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The parties request a ruling on application of the damages cap set forth in 42

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U.S.C. § 1981a(b)(3), which states that the amount of compensatory and punitive

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damages “awarded under this section, shall not exceed, for each complaining party – in

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the case of a respondent who has more than 14 and fewer than 101 employees in each of

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20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year, $50,000[.]”

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Plaintiff argues that she is “entitled to the damages cap maximum” for her ADA claim

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and “to a second damages cap maximum for her two Title VII claims,” meaning she

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would be able to recover up to $100,000 in compensatory and punitive damages.

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Defendant contends that “a single damages cap applies to all three of Plaintiff’s claims

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under both Title VII and the ADA,” and that Plaintiff’s recoverable damages would

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therefore be limited to $50,000.

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The plain language of the statute states that the amount of damages for each

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complaining party shall not exceed $50,000. 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(b)(3). Had Congress

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intended a separate cap to apply to each claim or each kind of claim, it easily could have

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said so. It did not. In Hudson v. Chertoff, 473 F. Supp. 2d. 1286 (S.D. Fla. 2007), the

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court considered the applicability of the damages cap to the plaintiff’s Title VII and

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disability claims. The court rejected the plaintiff’s argument that he was entitled to the

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statutory maximum for each of his claims, reasoning that “[a]lthough the plaintiff has two

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federal claims, both are subject to the statutory cap as he is the sole ‘complaining party’

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in this action.” Id. at 1291. The Court likewise concludes that all of Plaintiff’s federal

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claims are subject to a single $50,000 statutory cap because she is the sole complaining

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party. See 42 U.S.C. § 1981a et seq.; see also Black v. Pan Am. Labs. LLC, 646 F.3d

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254, 264 (5th Cir. 2011) ( “the plain language of § 1981a(b)’s cap applies to each party in

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an action); Hudson v. Reno, 130 F.3d 1193, 1200 (6th Cir. 1997), abrogated on other

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grounds by Pollard v. E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., 532 U.S. 843, 845 (2001).

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Plaintiff claims that Franz v. Kernan, 951 F. Supp. 159 (E.D. Mo. 1996), supports

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the application of two caps. The Court does not agree. In Franz, the plaintiff recovered

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damages for a violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA”) in

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addition to the statutory cap for an ADA claim. Id. at 163. The claims under the ADEA,

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however, are not subject to § 1981a(b)’s damages cap. See 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(a)(1)-(3)

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(setting forth types of actions subject to § 1981a(b)). Franz is therefore inapposite.

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IT IS ORDERED:

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1.

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Plaintiff’s motion for leave to amend her complaint (Doc. 37) is granted.

Plaintiff promptly shall file her amended complaint on or before January 22, 2014.
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A single damages cap, as set forth in 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(b), applies to all of

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Plaintiff’s claims under Title VII and the ADA. Plaintiff may recover a maximum of

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$50,000 in compensatory and punitive damages.

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Dated this 16th day of January, 2014.

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