United States First Circuit

In plaintiff's political discrimination and speech retaliation suit, claiming that she was wrongly denied a permanent position with the Puerto Rican Tourism Company, jury's verdict in favor of the plaintiff and an award of $213,000 in compensatory damages and $1,000,000 in punitive damages is affirmed in part, reversed in part, vacated in part and remanded where: 1) judgment as to the plaintiff's political discrimination claim is reversed as, it was not reasonable for the jury to conclude that plaintiff's political beliefs were a substantial or motivating factor in defendant's decision not to hire her; 2) because defendant has not contested the sufficiency of the evidence, or made any other argument attacking the speech retaliation claim, the judgment is affirmed as to this claim; 3) the award of compensatory damages is affirmed; and 4) jury's award of punitive damages is vacated and remanded, unless plaintiff agrees to a reduction of the award to $500,000, as an award of $1,000,000 against an individual-capacity defendant based on the conduct proved at trial is grossly excessive and shocking to the conscience of the court.

Appellate Information

• Decided 06/30/2010
• Published 06/30/2010

Judges

• LIPEZ, J.

Court

• United States First Circuit

Counsel