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Daka12/24/2003
Argued October 21, 2003
Daka, Inc. (hereinafter Daka) appeals from a jury award to McCrae of $187,500 in compensatory damages, $4,812,500 in punitive damages, and $276,493.28 in attorneys' fees and costs, based upon findings that Daka had negligently supervised one of its managerial employees and had unlawfully retaliated against the plaintiff for his claims of sexual harassment by that employee. Although we find no basis on which to reverse the award of compensatory damages, we conclude that the award of punitive damages must be vacated in light of State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Campbell, 123 S. Ct. 1513 (2003), and the case remanded for determination of a proper award in light of that decision.
I.
Daka is a corporation that provided catering and food services for Howard University. In 1996, Daka hired M cCrae as the Banquet Chef in the catering department at the University. His immediate supervisor was Cordell Thomas, a Daka manager and the catering director. In 1997, McCrae brought suit against Daka and Howard University alleging numerous causes of action, chief of which -- as relevant here -- were that the defendants (1) had created a sexually hostile work environment by permitting Thomas to subject McCrae "to pervasive conditions of sexual harassment"; (2) had negligently supervised Thomas in the performance of his managerial duties; and (3) had retaliated against McCrae, in violation of D.C. Code § 1-2525 (1981) (now D.C. Code § 2-1402.61 (2001)), first by effectively demoting him and then by firing him after he complained of sexual harassment by Thomas. The allegations against Howard University were eventually dismissed, and at the conclusion of McCrae's case at trial, the court dism issed the hostile work environment claim on statute of limitations grounds, concluding that McCrae had failed as a matter of law to prove a discriminatory act by Thomas within the year preceding the filing of the complaint, as required by D.C. Code § 1-2556. Accordingly, the case was submitted to the jury on the claims only of common law negligent supervision and statutory retaliation.
Regarding those claims, McCrae presented evidence which, when viewed in the light most favorable to the judgment, permitted the jury to find the following facts. As Banquet Chef McCrae was an hourly employee regularly working 65-70 hours a week. In that job, which required creativity in preparing meals, he supervised a staff of 20-30 employees. An array of witnesses, including McCrae, testified that Thomas would talk openly and repeatedly during work about his private sexual activities, hire male employees on the basis of their sexual attractiveness, and attempt to condition continued work by employees on their com pliance with his sexual demands.
Specifically, McCrae, Clara Legett (an employee supervised by McCrae), and Charles Randall (a general utility worker), testified that Thomas would boast loudly and graphically in the kitchen about his sexual exploits the night before. Randall also testified that Thomas had hired him by mistaking him for another applicant (Robert Floyd) whose looks Thomas admired physically, after which Thomas created a new position for Floyd and made sexual advances to him. According to Floyd, Thomas told him that if he came to work, looked good, and stayed close to Thomas, he would not have to do any work. Thomas's overtures to Floyd were so regular and notorious that fellow employees called Floyd "Cordell's girl." A witness for Daka, Kathy Washington, admitted that Thomas would hire men if he thought they were cute, and would give them fewer duties than other employees.
McCrae testified th at early in May 1996, Thomas asked him out for
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