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Steppe v. Kmart Stores11/18/1999
JUDGMENT: REVERSED.
Plaintiff-appellant Carolyn Steppe appeals from the decision of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas which directed a verdict in favor of defendant Kmart on her claim of intentional workplace sexual harassment and from the judgment which vacated the jury verdict in her favor and granted defendant Kmart's motion for a new trial. Defendant cross-appellant Kmart challenges the trial court's denial of its motion for directed verdict, its motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and claims evidentiary errors tainted the verdict. We find cross-appellant Kmart's first and second assigned errors to be well taken and reverse.
Appellant along with plaintiffs Kimberly Valliere, Barbara Steppe, and Judith Valliere commenced the within matter on October 1, 1996 in a nine-count complaint filed in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. In counts one and two, Carolyn Steppe and Kimberly Valliere alleged sexual assault and battery and intentional/negligent infliction of emotion distress against defendant James Workman; in counts three and four, they alleged negligence and asserted a claim for liability under R.C. 3109.10 against James' mother, defendant Janice Workman; and in counts five, six, seven and eight, they asserted claims against defendant- appellee Kmart for respondeat superior, negligence in permitting a hostile workplace, negligent hiring, retention and supervision of its employee James Workman and intentional/negligent infliction of emotional distress; in count nine of the complaint, plaintiffs Barbara Steppe and Judith Valliere, mothers of Carolyn and Kimberly, asserted claims for filial loss of consortium. In answer to the complaint all defendants denied the claims against them. Defendant James Workman filed counterclaims against Carolyn Steppe and Kimberly Valliere alleging sexual harassment and asserted a cross-claim against Kmart claiming they maintained a hostile work environment. On March 24, 1998, Kmart was granted summary judgment on James Workman's cross-claim but was denied judgment as to the claims brought by plaintiffs. The same day, James Workman dismissed his counterclaims for sexual harassment against Carolyn Steppe and Kimberly Valliere without prejudice. On April 10, 1998, the plaintiffs dismissed both claims against Janice Workman.
The matter went to trial on April 8, 1998 on the remaining claims to wit: Barbara Steppe's and Judith Valliere's claims for loss of filial consortium; Kimberly Valliere's and Carolyn Steppe's claims against Kmart of respondeat superior for the intentional workplace sexual harassment (hostile workplace), for punitive damages, for negligent infliction of emotional distress, for negligence in failing to prevent sexual harassment in a hostile workplace and for its negligent hiring, supervising and retaining of its employee James Workman; and all remaining claims asserted against defendant James Workman. At the close of the plaintiffs' case, Kmart moved for directed verdict on all claims against it. Over plaintiffs' objection the motion was granted in part, whereby the court dismissed the filial consortium claims of Barbara Steppe and Judith Valliere and Carolyn's and Kimberly's claims against Kmart for respondeat superior, for negligent infliction of emotional distress and for punitive damages, finding no evidence of malice was shown.
The testimony and evidence presented at trial revealed that Carolyn Steppe, Kimberly Valliere and James Workman were part-time teenage employees of the Kmart Store in Seven Hills, Ohio. On November 2, 1994, seventeen-year-old James Workman was hired by Kmart in the position of stockboy, 0-1. James' mother, Janice Workman, was considered a reliable and trustworthy
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