13-249-cv
DeNigris v. N.Y.C. Health & Hosps. Corp.
1 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
2 FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT
3
4 SUMMARY ORDER
5
6 RULINGS BY SUMMARY ORDER DO NOT HAVE PRECEDENTIAL EFFECT. CITATION TO A
7 SUMMARY ORDER FILED ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2007, IS PERMITTED AND IS GOVERNED BY
8 FEDERAL RULE OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE 32.1 AND THIS COURT’S LOCAL RULE 32.1.1. WHEN
9 CITING A SUMMARY ORDER IN A DOCUMENT FILED WITH THIS COURT, A PARTY MUST CITE
10 EITHER THE FEDERAL APPENDIX OR AN ELECTRONIC DATABASE (WITH THE NOTATION
11 “SUMMARY ORDER”). A PARTY CITING A SUMMARY ORDER MUST SERVE A COPY OF IT ON ANY
12 PARTY NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL.
13
14 At a stated term of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, held at the
15 Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, 40 Foley Square, in the City of New York, on the
16 6th day of December, two thousand thirteen.
17
18 PRESENT:
19 DEBRA ANN LIVINGSTON,
20 SUSAN L. CARNEY,
21 Circuit Judges,
*
22 JOHN G. KOELTL,
23 District Judge.
24 ____________________________________
25
26 DEBORAH DENIGRIS,
27
28 Plaintiff-Appellant,
29
30 -v- No. 13-249-cv
31
32 NEW YORK CITY HEALTH AND HOSPITALS CORPORATION,
33 ANN FRISCH, in her individual and official capacity
34 as Executive Director of the Health and Home
35 Care Division of the New York City Health and
36 Hospitals Corporation,
37
38 Defendants-Appellees.
39 ______________________________________
40
*
The Honorable John G. Koeltl, of the United States District Court for the Southern District
of New York, sitting by designation.
1 DEBORAH DENIGRIS, pro se, New York, NY.
2
3 JANET L. ZALEON, KRISTIN M. HELMERS, ZEV S.
4 SINGER, Assistant Corporation Counsel, for Michael
5 A. Cardozo, Corporation Counsel of the City of
6 New York, New York, NY, for Defendants-
7 Appellees.
8
9 UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND
10 DECREED that the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.
11 Plaintiff-Appellant Deborah DeNigris, proceeding pro se, appeals from the judgment of the
12 United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Patterson, J.). The district court
13 entered judgment in favor of Defendants-Appellees following a jury verdict in their favor on
14 Appellant’s claims pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq.;
15 42 U.S.C. § 1981; 42 U.S.C. § 1983; the New York State Human Rights Law, N.Y. Exec. Law § 296
16 et seq.; and the New York City Human Rights Law, N.Y.C. Admin. Code § 8-107 et seq. We
17 assume the parties’ familiarity with the underlying facts, the procedural history of the case, and the
18 issues on appeal.
19 I. Jury Verdict
20 “[A] party is not entitled to challenge on appeal the sufficiency of the evidence to support
21 the jury’s verdict on a given issue unless it has timely moved in the district court for judgment as
22 a matter of law on that issue.” Kirsch v. Fleet Street, Ltd., 148 F.3d 149, 164 (2d Cir. 1998).
23 However, we will reach the waived issue to “prevent manifest injustice.” Id. A jury verdict may
24 be set aside upon a motion for judgment as a matter of law only if “there exists such a complete
25 absence of evidence supporting the verdict that the jury’s findings could only have been the result
26 of sheer surmise and conjecture, or the evidence in favor of the movant is so overwhelming that
2
1 reasonable and fair minded persons could not arrive at a verdict against it.” Luciano v. Olsten Corp.,
2 110 F.3d 210, 214 (2d Cir. 1997) (alterations and internal quotation marks omitted). In our review,
3 “we must give deference to all credibility determinations and reasonable inferences of the jury, and
4 may not weigh the credibility of witnesses or otherwise consider the weight of the evidence.”
5 Bucalo v. Shelter Island Union Free Sch. Dist., 691 F.3d 119, 128 (2d Cir. 2012) (internal quotation
6 marks omitted).
7 Here, Appellant’s counsel failed to move for a judgment as a matter of law prior to or
8 following the jury’s verdict, and, therefore, her sufficiency challenge to the jury’s verdict is waived.
9 Moreover, even if the challenge were not waived, it is meritless: a review of the testimony presented
10 at trial reveals that Appellees produced sufficient evidence upon which the jury could have found
11 that Appellant was fired for legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons. Accordingly, this challenge fails.
12 II. Batson Claim
13 In Batson v. Kentucky, the Supreme Court held that, in criminal prosecutions, the state may
14 not use its peremptory challenges to exclude potential jurors on the basis of their race. See 476 U.S.
15 79, 89 (1986). The Court later extended Batson’s holding to the exclusion of prospective jurors in
16 civil cases. See Edmonson v. Leesville Concrete Co., 500 U.S. 614, 628 (1991). If a party objecting
17 to a peremptory challenge makes a prima facie showing that a juror or jurors have been stricken on
18 the basis of their race, the opposing party must articulate a race-neutral explanation for their
19 exclusion. See Batson, 476 U.S. at 96-98. However, the burden remains, at all times, with the
20 objecting party to demonstrate that the peremptory strike was racially motivated. See Purkett v.
21 Elem, 514 U.S. 765, 768 (1995). A trial court’s determination of whether there is a racially
22 discriminatory intent underpinning a challenged peremptory strike is a factual finding premised
23 largely upon a credibility assessment; accordingly, it is afforded “great deference on appeal,” and
3
1 is reviewed only for clear error. Hernandez v. New York, 500 U.S. 352, 364-65 (1991) (plurality
2 opinion). “[W]here there are two permissible views of the evidence, the factfinder’s choice between
3 them cannot be clearly erroneous.” Ceraso v. Motiva Enters., LLC, 326 F.3d 303, 317 (2d Cir. 2003)
4 (quoting Anderson v. Bessemer City, 470 U.S. 564, 574 (1985) (internal quotation marks omitted)).
5 Here, it was not clearly erroneous for the district court to overrule Appellant’s counsel’s Batson
6 challenge to the exclusion of an African-American juror. Counsel for Appellees explained that he
7 sought to exclude the juror for reasons related to her perceived pro-plaintiff bias, and the district
8 court did not clearly err in crediting this explanation.
9 III. Jury Instructions
10 “We review jury instructions de novo with regard to whether the jury was misled or
11 inadequately informed about the applicable law.” Terranova v. New York, 676 F.3d 305, 308 (2d
12 Cir. 2012). We will reverse for an error in the jury instructions only if the appellants “can show that
13 in viewing the charge given as a whole, they were prejudiced by the error.” Anderson v. Branen, 17
14 F.3d 552, 556 (2d Cir. 1994).
15 Contrary to Appellant’s contentions, the district court properly instructed the jury as to the
16 elements of a disparate treatment claim: the court informed the jury that it was “not enough” for
17 Appellant to demonstrate a “discriminatory effect,” but that she had to demonstrate that Defendants-
18 Appellees acted with “discriminatory intent.” See Ricci v. DeStefano, 557 U.S. 557, 577 (2009)
19 (describing difference between disparate treatment and disparate impact claims). In any event,
20 Appellant has not demonstrated that she was prejudiced by any error in the jury instructions, and
21 accordingly this argument is unavailing.
22
4
1 IV. Hearsay Evidence
2 We review a district court’s evidentiary rulings for abuse of discretion. See SR Int’l Bus. Ins.
3 Co. v. World Trade Ctr. Props. LLC, 467 F.3d 107, 119 (2d Cir. 2006). A district court abuses its
4 discretion if it: (1) bases its ruling on an erroneous view of the law; (2) makes a clearly erroneous
5 assessment of the evidence; or (3) renders a decision that cannot be located within the range of
6 permissible decisions. See Sims v. Blot (In re Sims), 534 F.3d 117, 132 (2d Cir. 2008).
7 The Federal Rules of Evidence define hearsay as a declarant’s out-of-court statement
8 “offer[ed] in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted in the statement.” Fed. R. Evid.
9 801(c). “If the significance of an offered statement lies solely in the fact that it was made, no issue
10 is raised as to the truth of anything asserted, and the statement is not hearsay.” Fed. R. Evid. 801(c)
11 advisory committee’s note. Where statements are offered to show their effect on a listener’s state
12 of mind, they are not hearsay. United States v. Dupree, 706 F.3d 131, 136 (2d Cir. 2013); cf.
13 Cameron v. Cmty. Aid for Retarded Children, Inc., 335 F.3d 60, 65 n.2 (2d Cir. 2003) (noting that
14 complaints offered in evidence for their effect on the listener were not hearsay in the context of a
15 suit under the Americans with Disabilities Act).
16 Here, the district court permitted numerous statements made to Appellee Frisch regarding
17 Appellant’s inappropriate conduct to be offered into evidence, not for the truth of the matter
18 asserted, but for the effect on Frisch’s state of mind – that is, for her conclusion that DeNigris could
19 not collaborate with her co-workers and should be fired. The record reveals that the district court
20 repeatedly instructed the jury that statements by interns, co-workers, and supervisors were not to be
21 taken for the truth of the assertions, but merely for “the fact that [Appellee Frisch] was told this.”
22 Accordingly, the statements were not hearsay, and the district court did not err in allowing them into
23 evidence.
5
1 We have considered all of Appellant’s remaining arguments and find them to be without
2 merit. For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the district court is hereby AFFIRMED.
3
4 FOR THE COURT:
1 Catherine O’Hagan Wolfe, Clerk
6