Plaintiff in Sexual Harassment Case Entitled to $3.75 Million in Punitive Damages

Kendra Lynn worked as an assembly line scanner for TNT at its Kansas City automobile parts warehouse. In August 2003, Michael Gill was hired as a supervisor for Lynn's shift. Beginning in October 2003, Gill made a number of sexually charged and otherwise inappropriate comments to Lynn. For example, when passing out paychecks, Gill told Lynn she was not going to get paid "until you bounce your ass." While passing her workstation, Gill commented on Lynn’s anatomy and made offensive remarks about his own anatomy and his plans for performing sex acts on her. Another supervisor witnessed Gill "dancing provocatively" behind Lynn while she worked at her station, and reported Gill's actions to a superior.

In late October 2003, in front of another supervisor, Gill hit Lynn on the buttocks with a belt and told her to "get your fat ass out of here." The supervisor who witnessed the incident reported it to his immediate superior, who later denied he was given the information.

Lynn complained about Gill's behavior to another shift supervisor. Her complaints were forwarded to the facility manager. When the facility manger failed to take any action, Lynn transferred to another shift to avoid Gill. After she was terminated, Lynn sued TNT alleging sexual harassment and wrongful termination. After a five day trial, the jury returned a verdict for Lynn on her sexual harassment claim and for TNT on her wrongful termination claim.

On appeal, TNT claimed that the jury's verdict should be "reversed outright" because Missouri law and federal anti-discrimination statutes are "not designed to purge the workplace of vulgarity" or "punish for boorish or even vulgar workplace conduct." TNT concluded that Lynn’s sexual harassment claim was of the type that should be "filtered out of the court system."

The Missouri Court of Appeals disagreed and found that Gill’s conduct went beyond the harmless comments or boorish conduct of a supervisor directed at a female employee. The court also noted that TNT seemingly disregarded its own egregious behavior in ignoring Gill’s behavior and doing absolutely nothing to curb or punish Gill’s conduct, even though TNT supervisors and others in TNT’s chain of command knew of the conduct.

With respect to damages, the appellate court affirmed the award of $50,000 in compensatory damages, plus interest, and reversed the trial court’s judgment reducing Lynn’s punitive damage award. Substituting its own award for that of the trial court, the appellate court held that if Lynn would agree to a reduction in the amount of punitive damages from $6.75 million to $3.75 million, the case would be remanded to the trial court for entry of a judgment in that amount, plus interest, on one-half that amount. Otherwise, the court held that the judgment for punitive damages would be reversed for a new trial.

Lynn v. TNT Logistics North America, Inc., Nos. WD 68096, WD 68135 (Mo. Ct. App. 2008)