JOSÉ A. CABRANES, Circuit Judge:
In this appeal, plaintiff-appellant Jos é E. Carrion questions the continued vitality of our holding in Grochowski v. Phoenix Construction, 318 F.3d 80 (2d Cir.2003), where we concluded that the Davis-Bacon Act ("Davis-Bacon" or "the Act"), 40 U.S.C. §§ 3141-3148,
Carrion now appeals from the amended judgment of the District Court, claiming that the District Court erred in certain pre- and post-trial orders. Specifically, Carrion contends that the District Court erred in (1) dismissing his prevailing wage (Davis-Bacon) claim; (2) denying him punitive damages for his § 1981 discrimination claim; and (3) denying his motion for a new trial with respect to damages on his discrimination claim. Grochowski remains the controlling law of this Circuit, and we therefore hold that the District Court did not err in dismissing Carrion's prevailing wage claim. We also conclude that the District Court did not err in denying Carrion punitive damages or in denying his motion for a new trial with respect to damages.
Carrion, who is of Puerto Rican descent, worked on and off as a laborer for Agfa beginning in February of 2009. Like many other construction companies, Agfa hires employees when work requires, and lays them off when they are no longer needed. Accordingly, Carrion was hired and laid off three times in 2009. Carrion subsequently brought suit against Agfa, claiming, inter alia, that, although he was rehired several times, Agfa discriminated against him in violation of § 1981 and various state laws by treating Asian Indians preferentially, and that Agfa denied him the "prevailing wage," to which he was assertedly entitled under Davis-Bacon.
As to his "prevailing wage" claim, Carrion argued that, as a third-party beneficiary to a construction contract between Agfa and the New York City Housing Authority, he was entitled to the "prevailing wage," as established by the Davis-Bacon
The District Court granted Agfa's motion for summary judgment, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56,
After a four-day trial, the jury found that Agfa had (1) discriminated against Carrion in its assignment of work and (2) failed to pay Carrion wages for all hours he had worked. However, the jury found that Carrion had failed to prove entitlement to compensatory damages for his discrimination claim, and awarded him $1 in nominal damages and $5000 in punitive damages.
On November 9, 2011, the District Court issued a consolidated ruling on the parties' respective post-trial motions. As relevant here, the District Court granted in part Agfa's motion for judgment as a matter of law, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50,
We review de novo both an order granting summary judgment pursuant to Rule 56 and an order granting judgment as a matter of law pursuant to Rule 50. Tepperwien v. Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc., 663 F.3d 556, 567 (2d Cir.2011). "Summary judgment may be granted only
First, Carrion argues that the District Court erred in granting summary judgment as to his prevailing wage claim because "[i]t is questionable whether [Grochowski] remains good law; it is, in any event, erroneous and should either be overruled or limited to its particular facts." Appellant Br. 10. In other words, Carrion does not contest the District Court's conclusion that Grochowski forecloses his prevailing wage claim. Rather, he thinks that we should simply ignore or overrule controlling precedent.
As we have previously explained, we "are bound by the decisions of prior panels [of this Court] until such time as they are overruled either by an en banc panel of our Court or by the Supreme Court." United States v. Wilkerson, 361 F.3d 717, 732 (2d Cir.2004). Carrion contends that we must reevaluate Grochowski because the New York Court of Appeals reached a contrary conclusion in Cox v. NAP Construction Co., 10 N.Y.3d 592, 604, 861 N.Y.S.2d 238, 891 N.E.2d 271 (2008). However, a New York court's differing view of the preemptive scope of federal law does not allow, much less require, a panel of our Court to reconsider our controlling precedent, and we detect no other reason to revisit our conclusion in Grochowski. Indeed, we note that the Supreme Court referred to our analysis in Grochowski approvingly in an analogous decision where it determined that plaintiffs could not sue as third-party beneficiaries of contracts under the Public Health Services Act, 42 U.S.C. § 256b. Astra USA, Inc. v. Santa Clara County, Cal., ___ U.S. ___, 131 S.Ct. 1342, 1348, 179 L.Ed.2d 457 (2011).
As the District Court correctly held, Grochowski bars Carrion's theory of recovery, and we therefore affirm its dismissal of his prevailing wage claim. See Grochowski, 318 F.3d at 86 ("To allow a third-party private contract action aimed at enforcing those wage schedules would be inconsistent with the underlying purpose of the legislative scheme and would interfere with the implementation of that scheme to the same extent as would a cause of action directly under the statute." (internal quotation marks omitted)).
Second, Carrion contends that the District Court erred in setting aside the jury's award of punitive damages. We have explained that punitive damages are available under Title VII "where an employer discriminates or retaliates against an employee with `malice' or `reckless indifference' to the employee's federally protected rights." Tepperwien, 663 F.3d at 572 (quoting Kolstad v. Am. Dental Ass'n, 527 U.S. 526, 534, 119 S.Ct. 2118, 144
Third, Carrion argues that the District Court should have granted his motion for a new trial on damages because, in his view, the jury's failure to award compensatory damages was irrational and contrary to evidence. A district court may properly grant a motion for a new trial following a jury verdict when "the jury has reached a seriously erroneous result or the verdict is a miscarriage of justice." Chin v. Port Auth. of N.Y. & N.J., 685 F.3d 135, 146 (2d Cir.2012) (alteration and quotation marks omitted). On the record before us, we detect neither a seriously erroneous result nor a miscarriage of justice. Rather, as the District Court pointed out, the jury could have reasonably concluded that Carrion had not proven actual damages as a result of Agfa's discriminatory conduct. We therefore conclude that the District Court did not err, let alone "abuse its discretion," in denying Carrion's motion for a new trial as to damages.
To summarize:
The November 21, 2011 amended judgment of the District Court is