A jury rejected Mitchell Grobeson's claims that the City of Los Angeles (City) and Daniel Watson unlawfully retaliated against Grobeson in violation of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) (Gov. Code, § 12900 et seq.) and Labor Code section 1101 et seq.; that City and Watson unlawfully discriminated against Grobeson and harassed him in violation of the aforesaid statutes; that City constructively discharged
The trial court granted Grobeson's motion for a new trial on the ground of juror misconduct as to the discrimination, retaliation and constructive discharge claims in City's instance and also on the retaliation claim against Watson. The appeal is from this order.
Grobeson cross-appeals from the trial court's denial of his equitable claim for reinstatement as a police officer. Grobeson also cross-appeals from the order granting City's motion for summary judgment on Grobeson's claim under title 42 United States Code section 1983 and the order denying Grobeson's motion for a directed verdict. Finally, Grobeson claims that the trial court erred in making various evidentiary rulings and in denying his request for certain jury instructions.
We affirm the order granting the motion for a new trial and therefore dismiss the cross-appeal. We remand with directions to dismiss the claim for unlawful retaliation against Watson under the authority of Jones v. Lodge at Torrey Pines Partnership (2008) 42 Cal.4th 1158 [72 Cal.Rptr.3d 624, 177 P.3d 232].
Grobeson joined City's police force after graduating magna cum laude from Chapman College in 1981. After a fine start,
Unfortunately, matters did not go well after 1993. Serious tensions materialized immediately between Grobeson and Watson, who at the time was commanding officer of the personnel group. In 1994, the police department initiated disciplinary proceedings against Grobeson; the charges centered on Grobeson's activities in the gay and lesbian communities. In 1996, after a
In the meantime, Grobeson filed the instant action in 1996. The operative complaint, filed in April 2003, went to trial against City and Watson on November 16, 2007. The jury returned its verdicts after a five-week trial on December 21, 2007.
One of the juror declarations filed in support of Grobeson's motion for a new trial was by Juror Keu Wu. Among other things, Wu's declaration stated that, during a break in the testimony of Watson, Juror Kishiyama got into a conversation with Wu, telling Wu that she liked Watson's voice and that Kishiyama "... liked listening to romantic novels on tape. Then she said, `I made up my mind already. I'm not going to listen to the rest of the stupid argument.' I later told [J]uror [No.] 3, Melinda Jauregui, about the comment right before jury instructions were read." (Jauregui, who also filed a declaration, stated that she did not remember Wu telling her about Kishiyama's statement.) Wu's declaration was dated January 16, 2008.
On March 19, 2008, Attorney Laura Faer, one of Grobeson's lawyers, executed a declaration that stated, among other things, that she spoke with Kishiyama on the telephone on January 13, 2008. Faer identified herself and asked Kishiyama if she had any thoughts about the trial that she would be willing to share. Faer's declaration goes on to state: "4. One of her first comments to me was: `I made up my own opinion in the second week of trial.' I typed this comment verbatim in my interview notes as she said it[.] [¶] 5. Throughout the conversation, she made it clear that the `opinion' that she had reached in the second week of trial was to vote against the plaintiff. Among other things, she stated, `I was very irritated when you were conducting the case.'"
Kishiyama executed a declaration on March 30, 2008, in which she denied making the statements attributed to her by Wu. Kishiyama's declaration states that she made up her mind only during jury deliberations, after the case was submitted to the jury.
Grobeson propounded four charges of juror misconduct. Grobeson claimed that four jurors were biased; that matters outside the record were considered by the jury in its deliberations; that there was a failure to deliberate; and that one juror prejudged the case and concealed bias on voir dire.
The trial court rejected all but one of these claims. The court granted the motion for a new trial on the ground that Juror Kishiyama committed egregious misconduct by discussing the merits of the case prior to deliberations and by prejudging the case.
In arriving at this ruling, the court relied on Andrews v. County of Orange (1982) 130 Cal.App.3d 944 [182 Cal.Rptr. 176] (Andrews) (disapproved on other grounds in People v. Nesler (1997) 16 Cal.4th 561, 582, fn. 5 [66 Cal.Rptr.2d 454, 941 P.2d 87]) and Deward v. Clough (1966) 245 Cal.App.2d 439 [54 Cal.Rptr. 68] (Deward), two decisions we discuss below.
The court found that Kishiyama made the statement we have set forth above to Wu prior to the time the case was submitted to the jury; the court found this to be "serious misconduct." The court noted that the vote on the harassment claim against City was 11 to one and, as to Watson, the vote on the harassment claim was 12 to zero; that the vote on the constructive discharge claim was 10 to two; and that the votes on all the other claims was nine to three. Citing Weathers v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals (1971) 5 Cal.3d 98 [95 Cal.Rptr. 516, 485 P.2d 1132], the court observed that where the verdict is nine to three, the disqualification for bias of any one of the majority jurors could have resulted in a different verdict. Thus, misconduct by one such juror was prejudicial.
The court rejected Kishiyama's declaration because it consisted "largely of statements by Ms. Kishiyama as to her mental processes and state of mind about how she reached her decision." This was inadmissible under Evidence Code section 1150, subdivision (a).
The court concluded that Kishiyama had prejudged the case, that this was misconduct and that it was prejudicial. The court granted the motion for a new trial on all of the causes of action that had been decided by a nine-to-three vote, i.e., the discrimination and retaliation claims in City's instance and on the retaliation claim against Watson.
The court also granted the motion for a new trial on the constructive discharge claim, which was decided 10 to two, because of the "confusion on some of the questions" on the verdict form.
This means that the new trial order did not extend to the harassment claims against City, where the vote was 11 to one, and the same claim against Watson where the vote was 12 to zero.
In re Stankewitz involved a conviction for murder and robbery. One of the issues in the case was whether the robbery had been actually committed because, after taking the victims' wallets at the point of a gun, the defendant threw the wallets back after going through them. (In re Stankewitz, supra, 40 Cal.3d at p. 396.) At issue were the declarations of two jurors about statements made by another juror, a retired police officer, that under the foregoing facts a robbery had been committed.
A hypothetical will illustrate the dual nature of a juror's statement when "the very making of the statement sought to be admitted would itself constitute misconduct." (In re Stankewitz, supra, 40 Cal.3d at p. 398.) Assume that in a criminal trial one juror executes a declaration stating that during jury deliberations Juror X said as follows: "I knew from the first moment that I saw the defendant that he was guilty; he just looked guilty. And I never changed my mind." We take it that all would agree that X should not have served on this hypothetical jury.
To round out this discussion, a statement of bias is misconduct because bias is misconduct. This is what is meant by the phrase "the very making of the statement sought to be admitted would itself constitute misconduct."
Recognizing that the courts will consider a juror's mental state on the issue of bias is important in this appeal because it addresses City and Watson's central contention.
The two cases on which the trial court relied are good illustrations of the foregoing principles.
As in the case before us, the vehicles for conveying DeHaven's comments were juror declarations. It is noteworthy that the appellate court condemned DeHaven's comments in very strong terms.
It would needlessly lengthen this opinion to cite further from Andrews. Instead, we note that the appellate court stressed the great importance of an unbiased jury, concluding that "the cost of a new trial is a small price to pay for the vindication of the constitutional right to a trial by a fair and impartial jury...." (Andrews, supra, 130 Cal.App.3d at p. 960.)
Deward was a case involving a collision between the plaintiff's motorcycle and the defendant's car; the trial ended with a defense verdict. On the last of four trial days, "Mary Brock Deward, the mother of plaintiff, observed a happening in the courthouse corridor. This was reported in her affidavit on motion for a new trial. In it she said that at the beginning of the morning recess of the last day she had stepped from the courtroom out into the hallway. Some of the jurors came out of the courtroom and headed for the jury room but found the door of the jury room locked. She then overheard [J]uror Simard make a statement to two or three other men jurors to the effect: `"I don't see why they don't open up the jury room now. We could
The appellate court concluded that Simard had prejudged the case: "On its face Mrs. Deward's affidavit shows that [J]uror Simard had neither kept his promise—made before he was selected as a juror—that he would keep an open mind, nor had he heeded the court's admonitions. On the contrary, even before hearing all of the arguments or any of the court's instructions, he had decided to vote for [defendant]. To assume that his remarks had been made in jest because the jurors to whom he spoke had laughed when he made his statement would be sheer guesswork. One could as readily assume they had laughed because they too had already made up their minds. Absent any counteraffidavit either from [J]uror Simard or from any of the other three male jurors on the jury, we must accept the fact, regretfully, that [J]uror Simard had prejudged the case. This was misconduct and it was serious." (Deward, supra, 245 Cal.App.2d at p. 444.)
We turn to City and Watson's contentions.
City and Watson see no distinction between Kishiyama's statement that "I made up my mind during trial" (as reported by Wu and Faer) and her statement in her declaration that "I did not make up my mind until deliberations." But, City and Watson contend, the trial court took into consideration the first statement and refused to consider the second. City and Watson state that "this dichotomy is not supported anywhere in California law. Since the `statements' upon which the trial court relied consisted solely of evidence of Ms. Kishiyama's mental processes, the trial court should have excluded admission of that evidence under Evidence Code § 1150, and gone no further."
As we have defined that term, Kishiyama's statement "I made up my mind during trial" was a "statement of bias"—actually, it showed that she had prejudged the case. City and Watson are mistaken that California law does not recognize the significance of such statements of bias and that California law does not treat such statements differently from statements of mental processes. As Andrews and Deward plainly show, California courts do treat statements of bias differently from other statements about a juror's mental
City and Watson contend that the "trial court failed to follow the principles in [People v.] Hutchinson and instead allowed Mr. Wu to upset the verdict of the whole jury by purporting to impugn Ms. Kishiyama's mental processes." While it is true that Kishiyama's "mental processes" were taken into consideration, that is only half the story. The other half is Kishiyama's statement that she had made up her mind during the second week of a five-week trial; that was a statement of bias, as we have defined that term. As we have shown above, her statement had a dual nature—it revealed her mental state and it showed that she had prejudged the case and thus had committed misconduct.
We are perplexed by the following two sentences in footnote 5 of City and Watson's opening brief: "Only if Ms. Kishiyama in fact pre-judged the case does a violation of Code of Civil Procedure § 611 cited by the trial court exist. [Citation to the trial court's ruling.] Ms. Kishiyama's actual thoughts are not open to sight and sound or subject to corroboration." If City and Watson mean to suggest that we can never know what Kishiyama actually thought, they are, of course, correct; this is pretty much the human condition, lacking, as we do, the gift of clairvoyance. But if they intend to suggest that we can blithely ignore what Kishiyama said, they are wrong. What Kishiyama said is our guide to what she thought. And there is nothing in either the text or the setting of her statements to Wu and Faer that suggests that she did not say what she actually thought.
City and Watson cite People v. Hedgecock (1990) 51 Cal.3d 395, 418-419 [272 Cal.Rptr. 803, 795 P.2d 1260], for the proposition that jurors cannot be examined on their own mental processes or on what other jurors said in the deliberations. This is true as a general proposition but it has no application to this case. We do note, however, that People v. Hedgecock also had this to say: "In rare circumstances a statement by a juror during deliberations may itself be an act of misconduct, in which case evidence of that statement is admissible. (In re Stankewitz, supra, 40 Cal.3d at p. 398.)" (Id. at p. 419.)
City and Watson contend that Kishiyama's statements are not likely to have influenced the jury. Specifically, the statement to Faer was made after the trial was over and the statement to Wu was an "isolated single statement, reportedly made outside the jury room to a single juror, Mr. Wu."
The various comments made by Kishiyama were circumstantial evidence of her bias against Grobeson. They were therefore not hearsay.
Kishiyama's declaration chronicled the course of her mental reactions to the evidence presented and to the other jurors' comments during deliberations. This is exactly the kind of material that People v. Hutchinson, supra, 71 Cal.2d 342, 349-350, proscribes. Kishiyama's declaration is nothing other than a chronicle of her mental processes, presented to refute Grobeson's claim that she was biased against him. The trial court ruled correctly under Hutchinson in excluding this declaration.
City and Watson dismiss Andrews and Deward as inapplicable because neither case mentions or discusses Evidence Code section 1150.
We find this argument to be without merit. For one, Andrews, supra, 130 Cal.App.3d 944 cites and discusses Evidence Code section 1150 at pages 953-954. And Deward predates the modern Evidence Code, if only by one year.
We begin with the standard of review. "Upon appellate review of an order granting a new trial, `all intendments are in favor of the action taken by the lower court [and] the affidavits in behalf of the prevailing party are deemed not only to establish the facts directly stated therein, but all facts reasonably inferred from those stated.' [Citation.]" (Weathers v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, supra, 5 Cal.3d 98, 106.) "`When an issue is tried on affidavits... and where there is a substantial conflict in the facts stated, a determination of the controverted facts by the trial court will not be disturbed.' [Citations.]" (Id. at p. 108.)
Putting Kishiyama's statement down as an "isolated comment" and one that was heard by only one juror, as City and Watson do, ignores reality, as well as the standard of review. The reality is that this juror was biased and ignored every instruction on this subject by the trial court. And the standard of review requires not only that we accept the trial court's resolution of the facts, we must also draw the reasonable inferences that flow from Kishiyama's statement. One logical inference is that she stopped listening to the testimony, which rendered, most unfortunately, the trial a nullity. Finally, that Kishiyama "did not engage in any of the extraneous misconduct" such as found in Andrews is beside the point. The misconduct that she did commit needed no amplification.
We find both Andrews and Deward on point, authoritative and helpful.
City and Watson contend that other than the two statements that Kishiyama made to Wu and Faer, "there is no reason in the record to conclude that she
We are required to accept as true the facts directly stated in Wu's and Faer's affidavit and also to draw all reasonable inferences from those facts. (Weathers v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, supra, 5 Cal.3d 98, 106.) It is therefore a given that Kishiyama had made up her mind by the second week of trial, which necessarily means, to use City and Watson's phrase, that she had "closed her mind" to all of the issues in the case. We will not, as we cannot (People v. Hutchinson, supra, 71 Cal.2d at pp. 349-350), turn to Kishiyama's declaration about her mental processes to look for evidence to contradict this fundamental fact.
City and Watson present three scenarios that they claim are reasonable possibilities. First, Kishiyama made the statement in question, but did so right after closing arguments. This is so, City and Watson contend, because Kishiyama also said that she would not listen to any "stupid arguments." Second, she made the statement during a break in jury deliberations. Third, she did not make these statements at all.
The flaw in this approach is that it squarely contradicts the standards we must apply. We do not seek out inferences that, if true, would cause us to reverse the trial court's order granting the motion for a new trial. All intendments favor the order granting the new trial (Weathers v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, supra, 5 Cal.3d 98, 106), and when, as here, the trial court has resolved factual conflicts, we will not disturb the trial court's decision. (Id. at p. 108.) That is, we will not engage in the speculations that City and Watson propose. Importantly, the trial court found that Kishiyama made the statement to Wu during the second week of trial, a fact that her statement to Faer corroborates. It is therefore out of the question to conclude on appeal that Kishiyama never made the statement at all, or that she made it at any time other than the second week of trial.
We cannot agree with City and Watson that the court's repeated admonitions to the jury not to form an opinion about the case cured Kishiyama's misconduct. In the first place, the trial court obviously did not think so. It scarcely needs to be pointed out that the trial court was in the best position to judge whether its admonitions cured the misconduct. Unfortunately, it stands to reason that a juror who is wrongheaded enough to make up her mind two weeks into a five-week trial, and even tells another juror about it, is not going to listen to the trial court's admonitions to keep an open mind.
Grobeson contends that his retaliation claim, at the time it arose, was based on Labor Code section 1101 et seq. (specifically former § 1102.1) and not on FEHA and that for this reason Jones, which addressed retaliation claims arising under FEHA, is not applicable. Grobeson goes on to contend that when the Legislature amended FEHA in 1999 to incorporate the Labor Code's provisions, the Legislature did not "abrogate the individual liability available under the prior Labor Code." Finally, Grobeson claims that he has a "vested right to sue Watson for retaliating against him."
Grobeson cannot have relied on law imposing under FEHA liability on individuals for the good reason that authoritative decisions so providing simply did not exist. In Caldwell v. Montoya (1995) 10 Cal.4th 972, 978-979, footnote 3 [42 Cal.Rptr.2d 842, 897 P.2d 1320], handed down in July 1995, the court noted that while there were scattered appellate opinions that assumed without discussing that an individual could be liable under FEHA, "no prior published California decision has directly considered whether FEHA imposes personal liability on an individual employee or manager who causes or assists a covered `employer' to violate the statute's prohibitions against discriminatory hiring, firing, and personnel practices." The court called this a "broad and difficult question," which it declined to address. (Ibid.) It did so, however, in Reno v. Baird (1998) 18 Cal.4th 640 [76 Cal.Rptr.2d 499, 957 P.2d 1333], when it sided with the Court of Appeal's decision in Janken v. GM Hughes Electronics (1996) 46 Cal.App.4th 55, 79-80 [53 Cal.Rptr.2d 741], which had held that an individual cannot be liable under FEHA for age discrimination. Significantly, the Janken court noted that federal courts construing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Pub.L. No. 88-352 (July 2, 1964) 78 Stat. 241) reached the identical conclusion. (Janken, at pp. 67-70.)
Thus, by the time Jones arrived on the scene, the tide was both clear and strong that individual liability cannot be imposed under FEHA. In sum, the initial uncertainty of the early 1990's yielded to the results of Reno v. Baird, and Jones. It is therefore evident that this is not a situation when Grobeson could have relied on clear precedent and long-established practice.
For the reasons stated, we follow the general rule and hold that Jones requires the dismissal of the retaliation claim against Watson.
Because of our disposition of the appeal, it is not necessary to address Grobeson's contention that, as an alternate basis for granting the new trial, certain conflicts in the special verdicts returned by the jury also require a new trial.
The order granting the new trial is affirmed.
"The cross-appeal from the judgment is only operative if the order granting the new trial is reversed thus reinstating the judgment." (Alhambra Cons. Mines, Inc. v. Alhambra Shumway Mines, Inc. (1966) 239 Cal.App.2d 590, 600 [49 Cal.Rptr. 38].) "The reviewing court will first consider the main appeal from the order granting a new trial and will decide the cross-appeal from the judgment only if it reverses the order. [Citations.] But if, as is usual, the order granting a new trial is affirmed, the effect is that there is no longer a
For the reasons stated, we dismiss the cross-appeal.
In the same order in which the trial court granted the motion for a new trial, the trial court also denied certain equitable relief sought by Grobeson. Grobeson sought five separate orders, chief of which was an order directing that Grobeson be reinstated with the Los Angeles Police Department.
Accordingly, we vacate and set aside the trial court's order denying Grobeson's claims for equitable relief.
The order granting the motion for a new trial is affirmed. The cross-appeal is dismissed. The case is remanded with directions to dismiss the retaliation claim against Watson. The parties are to bear their own costs on appeal.
Grimes, J., and O'Connell, J.,