Sanderson v. Leg Apparel LLC

Background

A jury trial began on November 28, 2023. The jury found Plaintiff Sanderson had proved retaliation claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the New York State Human Rights Law against Leg Apparel LLC and Amiee Lynn, Inc. The jury awarded $25,000 in compensatory damages against each defendant. The court then considered Sanderson’s request for additional economic damages: back pay for past lost compensation and front pay for compensation allegedly lost after judgment.

Sanderson testified that Leg Apparel hired him as a Senior Planner in early 2015 at an annual salary of $92,500 and fired him on September 13, 2017. He began a comparable Senior Planner position at Betesh on December 18, 2017, earning the same salary and comparable benefits. Betesh terminated him six months later for poor performance. He then worked at Orly for 11 months at $40 per hour before voluntarily leaving.

Back Pay

The court awarded $24,328.77 in back pay for the period from September 13, 2017, through December 18, 2017. Sanderson provided a non-speculative basis for calculating those losses through his testimony about his $92,500 annual salary. The court also found that the defendants did not prove Sanderson failed to make reasonable efforts to find replacement work. The court noted that he testified he began looking for a job shortly after his termination and obtained a comparable position four months later.

The court denied back pay for the six months Sanderson worked at Betesh because he received the same salary and benefits he had received at Leg Apparel. It also denied back pay for the period after Betesh terminated him. The court treated that for-cause termination as showing that he had not reasonably maintained comparable employment, and the record did not show mitigating circumstances.

The court further denied back pay for Sanderson’s 11 months at Orly because he did not provide the number of hours he worked each week or establish whether the job was full-time or part-time. Without that information, the calculation would have been speculative. The court denied back pay after Sanderson left Orly because he testified only that he “walked out” and provided no justification based on unreasonable working conditions or a genuine search for better employment.

Front Pay

The court denied front pay. It could not reasonably predict that Sanderson had no reasonable prospect of obtaining comparable employment because he had obtained a comparable job at Betesh four months after his termination. Sanderson also presented no evidence about his post-judgment employment prospects. In addition, the court found that his voluntary resignation from Orly represented a failure to mitigate his damages, which independently prevented an award of front pay.

Prejudgment Interest and Judgment

The court awarded prejudgment interest on the back-pay award beginning October 31, 2017, the midpoint between Sanderson’s termination and his Betesh start date, through the date of judgment. It used annual compounding and an average annual one-year Treasury-bill rate of 2.18%, resulting in $3,555.47 in prejudgment interest.

Judge Woods directed the Clerk to enter judgment against both Leg Apparel and Amiee Lynn for $27,884.24, consisting of $24,328.77 in economic damages and $3,555.47 in prejudgment interest. The defendants were jointly and severally liable for that amount, meaning each was responsible for the entire amount, subject to not requiring duplicate payment. The judgment also required each defendant to pay the separate $25,000 compensatory-damages award entered against that defendant, with post-judgment interest. The court directed the Clerk to close the case.