Supreme Court Reinstates Jury Verdict Awarding MTSU Employee Damages In Retaliation Lawsuit

The Tennessee Supreme Court unanimously reinstated a jury verdict, finding that a former maintenance employee of Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) suffered unlawful retaliation through the actions of his supervisor.

Jim Ferguson, a Japanese-American, argued that shortly after he filed a discrimination lawsuit against MTSU, his supervisor retaliated against him by requiring him to perform tasks outside his medical restrictions, increasing his work assignments, and engaging in other retaliatory conduct. Both federal and state law prohibit employers from retaliating against employees for engaging in protected activity, such as complaining about discriminatory work conditions or filing a lawsuit.

A jury rejected Mr. Ferguson’s discrimination and malicious harassment claims, but found MTSU had retaliated against Mr. Ferguson and awarded him damages. The Tennessee Court of Appeals reversed the jury award, finding that Mr. Ferguson failed to show that his supervisor knew of the filing of his lawsuit when she took adverse actions against him.

On appeal, the Tennessee Supreme Court disagreed, finding that there was material evidence to support the jury’s finding of retaliation. Chief Justice Sharon G. Lee authored the opinion for the Court, which determined that the jury could conclude based on the evidence that Mr. Ferguson’s supervisor knew at some point that Mr. Ferguson had filed a lawsuit against MTSU.

The Court also agreed with the jury’s conclusions regarding the closeness in time between Mr. Ferguson filing his employment discrimination lawsuit and the adverse actions taken against him; the pattern of increased work assignments and retaliatory conduct after the filing of the lawsuit; and the jury’s weighing of the credibility with respect to Mr. Ferguson and his supervisor.

“Taking the strongest legitimate view of the evidence and allowing all reasonable inferences in favor of Mr. Ferguson, as we must given the jury verdict in his favor, we find there was material evidence supporting the jury verdict,” concluded Chief Justice Lee.

The Court sent the case back to the Court of Appeals to review the amount of the jury verdict.

Read the Tennessee Supreme Court opinion in Ferguson v. Middle Tennessee State University, authored by Chief Justice Lee.