Metz v. City of Minneapolis, et al.

Dec 13, 1994

OUTCOME: After winning a "paper trial," Metz and her counsel, Chris Walsh and Bob Brenner, forced the City to face a jury. I continue to fight for civil rights, equal rights in the workplace, and the most important right of all in our democracy: Jury Trial.

Melanie Metz was the first woman firefighter with tort and sexual harassment claims against the Minneapolis Fire Department. City leadership had prevented equal hiring of women and was under a court o ... rder to hire them. The first women were treated terribly, with males trying to force them out, by any illegal means. The all white-male management team including the fire chief, battalion chief, assistant fire chief, and fire captains said one thing but did another. They rigged hiring and on-the- job skills tests, excluded women from training, and made them bunk overnight with known sexual harassers. They aided and abetted the males who posted demeaning pictures of women, talked about the women firefighters' cooking skills, ran over fire boots or sabotaged fire trucks. Two fire motor operators committed sexual battery. I interviewed or deposed 15-20 fire department managers/employees and proved the City used supervisory control to harass, retaliate and undercut a good firefighter. Rather than discipline perpetrators at one location, the City transferred the victim away to other fire stations. Management rewarded the perpetrators and falsely disciplined the plaintiff. Defendants stubbornly displayed a pattern and practice of discrimination and reprisal. The City of Minneapolis never engages in early settlement, and has teams of lawyers devoted to moving for technical dismissals of discrimination claims. But U.S. District Court Judge Diana Murphy concluded that Metz had proven a sufficient pattern of sexual harassment to apply the continuing violation theory, and other novel theories in the then-emerging field of sexual harassment. (More recently in 2007 and 2002 the U.S. Supreme Court restricted application of the continuing violation theory). The law, like politics, is a pendulum. Change is needed to re-open the doors of justice, to all victims of abuse, discrimination or injury, particularly when the government harms someone. The Seventh Amendment guarantees: “In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.” After more than 200 years of nonjurors "reexamining" facts before and after trial, common law jury trial is now a rarity. The only time powerful defendants, like the City of Minneapolis, will settle is when they must face a jury. Judge Murphy denied, in part, the City Defendants motion for “summary” judgment and allowed for a real trial of the plaintiff's assault, battery, negligent infliction of emotional distress claims against two male co-workers/supervisors, and allowed sexual harassment, hostile environment, aiding and abetting discrimination, and reprisal claims against all defendants. U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Lebedoff granted my motion to amend the complaint to include punitive damages. Public settlement of $175,000 was approved in 1995, but sadly the City continued to discriminate and retaliate against minorities and protected groups in the Fire Department and other Departments. The bravest pioneer was Melanie Metz who stayed on the job and coped with serious harassment. She recently contacted me with thanks, proud of her fire-fighter career of twenty-five years. I am most proud of helping employees keep their jobs, and if that is not possible, survive adversity in other ways. I create change in government and the justice system by the cases I brought. when truth is revealed, and corrupt power is confronted. I am most proud of helping employees like Ms. Metz, keep their jobs, and survive adversity. I deeply cared about my clients. I created change, and achieved a measure of justice and equality in the workplace, even when a few of my clients lost. I've learned in the twenty-three years since the Metz decisions, that creating change in workplaces, particularly those with an entrenched white majority management structure, is incredibly difficult.