In 2001 Heather Mercer won a $2 million sex discrimination lawsuit against Duke University — Mercer successfully argued that when she was cut as a kicker from Duke’s football team, that the coach’s decision was motivated by her gender rather than her kicking ability. This month, however, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth District overturned that damage award, though not the verdict.
The trial court had imposed punitive damages but the appeals court ruled that such damages could not be assessed in private Title IX actions. The appeals court relied on a recent U.S. Supreme Court case, Barnes v. Gorman, which disallowed punitive damages in a wide variety of discrimination lawsuits.
Both sides tried to spin the appeals court decision.
John Burness, Duke’s senior vice president for public affairs and government relations said,
We are pleased by the unanimous decision of the three-judge panel of the U.S. Fourth Circuit to throw out the $2 million in punitive damages. Duke University remains committed to aggressively advancing our support for women’s athletics through implementation of our Title IX plan.
Meanwhile Mercer’s attorney, Burton Craige, countered,
This decision in no way diminishes Heather Sue’s victory at trial. This jury heard all the evidence and ruled that Duke discriminated against her based on her sex and that senior Duke administrators knew of the discrimination and responded with deliberate indifference.
Its a rather pyrrhic victory, however, given that the main lesson to emerge from the whole incident is that football coaches should not give female kickers tryouts if they want to avoid such lawsuits (a position that is completely legal under Title IX).
Source:
U.S. Appeals Court Overturns $2 Million Award in Duke University Female Football Player Case. Dave Ingram, The Chronicle (Duke University), November 18, 2002.