Sharon B. Pollard v. E. I. Du Pont De Nemours & Company (532 U.S. 843)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 4, 2001 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 532 U.S. 843 · 121 S. Ct. 1946
- Decided
- June 4, 2001
- Term
- October Term 2000
- Vote
- 8–0
- Majority author
- Justice Thomas
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Thomas delivered the opinion of the Court. This case presents the question whether a front pay award is an element of compensatory damages under the Civil Rights Act of 1991. We eonelude that it is not. I Petitioner Sharon Pollard sued her former employer, E. 1 du Pont de Nemours and Company (DuPont), alleging that she had been subjected to a hostile work environment based on her sex, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,78 Stat. 253,42 U. S. C. § 2000e et seq. After a trial, the District Court found that Pollard was subjected to coworker sexual harassment of which her supervisors were aware. The District Court further found that the harassment resulted in a medical leave of absence from her job for psychological assistance and her eventual dismissal for refusing to return to the same hostile work environment. The court awarded Pollard $107,364 in backpay and benefits, $252,997 in attorney’s fees, and, as relevant here, $300,000 in compensatory damages — the maximum permitted under the statutory cap for such damages in 42 U. S. C. § 1981a(b)(3). The Court of Appeals affirmed, concluding that the record demonstrated that DuPont employees engaged in flagrant discrimination based on sex and that DuPont managers and supervisors did not take adequate steps to stop it. 213 F. 3d 933 (CA6 2000). The issue presented for review here is whether front pay…
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