McIntyre v. Manhattan Ford, Lincoln-Mercury, Inc

In McIntyre v. Manhattan Ford, Lincoln-Mercury, Inc., 256 A.D.2d. 269 [1st Dept. 1998, the plaintiff, a woman in her mid-thirties was hired by Manhattan Ford car dealership in July of 1991 as a service representative. At that time, she was the only female of the five service representatives in defendant Manhattan Ford's employ. From November 1991 until her termination by defendant Manhattan Ford, Ms. McIntyre was subjected to a pattern of intimidation, abuse and humiliation perpetrated by the parts and services director, her department supervisor, and the fourth floor shop manager. The inappropriate conduct included (but was not limited to): asking if plaintiff was in love with her boyfriend and prying into plaintiff's personal life; use of unwelcome and inappropriate language; use of sexually explicit language; intentionally demeaning plaintiff; ridiculing plaintiff's pregnancy and miscarriage; commenting about the size of plaintiff's breasts to other workers; failing to investigate vandalism of plaintiff's desk (coarse obscenities carved into desktop); failing to protect plaintiff from attacks from other co-workers, including where one co-worker attempted to strangle plaintiff; failing to stop harassing phone calls made to plaintiff by former co-worker; referring to plaintiff as "bitch on a broom"; responding to plaintiff with coarse obscenities; banging on the bathroom door when plaintiff entered the bathroom; spitting on plaintiff; and throwing items at plaintiff with intent to injure her. The constant abusive environment led Ms. McIntyre to seek psychological counseling. Between June 1993 and March 1994, Ms. McIntyre saw her psychologist 21 times, and at trial, Ms. McIntyre's psychologist opined that Ms. McIntyre suffered from constant mental anguish and anxiety because her job was constantly being threatened. At trial, the jury in McIntyre was instructed that the defendant was a dealership owned by the Ford Motor Company and that the resources of the parent company provided the appropriate measure of the defendant's resources. In turn, the jury returned a verdict against the defendant in the amount of $ 6.6 million dollars, $ 5 million of which were punitive. The trial judge reduced the McIntyre verdicts to $ 650,000 in compensatory damages and three million dollars for punitive damages. The Appellate Division further reduced the punitive damage award to one and a half million dollars. The punitive award in McIntyre represented two years of continued coarse verbal abuse, humiliation and at least one instance of physical assault. Moreover, the abuse inflicted upon Ms. McIntyre resulted in a course of psychological treatment.