Memphis Rail Yard Worker Wins $43,500 Jury Verdict in Landmark Title VII Retaliation Case That Reached the U.S. Supreme Court

In September 1997, Sheila White was working as a forklift operator at Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway's Tennessee Yard in Memphis, the only woman assigned to the facility. Shortly after she reported that her supervisor was making sexually offensive remarks to her and other workers, the company reassigned her from forklift duty to general track laborer work, a physically harder job that carried the same pay grade but was widely considered a demotion in practice. A few months later, after she filed an EEOC charge, the railroad suspended her for 37 days without pay, citing a disputed incident with a supervisor.

The suspension was eventually rescinded and her back wages were restored, but the damage had already been done. White retained Don Donati and William Ryan of what would become Donati Law in Memphis. They filed a Title VII lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, arguing that both the job transfer and the unpaid suspension were acts of retaliation for protected activity under federal civil rights law.

A Memphis jury agreed and returned a verdict of $43,500 in compensatory damages for White. The district court entered judgment on that verdict. Burlington Northern appealed, and a three-judge Sixth Circuit panel initially reversed. The full Sixth Circuit then reheard the case en banc and in April 2004 ruled in White's favor, finding both actions constituted adverse employment decisions.

Burlington Northern petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court. Don Donati argued the case before the Court on April 17, 2006, with William Ryan on the briefs. On June 22, 2006, all nine justices sided with White. Justice Breyer, writing for the Court, adopted a broader standard: Title VII's anti-retaliation provision protects workers from any employer action that 'might have dissuaded a reasonable worker from making or supporting a charge of discrimination.' The Court explicitly noted that a month without a paycheck constitutes serious hardship for most employees.

The ruling reshaped how retaliation claims work across American employment law. At the district court level, the jury verdict stood at $43,500 in compensatory damages, and the court also awarded White her attorney fees.