Litigating the damages cap when state and federal employment claims joined

In Hall v. Consolidated Freightways Corp., the Sixth Circuit, in a opinion by Judge Clay joined by Judge Glen Williams of the W.D. Va., with Judge Daughtrey concurring, reinstated the jury's punitive damage award against the defendant employer notwithstanding the statutory cap of 42 U.S.C. 1981a because the punitive damages in excess of the cap were also recoverable on the plaintiff's state law employment discrimination claim (applying Ohio law).

So, the difference in that case between the dollar value of the state and federal law remedies was $500,000.

Judge Williams went to Cincinnati this summer to sit by designation on the Sixth Circuit but I don't know whether he got to take in any baseball games. I'd expect the judge will go to baseball games as long as he is able. On the subject of Cincinnati baseball, I am inspired by the many accounts this weekend on the induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday of Hal McCoy, who continues to write about the Reds for the Dayton paper despite nearly losing his sight, as described here, here, here, here, here, and finally here (from McCoy's home paper in Dayton).