A federal circuit court jury has awarded damages to Massachusetts golfer Elaine Joyce, who sued a Cape Cod golf course for discrimination in 2008. The jury award of $15,000 Thursday was less than Joyce would have liked but “it was a win,” she said in a phone interview Friday.
“It was disappointing in how much they awarded for violating my civil rights and those of all women in Dennis for seven years,” Joyce said. “But I achieved my goal, which was to stop discrimination in Dennis at the golf course so women receive equal treatment to men.
“We got the precedent on the books,” Joyce noted. “Hopefully, someone else won’t have to go through the same process I did.”
Joyce sued the town and its two town-operated courses, Dennis Pines and Dennis Highlands, after officials prohibited her and her father from playing in a men’s member-member tournament in 2007. In that case, Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton ruled in 2010 that the town had discriminated against Joyce when it prevented the amateur champion from playing in the event.
Gorton’s opinion held that the town violated Joyce’s civil rights by excluding her from full tournament play based on her gender. Under Thursday’s ruling, the town is liable for the $15,000, an amount that “delighted” the town’s attorney, Leonard Kesten.
The jury’s verdict was “completely appropriate,” Kesten said. “It seems like a fair price for not letting her play. They should have let her play.”
For her part, Joyce’s attorney Laura Studen termed the damages award “a great victory.
“This was a jury verdict…limited to compensatory damages to that one tournament she was precluded from playing in with her father,” Studen said. “That’s not a bad day.”
Kesten said he had offered $35,000 to settle the case prior to the jury’s verdict. Studen indicated that the “ridiculous” sum would not have covered legal fees, which for Joyce will run into six figures. Kesten’s response: “Good luck with attorney’s fees.”
When the jury offered an amount less than what Kesten had suggested, Joyce “was not entitled to any attorney’s fees from that day forward,” he said.
While both lawyers agreed that the course should have let Joyce enter the tourney, they diverged on if and when Dennis Pines changed its policies.
“They could have easily said, ‘Go ahead and play with your father,’” said Studen, who explained that the ruling did not preclude courses from staging men’s and women’s tournaments as long as anyone was allowed to play in them. “They could have fixed it way back when by [instituting] a gender-neutral policy. How hard is that?”
Kesten concurred, but said the course altered its practices before Joyce filed suit. “The only violation the court found was that the rules back in May of ’07 were wrong,” Kesten said.
Studen intended to file for injunctive relief within two weeks to ensure the course posted its policy modifications “clearly and unequivocally.”
Joyce, for her part, has chosen not to hang out at the course after playing because of the cold-shoulder treatment she received from members and staff. But she won’t quit the club.
“I love the golf course. I grew up there, I learned to play golf there, my dad plays there,” she said. “I will not give into the mistreatment of me and my father.”
(Emily Kay is a regular contributor to New England Golf Monthly. Check her out on the Waggle Room, Boston Golf Examiner, and National Golf Examiner, and GottaGoGolf websites. You may also follow Kay on Twitter.)
Related posts:
- New Hampshire top court bounced golf negligent case before NY
- Zach Johnson makes his case for a Ryder Cup selection
- AJGA Brings National Junior Golf Tournament to The Golf Club of Cape Cod
- Fall golf: New England golfers play for free at Cape Cod Country Club
- Best Of Fall Golf on Cape Cod
