Rose Griffin v. Copper Cellar Corp.

── Rose Griffin v. Copper Cellar Corp. ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Date: May 05, 2026 Category: General NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION File Name: 26a0205n.06 Nos. 25-5786/5894 FILED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS May 05, 2026 FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT KELLY L. STEPHENS, Clerk ) ROSE GRIFFIN, ) Plaintiff-Appellee, ) ON APPEAL FROM THE UNITED ) STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR v. ) THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF ) TENNESSEE COPPER CELLAR CORPORATION, ) Defendant-Appellant. ) OPINION ) Before: BOGGS, BATCHELDER, and MOORE, Circuit Judges. KAREN NELSON MOORE, Circuit Judge. Rose Griffin sued her employer, Copper Cellar Corporation, bringing hostile-work-environment and retaliation claims under Title VII. A jury found in Griffin’s favor on the former but not the latter claim. It then awarded Griffin $179,000 in compensatory damages and $314.22 in back pay. The district court later approved $480,364.50 in attorney fees. On appeal, Copper Cellar does not challenge its liability under Title VII. It instead attacks (1) the lawfulness of the jury’s back pay award, (2) the validity of the jury’s compensatory damages award, and (3) the reasonableness of Griffin’s attorney fees. We AFFIRM. I. BACKGROUND Copper Cellar, which owns and operates more than twenty restaurants in Eastern Tennessee, hired Griffin in May 2017 as a prep cook at its Corner 16 restaurant in Knoxville. R. 193 (Final Pretrial Order ¶¶ 3–4) (Page ID #2708–10). In 2018, Griffin and several other employees Nos. 25-5786/5894, Griffin v. Copper Cellar Corp. transferred to a new Copper Cellar restaurant called Chesapeake’s, where she worked as a line cook. Id. ¶¶ 6–7 (Page ID #2710). While Griffin worked at Chesapeake’s, a coworker “spit [his] dip packet in [her] face,” repeatedly “grabbed [her] breasts,” arranged ingredients at her work station to resemble “a man’s penis . . . with semen coming out of it,” “nudge[d] [her] in the back every time he passed by [her],” told her “I want to fuck you,” “pushed [her] down on the salad station . . . and started . . . rubbing up on [her] and thrusting,” and “unzip[ped] his pants, st[uck] his hands in his pants with corn starch and start[ed] massaging [him]self” in front of Griffin. R. 222 (Tr. Vol. 1 at 20–27) (Page ID #4302–09). This harassment, and Copper Cellar’s failure to restrain it when Griffin repeatedly complained, affected Griffin. When her supervisor told her that she “needed to keep [her] head down and [her] mouth shut,” she was “upset” and “crying.” Id. at 47 (Page ID #4329). When managers “laugh[ed] about” sexual harassment, Griffin “felt sick,” “felt like puking,” and “felt like [she] had no say on who touches [her] body.” Id. at 48 (Page ID #4330). The experience left her feeling “violated” and “belittled.” Id. at 49 (Page ID #4331). About 18 months after she left Chesapeake’s, Griffin contemplated suicide and went so far as to take her gun and “dr[i]ve [her] car down into the woods” with the plan of “shoot[ing] [her]self in the head.” Id. at 57 (Page ID #4339). At the damages phase of trial, Griffin testified that she had “nightmares that [her harasser] would find” her, that it was “[h]ard to sleep at night,” and that she was “not eating as much as [she] used to.” R. 254 (Tr.