Full opinion text
KEARSE, Circuit Judge: Defendant City of Syracuse (“Syracuse” or the “City”) appeals from so much of a judgment of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York, David N. Hurd, Judge, as orders the City to pay plaintiff Therese Lore, a member of the Syracuse Police Department (“SPD” or the “Department”), a total of $417,955.34, including $167,955.34 in attorneys’ fees and costs, following a jury verdict (a) finding that the City, because of her complaints of gender discrimination, retaliated against Lore in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., and the New York State Human Rights Law (“HRL”), N.Y. Exec. Law § 296 et seq., and (b) awarding her compensatory damages against the City totaling $250,000 for pain, suffering, emotional distress, and injury to her reputation as a result of the retaliation. On appeal, the City contends principally that as a matter of law Lore was not entitled to damages for injury to her reputation, that she did not prove that any emotional distress she suffered was caused by acts found to have been performed by the City or its employees, that there were various errors in the court’s submission of the case to the jury, and that the damages awarded for emotional distress were excessive. Lore cross-appeals, principally challenging so much of the judgment as dismisses her retaliation claims against individual defendants, dismisses her gender discrimination claims against the City and the individual defendants, and denies her additional damages and attorneys’ fees. She contends principally that the district court erred (1) in having the jury decide whether defendant Rick Guy was entitled to qualified immunity, in failing to rule that he was not entitled to such immunity, and, given the jury’s findings that Guy had intentionally retaliated against Lore and caused her injuries totaling $250,000, in not awarding her that amount in addition to the $250,000 awarded against the City; (2) in granting summary judgment dismissing her gender discrimination claims; (3) in failing to impose sanctions on defendants for noncompliance with discovery orders; and (4) in failing to award higher attorneys’ fees. Lore also contends that she is entitled to a new trial on her retaliation claims against defendants Daniel Boyle and Mike Kerwin on the ground that the court improperly excluded evidence relevant to those claims. For the reasons discussed in Part II below, we conclude that the City’s appeal — considered without reference to any relief to which Lore may be entitled on her cross-appeal — provides no basis for overturning the judgment against the City. For the reasons discussed in Part III below, we conclude that Lore’s cross-appeal has merit only in its challenges to (A) the dismissal, on qualified immunity grounds, of her HRL claim against Guy, and (B) the grant of summary judgment dismissing her main discrimination claims under the HRL against the City and defendant Roy Bernardi, and that Lore was entitled to trial of those discrimination claims. However, because of the substantial overlap in the evidence relevant to Lore’s retaliation claims against the City, which were tried, and her main HRL discrimination claims, which were summarily dismissed, and considering the intertwined nature of her retaliation claims against the City and those against Guy, we conclude that a trial of the erroneously dismissed HRL discrimination claims alone could lead to an award of damages that would be duplicative, in whole or in part, of the compensation Lore is awarded in the present judgment. Accordingly, as set out in Part V below, we conclude that if there is to be a trial of the HRL discrimination claims, that trial, in order to avoid an unjust outcome, must be combined with a retrial of Lore’s Title VII and HRL retaliation claims against the City and her HRL retaliation claim against Guy. Because we see no other basis for disturbing the judgment against the City, and because we recognize that Lore may prefer to forgo pursuit of the HRL discrimination claims and retain the present award, we will only conditionally vacate so much of the judgment as dismisses the pertinent HRL discrimination claims and as awards damages, costs, and fees against the City. The vacatur will become effective if Lore elects to proceed to trial as indicated above. I. BACKGROUND As there has been a trial in this case, the following description includes facts that have been established by the jury’s verdict (see Trial Transcript (“Tr.”) at 1247-55), as well as pertinent allegations in Lore’s final amended complaint (“Complaint”). As Lore’s claims of gender discrimination were dismissed on summary judgment, the record with respect to those claims is described in the light most favorable to Lore. A. The Parties and Lore’s Claims At all times pertinent to this case, Lore was a member of SPD. She joined the Department as an officer in 1978; she was promoted to the rank of sergeant in 1990. In January 1996, then-Chief of Police Timothy Foody invited Lore to join his staff as SPD’s public information officer (“PIO”), serving as liaison between the Department and the media, i.e., the spokesman for the Department. In May 1999, Lore was removed from her position as PIO. (See Complaint ¶ 21.) In June, she was transferred to SPD’s Technical Operations Section; in August she was transferred to the Uniform Patrol Division. (See Complaint ¶ 22-23.) Lore, a member of the SPD force’s union (the “Union” or “Police Union”) (see Complaint ¶ 88), whose collective bargaining agreement (or “CBA”) with the City prohibited the City from subjecting Union members to unlawful discrimination or retaliation (see id. ¶ 89; Plaintiffs Exhibit (“PX”) MMM, art. 2, ¶ 2.1(B)), filed a grievance with the Union after she was removed from the PIO post. This grievance was settled in December 1999 (“1999 Settlement Agreement”), with the City agreeing, inter alia, to assign Lore to the Department’s Community Relations Division (“CRD”) and to give her overtime assignments comparable to those of other CRD sergeants. In June 2000, Lore discovered that she was receiving fewer overtime assignments than the other CRD sergeants. Routinely, SPD employees retrieved their biweekly paychecks from an open, uncovered box in the Department’s Audit Budget and Control Office (“ABC Office”) — a common area accessible to all SPD personnel (see Complaint ¶ 39) — and an accountant-clerk in that office testified that SPD employees routinely saw each others’ checks as they searched for their own (see, e.g., Tr. 414). Attached to each check was a pay stub that separately itemized the employee’s current and cumulative regular pay and overtime pay. Lore complained that the City had breached the 1999 Settlement Agreement by not giving her equal overtime assignments; and to document the disparity, she photocopied the three other CRD sergeants’ pay stubs. An arbitration hearing was held on the disparity-in-overtime claim in September 2000 (“September 2000 Arbitration Hearing”). In the meantime, in July and August 2000, Lore filed verified complaints with the EEOC against SPD, the City’s mayor, and the Department’s top officials, complaining principally of gender discrimination and of retaliation for her complaints of gender discrimination. Her July EEOC complaint alleged, inter alia, that those defendants, motivated by her gender, had caused her removal from the PIO position without justification. It alleged that in retaliation for her complaints of discrimination, they had subjected her to, inter alia, a series of job transfers to less desirable positions; had assigned males who were junior to Lore in rank and seniority to positions that she had requested and for which she was qualified; and had denied Lore perquisites, such as overtime work, an office key, a computer, and a vehicle, that were given to males in comparable SPD positions. Her August EEOC complaint alleged that Boyle had retaliated against her for filing the July EEOC complaint. At the September 2000 Arbitration Hearing on Lore’s complaint that the City had breached the 1999 Settlement Agreement by depriving her of equal overtime assignments, Lore offered into evidence the photocopies she had made of the other CRD sergeants’ pay stubs to support her claim of disparity. A City attorney threatened Lore with criminal prosecution for having copied the pay stubs but told her attorney that the City would “ ‘forego [sic ] criminal and administrative charges’ ” against her if she dropped her EEOC complaints and grievances (Complaint ¶ 45). Lore refused to withdraw her EEOC complaints and grievances, and on November 3, 2000, she was charged administratively with personal use of a Department copier and was suspended for 10 days without pay. (See Complaint ¶¶ 46-47, 55.) Defendant Rick Guy, Corporation Counsel for the City, informed the news media that Lore had been suspended and stated that she had copied “ ‘checks’ ” and that her claims were intended “to ‘divert attention from the real issue,’ which was ‘her poor job performance.’ ” (Id. ¶ 48; see id. ¶¶ 84, 86.) In the present lawsuit, commenced in December 2000 under Title VII and the HRL for employment discrimination and retaliation, and under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violations of her rights under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses and the First Amendment, Lore asserted principally that her removal from the PIO position was motivated by gender discrimination and that she thereafter suffered retaliation because of her complaints to the Union and to the EEOC about gender discrimination. Lore’s Complaint, as finally amended, was filed in mid-2001 after she was subjected to additional allegedly discriminatory treatment, including being deprived of her SPD beeper, vehicle, and cell phone, being deprived of opportunities for overtime assignments and other benefits, and receiving threatening and harassing messages on her home telephone answering machine (see Complaint ¶¶ 53, 95). The Complaint asserted claims against the City, SPD, eight named individuals in their personal and official capacities, and a “John Doe.” The individuals, and their positions at the times of their alleged actions, were: Roy Bernardi, who, as Mayor of Syracuse in 1999 and 2000, was principally alleged to have “ordered” then-Chief Foody to remove Lore from the PIO position because Bernardi “believed that she had too much power or visibility with the police department, and that women should be seen and not heard” (Complaint ¶ 32), and to have made false statements to the press about Lore in retaliation for her complaints of discrimination (see e.g., id. ¶¶ 57-60, 82); John Falge, the Chief of SPD beginning in August 1999, who was alleged to have been responsible for, inter alia, the training, supervision, and discipline of other defendants and to have retaliated against Lore by orchestrating postcomplaint criticisms of her job performance (see Complaint ¶¶ 5,102); Robert Tassone, a Deputy Chief of SPD, who was alleged to have been responsible for, inter alia, the training, supervision, and discipline of other defendants (see Complaint ¶ 7); Daniel Boyle, First Deputy Chief of SPD, who the jury found had banned Lore from the normally accessible ABC Office and imposed on her certain conditions not applicable to others (see Tr. 1248), and who allegedly said he was imposing those conditions “ ‘since [Lore is] suing us’ ” (Complaint ¶ 36); Mike Rathbun, an SPD lieutenant who was alleged to have denied Lore requests for overtime work and to have told her that if she wanted such work she should withdraw her claims of discrimination, and to have retaliated against Lore by fabricating postcomplaint criticisms of her job performance (see Complaint ¶¶ 8, 51,102); Mike Kerwin, an SPD captain, who the jury found had threatened to give Lore Miranda warnings or charge her with a crime (see Tr. 1250); Rick Guy, the City’s Corporation Counsel, who the jury found made negative comments to news reporters about Lore in retaliation for her having complained of discrimination (see Tr. 1248-50); Michael Lemm, a retired SPD officer who Lore believed had left an anonymous harassing message on her telephone answering machine (see Complaint ¶ 12); and “John Doe,” an alleged SPD officer who was another anonymous harassing caller (see Complaint ¶ 13). Against the City, the Complaint principally asserted claims for discrimination, including creation of a hostile work environment, and retaliation under Title VII and the HRL. Against the individual defendants, the Complaint asserted discrimination and retaliation claims under Title VII and the HRL, and § 1983 claims for violations of Lore’s First Amendment, due process, and equal protection rights. It also asserted, inter alia, claims against all defendants for intentional infliction of emotional distress and claims against Bernardi, Guy, and the City for defamation. The case was originally assigned to Judge Howard G. Munson. It was reassigned to Judge Hurd in 2008. B. The Granting of Partial Summary Judgment Following several years of discovery, the City and most of the individual defendants moved for summary judgment dismissing the Complaint against them on several legal grounds. They contended principally that Lore had no viable retaliation claim; they pointed out that she had not suffered any decrease in rank or salary, and they argued that she therefore could not show that she had suffered any materially adverse employment action. Lemm moved for summary judgment dismissing the claims against him on the ground that there was no proof that he had made any allegedly harassing telephone call. In a Memorandum-Decision and Order dated October 30, 2008, reported at 583 F.Supp.2d 345 (“Lore I ”), the district court granted the motions in part and denied them in part. See 583 F.Supp.2d at 388-89. The court denied Lemm’s motion insofar as it sought dismissal of Lore’s HRL claim against him, ruling that his opposition to that claim (ie., his assertion that he was not the person who made the harassing call) presented factual issues to be tried. See id. at 386-87. As to the other defendants, the court granted their motions in large part, dismissing all of Lore’s claims against Falge, Tassone, and Rathbun, and dismissing most of her claims against the other individual defendants, on various grounds. See id. at 388-89. Lore’s Title VII claims against the individual defendants were dismissed on the ground that Title VII does not impose liability on individuals. See id. at 388. Although individuals may be held liable under the HRL, whose prohibitions against employment discrimination are similar to those of Title VII, the court also dismissed Lore’s HRL discrimination claims against the individual defendants— as well as all of her HRL and Title VII discrimination claims against the City — on the ground that, because her rank and pay had not been reduced when she was removed from the PIO position, Lore had suffered no materially adverse employment action. See id. at 376-80. (See Part III.B. below.) The court also ruled that all of Lore’s claims against the City under Title VII for acts prior to September 19, 1999 — the date calculated to be 300 days prior to the initiation of her complaints to the EEOC — were time-barred. And it dismissed all of Lore’s state-law claims except those alleging reputational injury and emotional distress resulting from retaliation in violation of the HRL. See id. at 388-89. Both sides moved for reconsideration of the summary judgment decision. The court denied the City’s motion on the ground that it was untimely. See Memorandum-Decision and Order dated December 22, 2008, reported at 2008 WL 5378370 (“Lore II”), at *3. The court granted Lore’s motion for reconsideration of various aspects of Lore I but adhered to its original decisions. See id. at *3-*11. By the time of trial, the factual issues as to alleged retaliatory conduct had been narrowed, and Lore’s factual allegations against the remaining defendants were described as follows in Court Exhibit 1 (as amended, see Tr. 23-24): Boyle: “barring [Lore] from an office within the police department and requiring her to submit internal memorandums”; Guy and Bernardi: “making negative comments about [Lore] to newspaper reporters”; Kerwin: “reading [Lore] Miranda warnings and threatening her with criminal charges”; Lemm: “leaving a harassing telephone message on [Lore’s] answering machine”; The City: “offering to forgo criminal or administrative charges in exchange for [Lore’s] withdrawl [sic] of her complaints of discrimination”; “suspending her for ten days and investigating her conduct.” Court Exhibit 1 also noted Lore’s assertion that the City was liable for the retaliatory acts of the officers of SPD (other than Lemm, who had retired prior to Lore’s receipt of harassing telephone messages) and for breach of the CBA provision prohibiting unlawful retaliation in response to complaints of discrimination. C. Lore’s Evidence at Trial At trial, Lore described her removal from her position as SPD’s spokesman and testified that she filed grievances with respect to that removal. She testified that defendants had engaged in the conduct that was outlined in Court Exhibit 1, and she described the series of transfers she endured from the PIO position to less desirable and less prestigious job assignments. As to her claims against Boyle, Lore testified that after she complained of discrimination, he banned her from SPD’s ABC Office and required her, unlike other SPD employees, to submit any requests for information in written memoranda. The accountant-clerk of the ABC Office testified that after Lore photocopied other officers’ pay stubs, Boyle, who was then SPD’s First Deputy Chief, came into that office and angrily “said something to the effect of, keep [Lore] the heck out of here.” (Tr. 409; see id. at 406-09, 411 (“if Teri Lore ever comes in this office again, throw her the heck out”), 414-15.) The accountant-clerk testified that she had never before been instructed “to give directions to police officers or sergeants.” (Id. at 412.) She testified that a waist-high gate was subsequently erected at the ABC Office door because SPD “wanted to make sure that from now on, there was some control of who just wandered into our office” (id. at 415), and that that gate became “generally known as the Teri Lore gate” (id. at 426). As to her claims against Kerwin, Lore testified that in November 2000, she reported to Kerwin, a captain in SPD’s training division, that she had aggravated an existing injury while she was moving targets at SPD’s firing range. She testified that Kerwin rejected her injury report and threatened to give her Miranda warnings for attempting to file a false injury report — a response that Lore attributed to her having filed EEOC complaints. (See Tr. 189-52.) As to her claim against Lemm, Lore testified that she recognized the voice in one of the harassing telephone messages she received as the voice of Lemm, with whom she had worked for 20 years. (See Tr. 157-59.) As to her claims against Guy, Lore testified that when she was suspended for us-ing a Department copier after refusing to withdraw her claims of gender discrimination, Guy made untrue and demeaning comments about her to the local media. She introduced, inter alia, newspaper articles quoting him and a videotape of his comments to a local television station. These exhibits included a two-paragraph article from the November 4, 2000 edition of a Syracuse newspaper, The Post-Standard, which was headlined “City suspends sergeant accused of check copying.” (PX BB (“November 2000 Posh-Standard article” or “November article”).) That article, on the front page of the local news section, stated as follows: A Syracuse police sergeant was suspended without pay for 10 days Thursday after being accused of taking others’ paychecks from the budget office, copying them and using them as evidence in her grievance hearing, Corporation Counsel Rick Guy said. Sgt. Teri Lore, 43, had filed a grievance saying others are allowed more overtime hours, he said. She was suspended after she turned in the copied documents, Guy said. (Id.) An article in the December 30, 2000 edition of the same newspaper (PX EE (“December 2000 Posh-Standard article”)) reported the filing of Lore’s present action and reported Guy’s comments on it. That article, headlined “Police sergeant sues for $4M,” included the following paragraphs: City Corporation Counsel Rick Guy denied Lore’s allegations. He said Lore has filed eight grievances against the department in the past 10 years. “She has been denied at every single avenue she’s gone down and rightly so,” Guy said. “The allegations in this thing are ridiculous. The whole thing is an absolute waste of taxpayer money. It reeks of a frivolous and meritless lawsuit. There was no discrimination because of her gender. She wasn’t doing her job.” (PX EE.) Guy’s televised comments on Lore’s lawsuit included the statement that “[t]his matter has been adjudicated in the administrative side of [things] several times — each time in favor of the police department. Frankly, we consider this to be a red herring — a distraction, if you will, from the real issue here — which is her poor job performance.” (PX FF.) Lore testified that there was no basis for Guy’s statements that she wasn’t doing her job or that her performance was poor. She testified that, prior to her copying of the pay stubs of three other sergeants to document her claim that the City had breached its agreement with respect to overtime assignments, she had never before been disciplined or even criticized for not doing her job. (See Tr. 171-72.) Q. So when Mr. Guy said you weren’t doing your job, do you have any idea what he is referring to? A. I have no idea. (Id. at 172.) Although in his opening statement defense counsel had argued that Guy could not properly “be sued for publicly commenting on something that is truthful” (Tr. 86), the City introduced no evidence at trial as to Lore’s job performance except Guy’s testimony that he had been told that Lore performed poorly in the PIO position (see, e.g., id. at 917 (that Lore had “temperature [sic ] tantrums with members of the media”)). The only documentary evidence introduced as to Lore’s job performance was introduced by Lore: a selection of letters of praise and commendation that she had received during the course of her career at SPD. Nearly two-thirds of the 20-odd letters that were introduced had come from SPD’s chief of police or a deputy chief or the office of the district attorney. (See Tr. 181-82; PXNNN.) Lore testified that her “reputation was spotless until” the appearance of the November 2000 Posi^Standard article citing Guy. (Id. at 197.) Although she had copied only pay stubs, she received “[n]egative” attention (Tr. 168-69) in the wake of that article reporting that she had been suspended for “taking” and copying “others’ paychecks ” (PX BB (emphasis added)). She testified that she was approached in public by people who asked “why would you copy people’s checks?” or “[wjhat did you need to steal checks for?” (Tr. 196-97.) Lore testified that despite her protests that she had not copied checks, and had not stolen anything, her reputation was “[tjotally damaged. It went from one extreme to the other.” (Id. at 197.) Lore testified that there were many SPD officers who no longer wanted to associate with her as a result of what was going on in 2000 and 2001. Lore’s mother testified that Lore’s fellow officers, who used to congregate with Lore at the mother’s house at night after their shifts ended, stopped coming around. (See Tr. 566.) Lore testified that the events from early 2000 until August 2001 turned her, emotionally, into “a totally different person,” one who “couldn’t deal with the stress, the anxiety,” who had “[tjension headaches” and “stomach problems” and “was vomiting,” and who “couldn’t sleep” because she “was fearful.” (Tr. 191-92.) Stress had prompted Lore to consult a doctor in February or March 2000, and her doctor had prescribed an antidepressant. (See id. at 189-90.) While taking the medication she suffered side effects including vomiting and diarrhea; her use of the medication was gradually reduced, and she ceased taking it in late 2000 or early 2001. (See id. at 195.) Lore and her mother described Lore as a gregarious person prior to the events of 2000-2001 (see, e.g., id. at 192, 569); they testified that as a result of those events Lore became reclusive (see, e.g., Tr. 193, 568-69). Lore’s mother testified that Lore “cried and cried and cried” (id. at 569) and seemed “ready for a nervous breakdown,” causing the mother to be “afraid [Lore wa]s going to do something to hurt herself’ (id. at 568). Lore testified that in late 2000 or early 2001, she stopped seeking advancement within SPD, declining to renew, for example, her request for a transfer to the Criminal Investigation Division, where the responsibilities would be greater (see, e.g., Tr. 202-03) because she knew, based on the attitudes of her superiors, that her transfer requests would be denied (see, e.g., Tr. 201-02). In late June 2001, Lore’s doctor notified SPD that Lore needed to be taken out of work for about a week to be treated for “recurrent depression.” (PX ZZ.) At the close of Lore’s case, her retaliation claims against Bernardi were dismissed as a matter of law, over her objection, for lack of evidence as to any statements about Lore to the press by Bernardi. (See Tr. 886-88.) The remaining individual defendants testified that they had not engaged in the conduct described by Lore, or had had no knowledge of her complaints of discrimination at the time of their acts, or had had no intent to retaliate against her. D. The Jury’s Verdicts The jury was instructed to return verdicts with answers to written questions with respect to Lore’s claims under § 1983 and the HRL against Boyle, Kerwin, and Guy, her claim under the HRL against Lemm, and her claims under the HRL and Title VII against the City itself (ie., claims not asserted against any individual defendant). With respect to each of those defendants, a series of interrogatories asked principally (1) whether the defendant had engaged in specified conduct; (2) if so, whether the defendant was aware of Lore’s discrimination complaints at the time of that conduct; (3) if so, whether the defendant’s conduct constituted a “material adverse employment” action against Lore; (4) if so, whether Lore’s complaints of discrimination were “a motivating factor” in the defendant’s acts “of retaliation”; (5) if so, whether Lore “sustain[ed]” any “actual damages because of’ the defendant’s acts “of retaliation”; and (6) if so, what “amount of actual damages,” if any, the jury awarded Lore “as a result of being retaliated against” by that defendant. (Verdict Form, May 27, 2009, at 2-16.) The court, after instructing the jury with respect to burdens of proof and the elements of Lore’s claims, also charged the jury on federal law governing qualified immunity (see Tr. 1233-35). It instructed that if the jury found that Lore had been subjected to unlawful retaliation by Boyle, Kerwin, or Guy — i.e., the remaining defendants who were SPD employees at the time of their, alleged conduct — the jury must then consider whether that defendant was entitled to qualified immunity. (See Part III.A. below.) The Verdict Form submitted to the jury included that contingent qualified-immunity question. (See Verdict Form at 17.) After deliberating for less than three hours, the jury returned a verdict in favor of Lore against the City. The jury rejected Lore’s retaliation claims against Boyle because, although the jury found that he had banished Lore from the ABC office and required her to submit future information requests in writing, it found that Lore had not proven that Boyle was aware of her discrimination complaints when he did so. (See Verdict Form at 2.) The jury rejected Lore’s retaliation claims against Kerwin, finding that although he was aware of her complaints of discrimination and threatened to give Lore Miranda warnings or to charge her with a crime, and although this constituted a material adverse employment action, Lore had not proven that Kerwin’s threats were motivated by her discrimination complaints. (See Verdict Form at 8-9.) The jury rejected Lore’s claim against Lemm because it found that Lore had not proven that he left a harassing message on her answering machine. (See Verdict Form at 11.) As to Guy, the jury found that he made negative comments about Lore to news reporters; that he was aware at that time that Lore had filed an EEOC complaint; that Guy’s comments constituted materially adverse employment action; that Lore’s discrimination complaints were a motivation for Guy’s acts of retaliation; and that as a result of his retaliatory acts, Lore suffered actual damages in the amounts of $100,000 for harm to her reputation and $150,000 for pain, suffering, and emotional distress. (See Verdict Form at 5-7.) However, the jury answered “Yes” to the question of whether Guy was entitled to qualified immunity. (See id. at 17.) As to the City, the jury answered “Yes” to the question of whether the City, “through the conduct of its employees or representatives, engage[d] in the following actions: a) offering to forgo criminal and administrative charges against ... Lore in exchange for her withdrawal of her complaints of discrimination; or b) suspending ... Lore for ten days and seeking a criminal investigation of her conduct.” (Verdict Form at 14.) The jury found that the City, “through its employees and representatives,” was “aware of ... Lore’s complaints of discrimination with the EEOC at the time either of the above-mentioned acts occurred”; that the City’s “above-mentioned acts (a. or b.), through the conduct of its employees and representatives, constitute^] material adverse employment actions”; that “Lore’s complaints of discrimination [were] a motivating factor” for the City’s “above-mentioned acts (a. or b.) of retaliation”; and that “because of’ the City’s “acts of retaliation,” Lore suffered actual damages in the amounts of $100,000 for harm to her reputation and $150,000 for pain, suffering, and emotional distress. (Verdict Form at 14-16.) The court ruled that, based on the jury’s various findings, “there is a verdict of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars against the City of Syracuse and a verdict of no cause for action against Defendants Boyle, Kerwin, Guy, and Lemm. The verdict of no cause against Mr. Guy is based on the verdict of him being entitled to qualified immunity.” (Tr. 1256.) Lore and the City thereafter made posttrial motions asking the court to set aside the parts of the jury’s verdict that were, respectively, adverse to them. In an order dated August 7, 2009, reported at 2009 WL 2473508 (“Lore III”), the district court denied the motions, ruling principally that they were either untimely or meritless, see id. at * 1-*2. For example, the court noted that the jury found that the City knew in July that Lore had made copies of other officers’ pay stubs, and that the jury likely found the City’s belated suspension of Lore suspicious: The jury could well have concluded that if plaintiff had actually engaged in the serious criminal conduct as alleged by the Police Department, charges would have immediately been filed against her and the matter would have immediately been referred to the District Attorney’s office. By waiting over two months [after the September hearing] to file charges and refer the matter to the District Attorney’s office, — and only after plaintiff refused to withdraw her EEOC complaint — -the jury was justified in concluding that the City employees and representatives were motivated by retaliation against her in violation of the Human Rights Law and Title VII. Lore III, 2009 WL 2473508, at *1. In an order dated September 11, 2009, reported at 2009 WL 2957784 (“Lore IV”), the court granted in part Lore’s request pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988 for attorneys’ fees and costs, awarding a total of $167,955.34, see id. at *1-*2 (see Part III. C.5. below). On the basis of the jury’s verdict, the orders of dismissal prior to trial, and the dismissal of the claims against Bernardi during trial, the court entered a final judgment dismissing Lore’s claims against all defendants other than the City. On the basis of the jury verdict awarding Lore $250,000 in compensatory damages against the City and the court’s award of fees and costs, the court entered judgment ordering the City to pay Lore a total of $417,955.34. Execution of the judgment was stayed pending appeal, with the City being required to post a $600,000 supersedeas bond. E. Issues on Appeal The City has appealed, challenging the judgment against it on legal, procedural, and evidentiary grounds (see Parts II and IV below). Lore filed a cross-appeal stating that she wished to challenge all parts of the judgment and the prejudgment and postjudgment orders that were adverse to her. However, not all such decisions are discussed in Lore’s briefs on appeal. For example, other than apparently referring to all individual defendants in contending that the district court erred in granting summary judgment dismissing her HRL discrimination claims on the ground that she had suffered no materially adverse employment action, Lore’s briefs contain no mention of Tassone and Rathbun at all. Lore’s briefs also contain no discussion of the dismissals of her Title VII claims against any individual defendant; of her due process claims against any defendant; of her common-law claims against any defendant for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress; or of her Title VII claims against the City for hostile work environment, or retaliation in the form of unfavorable performance reviews after she filed complaints of discrimination, or loss of overtime pay, or any conduct predating September 19, 1999. We regard as waived any challenges by Lore to adverse decisions that are undiscussed. See generally Jackler v. Byrne, 658 F.3d 225, 233 (2d Cir.2011); Day v. Morgenthau, 909 F.2d 75, 76 (2d Cir.1990). And although Lore criticizes the district court’s rulings that she failed to show a “custom, policy or practice of the City of Syracuse” — such as would be necessary to maintain a § 1983 claim against the City— and “failed to allege a cause of action under the Equal Protection Clause” (Lore’s reply brief on appeal at 3-4), such criticisms appear only in Lore’s reply brief. As Lore herself points out — with respect to an argument first made by the City in its reply brief — “issues not raised in [a party’s] opening brief are considered abandoned” (Lore’s brief on appeal at 54 n.7). In Parts III and IV below, we discuss only Lore’s principal contentions that are properly presented. In assessing each side’s contentions on appeal, we bear in mind, inter alia, (1) that Lore had the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence each of the elements of her claims against each defendant; (2) that a defendant has the burden of proof with respect to affirmative defenses, and qualified immunity is such a defense, see, e.g., Gomez v. Toledo, 446 U.S. 635, 640, 100 S.Ct. 1920, 64 L.Ed.2d 572 (1980); Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 815, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982); Jules Rabin Associates, Inc. v. Landon, 38 N.Y.2d 827, 828, 382 N.Y.S.2d 45, 45, 345 N.E.2d 588 (1976); (3) that the weight of the evidence, while a basis for argument to the jury, is not a ground for reversal on appeal, see, e.g., Robinson v. Cattaraugus County, 147 F.3d 153, 160 (2d Cir.1998); Piesco v. Koch, 12 F.3d 332, 345 (2d Cir.1993); Schwartz v. Capital Liquidators, Inc., 984 F.2d 53, 54 (2d Cir.1993); and (4) that a jury is entitled to believe part and disbelieve part of the testimony of any given witness, see, e.g., Robinson v. Cattaraugus County, 147 F.3d at 160; Fiacco v. City of Rensselaer, 783 F.2d 319, 325 (2d Cir.1986), cert. denied, 480 U.S. 922, 107 S.Ct. 1384, 94 L.Ed.2d 698 (1987), and its assessments of witness credibility and its choices between competing factual inferences are not to be second-guessed, see generally Anderson v. Bessemer City, 470 U.S. 564, 574, 105 S.Ct. 1504, 84 L.Ed.2d 518 (1985) (“Where there are two permissible views of the evidence, the factfinder’s choice between them cannot be clearly erroneous.”). With respect to factual findings by the jury that were favorable to Lore, we view the trial record in the light most favorable to her. II. THE CITY’S CHALLENGES WITH REGARD TO LIABILITY The City urges that we reverse or vacate the judgment entered against it on various grounds. It contends, inter alia, that the district court should have granted judgment as a matter of law (or “JMOL”) dismissing Lore’s breach-of-contract claim and dismissing so much of her retaliation claims as sought damages for reputational injury on the ground that reputation damages are unavailable as a matter of law; and it contends that it was entitled to JMOL dismissing Lore’s claims for emotional injury or injury to her reputation on the ground that there was insufficient trial evidence to support findings that any such injuries were caused by culpable acts that the jury found had been committed by the City or its employees. Alternatively, the City contends that it is entitled to a new trial because of errors in the admission of evidence, in instructions to the jury, and in the form of certain questions in the jury interrogatories. The City also contends, as discussed in Part IV below, that, even if there were no trial errors, the jury’s award of $150,000 in damages for emotional distress was excessive and that this Court therefore should either order a new trial limited to such damages or order a new trial unless Lore agrees to accept a reduction of that award from $150,000 to $15,000. For the reasons that follow, we conclude that although the trial was not without flaws, the City’s arguments present no basis for disturbing the judgment against it. A. The City’s Legal Arguments The City contends that it was entitled to judgment as a matter of law dismissing Lore’s claims (1) for breach of its contract with the Police Union, (2) for injury to her reputation, and (3) for pain, suffering, and emotional distress. Some of these contentions are not preserved for appellate review; and none of them provides a basis for reversal. We review the denial of a motion for judgment as a matter of law de novo. See, e.g., Sanders v. New York City Human Resources Administration, 361 F.3d 749, 755 (2d Cir.2004). And whether conducting review de novo or under a less sweeping standard, we “must disregard all errors and defects that do not affect any party’s substantial rights.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 61. A substantial right is not implicated if there is no likelihood that the error or defect affected the outcome of the case. See, e.g., Tesser v. Board of Education, 370 F.3d 314, 319 (2d Cir.2004). 1. The Breach of Contract Claim After both sides had rested at trial and before any claims were submitted to the jury, the City moved pursuant to Fed. R.Civ.P. 50(a) for judgment as a matter of law dismissing, inter alia, Lore’s claim that the City’s retaliation against her for filing complaints of discrimination breached its collective bargaining agreement with the Police Union. The City argued principally that since Lore was not a party to the CBA, she was not entitled to sue the City for its alleged breach. (See Tr. 1079-80.) The district court denied the Rule 50(a) motion, allowing the breach-of-contract claim to be submitted to the jury. Following the jury’s verdict, the City moved pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(b) for the entry of JMOL in its favor on a number of issues, but it did not mention the breach-of-contract issue until it filed a reply brief in support of that motion. In Lore III, the court rejected the City’s contention that it was entitled to relief because of the submission of the contract claim to the jury, stating as follows: It appears as if the defendant City of Syracuse may not have raised an appropriate or timely objection to submissions of the breach of contract claim to the jury. In any event, in view of the evidence of Human Rights Law and § 1983 violations by the City, the submission of the breach of contract claim to the jury, even if incorrect, was harmless error. However, it is unclear from the verdict form whether or not the jury actually made a specific finding of breach of contract against the City. Therefore, prejudgment interest will not be awarded. Lore III, 2009 WL 2473508, at *2. The City’s objection to the submission of Lore’s breach-of-contract claim to the jury has merit. Under New York law, when an employer and a union enter into a collective bargaining agreement that creates a grievance procedure, an employee subject to the agreement may not sue the employer directly for breach of that agreement but must proceed, through the union, in accordance with the contract. Unless the contract provides otherwise, only when the union fails in its duty of fair representation can the employee go beyond the agreed procedure and litigate a contract issue directly against the employer.... Board of Education v. Ambach, 70 N.Y.2d 501, 508, 522 N.Y.S.2d 831, 834, 517 N.E.2d 509 (1987), cert. denied, 485 U.S. 1034, 108 S.Ct. 1593, 99 L.Ed.2d 908 (1988). So long as “the discrete fair representation question still needs to be litigated,” there can be no resolution on the employee’s breach-of-contract claim against the employer. Matter of Obot, 89 N.Y.2d 883, 886 n. *, 653 N.Y.S.2d 245, 246 n. *, 675 N.E.2d 1197 (1996). No claim against the union was asserted by Lore in this case. Thus, we agree with the City that Lore’s breach-of-contract claim against the City should have been dismissed as a matter of law. We agree with the district court’s conclusion, however, that even if the City’s challenge to the submission of the breach-of-contract claim to the jury was preserved, despite its not being made in the City’s main memorandum of law in support of its Rule 50(b) motion, the submission of that claim to the jury was an error that was entirely harmless. The pertinent section of the Verdict Form bore the heading “E. Claims of Retaliation Against Defendant City of Syracuse (Human Rights Law, Title VII, and Breach of Contract).” (Verdict Form at 14.) Despite the mention of breach of contract in this heading, all of the questions that followed (see Part I.D. above) were directed only toward the elements of Lore’s claims under Title VII and the HRL, e.g., whether the City, through its employees or representatives, engaged in specific conduct, whether that conduct constituted materially adverse employment action against Lore, whether the City knew of Lore’s complaints of discrimination at the time of the adverse action, and whether the retaliatory conduct was motivated by those complaints. No interrogatory posed any question about a contract, issue. The jury’s answers to the questions that were posed in that section sufficed to support findings that the City violated Title YII and the HRL; and the district court made no award of prejudgment interest, which would have been mandatory if the judgment against the City had been for breach of contract, see N.Y. C.P.L.R. § 5001(a) (2000) (“Interest shall be recovered upon a sum awarded because of a breach of performance of a contract .... ” (emphasis added)). We conclude that neither the inclusion of “Breach of Contract” in the Verdict Form’s section heading nor any instructions to the jury on the subject of breach of contract affected the City’s rights. 2. The Reputational Injury Claims The City contends that it was entitled to judgment as a matter of law dismissing Lore’s claims for injury to her reputation. In its brief on appeal, the City initially argued that damages for injury to reputation (1) are not available as a matter of law (City’s brief on appeal at 38), or (2) are not available without proof of some injury in addition to the injury to reputation (see id. at 36-38) (the “stigma plus” contention), or (3) were not proven (a) because “[t]here is no evidence in this record of any harm to plaintiffs reputation” (id. at 29), and (b) because Lore failed to show that acts of the City for which it was held liable proximately caused any harm to her reputation (see id. at 38). After oral argument of the present appeals, the City submitted a letter brief in response to questions from this Court and seemed to retreat from its first contention, ie., that reputational damages simply are unrecoverable in an action under Title VII or the HRL, and rested its JMOL request on the insufficiency of Lore’s evidence. The City’s letter suggests that its challenge to the award of reputational damages may be merely that “Lore is not entitled to reputation damages under the facts of this case because no causally-related damages were proved.” (Letter from Gabrielle Mardany Hope dated November 29, 2010 (“City’s Postargument Letter”), at 3 (emphasis in original).) None of the City’s arguments provides ground for reversal. In order for a party to pursue a request for JMOL on appeal, the party must have made timely motions for JMOL in the district court. Rule 50 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provides in part that “[a] motion for judgment as a matter of law may be made at any time before the case is submitted to the jury.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(a)(2). The principal purpose of the requirement that any such motion be made before the case is submitted to the jury is “to assure the responding party an opportunity to cure any deficiency in that party’s proof.” E.g., Piesco v. Koch, 12 F.3d at 340; see, e.g., Baskin v. Hawley, 807 F.2d 1120, 1134 (2d Cir.1986). To ensure that that opportunity is a “fair” one, Piesco v. Koch, 12 F.3d at 340, Rule 50(a) also provides that “[t]he motion must specify the judgment sought and the law and facts that entitle the movant to the judgment,” Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(a)(2) (emphases added). “[T]he specificity requirement is obligatory.” Holmes v. United States, 85 F.3d 956, 962 (2d Cir.1996) (internal quotation marks omitted). A Rule 50(a) motion requesting judgment as a matter of law on one ground but omitting another is insufficient to preserve a JMOL argument based on the latter. See, e.g., id. at 961-63; Kirsch v. Fleet Street, Ltd., 148 F.3d 149, 164 (2d Cir.1998). If the Rule 50(a) motion is not granted, the movant may, no later than 28 days after the entry of a judgment, “file a renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(b) (emphasis added). However, [b]ecause the Rule 50(b) motion is only a renewal of the preverdict motion, it can be granted only on grounds advanced in the preverdict motion. The earlier motion informs the opposing party of the challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence and affords a clear opportunity to provide additional evidence that may be available. The earlier motion also alerts the court to the opportunity to simplify the trial by resolving some issues, or even all issues, without submission to the jury. Fed.R.Civ.P. 50 Advisory Committee Note (2006) (emphasis added); see, e.g., id. Advisory Committee Note (1991) (“[a] post-trial motion for judgment can be granted only on grounds advanced in the pre-verdict motion”); Holmes v. United States, 85 F.3d at 962. As to any issue on which proper Rule 50 motions were not made, JMOL may not properly be granted by the district court, or upheld on appeal, or ordered by the appellate court unless that action is required in order to prevent manifest injustice. See, e.g., Kirsch v. Fleet Street, Ltd., 148 F.3d at 164; Galdieri-Ambrosini v. National Realty & Development Corp., 136 F.3d 276, 287 (2d Cir.1998). Although the City made two Rule 50(a) motions (one after Lore rested, and the second after the defendants rested), neither of them asserted either that reputational damages are unavailable to a Title VII or HRL plaintiff or that Lore could not be awarded such damages because of an insufficiency in her evidence. The City’s 50(a) motions requested JMOL on the ground of lack of evidence on other specified issues (see Tr. 1079-86) or on the inappropriate ground that several individual defendants’ testimony disputed Lore’s testimony as to various events (see, e.g., id. at 889,1080-81; see also id. at 1084 (citing testimony by a nondefendant witness that certain statements had not been made)). But there was no argument in either of the City’s Rule 50(a) motions that reputational damages were unavailable as a matter of law, or that Lore had failed to prove “stigma plus,” or that Lore had failed to present evidence of causation. Indeed, there was no mention of reputation at all. The City’s postverdict motion pursuant to Rule 50(b) did include a section asserting that Lore was “NOT ENTITLED TO REPUTATIONAL DAMAGES AS A MATTER OF LAW” and proffered the City’s doctrinal and sufficiency bases for that assertion. (See City’s Post-Trial Memorandum of Law at 14-17.) It asserted, inter alia, that “to recover for loss of reputation, plaintiff would have had to offer more evidence than just her own testimony.” (Id. at 17.) But this argument was not a renewal of any argument made in the City’s Rule 50(a) motion, and its assertion postverdict plainly did not give Lore the requisite opportunity to cure any perceived deficiency in her proof before the ease was submitted to the jury. The district court, in ruling on the City’s Rule 50(b) motion, did not address the challenge to reputational damages except implicitly in its observation that some of the City’s arguments “ha[d] been waived by failing to timely object, or to raise the issue,” Lore III, 2009 WL 2473508, at *2. We conclude that the City’s request for judgment as a matter of law dismissing Lore’s claims for injury to her reputation was not properly preserved because it was not raised in the City’s Rule 50(a) motion. Nor can we conclude that justice requires that we overlook the City’s procedural default, on the basis of either the law or the state of the record. As to the law, EEOC guidelines with respect to private actions under Title VII state that [d]amages are available for the intangible injuries of emotional harm such as emotional pain, suffering, inconvenience, mental anguish, and loss of enjoyment of life. Other nonpecuniary losses could include injury to professional standing, [and] injury to character and reputation. ... EEOC, Enforcement Guidance: Compensatory and Punitive Damages Available under § 102 of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 (July 14, 1992), http://www.eeoe.gov/policy/ docs/damages.html (last visited Feb. 1, 2012) (emphases added). Although a showing of “stigma plus” is required with respect to defamation-type claims under the Due Process Clause, see, e.g., Patterson v. City of Utica, 370 F.3d 322, 329-30 (2d Cir.2004); Neu v. Corcoran, 869 F.2d 662, 667 (2d Cir.) (“Paul[ v. Davis, 424 U.S. 693, 96 S.Ct. 1155, 47 L.Ed.2d 405 (1976) ] has been widely interpreted as holding that ‘stigma plus’ is required to establish a constitutional deprivation” (emphasis added)), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 816, 110 S.Ct. 66, 107 L.Ed.2d 33 (1989), the EEOC guidelines contain no suggestion that “stigma plus” is a prerequisite to recovery for reputational injury on a claim under Title VII. As to the record, the district court found that “[t]he jury verdict was justified by the law and the evidence,” Lore III, 2009 WL 2473508, at * 1, and the City’s contention that “[t]here is no evidence in this record of any harm to plaintiffs reputation” (City’s brief on appeal at 29) is frivolous. The record includes testimony by Lore that, as a result of the retaliation that followed her complaints of discrimination, she was shunned by many fellow SPD members and was approached by civilians in public who interpreted the news reports of Guy’s statements as indicating that Lore had stolen other officers’ paychecks. The City’s argument that Lore did not, for example, give the names of the persons who shunned or criticized her goes not to the admissibility of the evidence but rather to its weight, which is not a ground for appeal. We see no proper basis for disturbing the jury’s assessment of that evidence or its conclusion that defendants’ retaliatory actions caused Lore reputational injury. 3. The Emotional Distress Claims The City contends that it was entitled to judgment as a matter of law dismissing Lore’s claims for emotional distress on the ground that she failed to present evidence that any such distress was caused by the conduct in which the City was found to have engaged. This contention suffers the same flaws as the City’s contention that it was entitled to JMOL on the claims for reputational injury. Neither of the City’s Rule 50(a) motions mentioned any perceived insufficiency in Lore’s evidence that she suffered emotional distress as a result of the retaliatory treatment by the defendants. The City also argues that the jury’s award to Lore of $150,000 for her emotional distress was excessive. That contention is discussed in Part IV below. B. The City’s Claims of Trial Error The City argues alternatively that it is entitled to a new trial on the grounds that the district court erroneously admitted testimony as to the dismissed discrimination claims and testimony by Lore’s expert witness; that it failed to instruct the jury that the discrimination claims had been dismissed and failed to instruct the jury properly on the issue of causation; and that the Verdict Form given to the jury inappropriately contained compound questions. We see no basis for a new trial in the court’s instructions. And although we question the court’s admission of the expert’s testimony, and we find error in the Verdict Form’s use of compound questions, the former was harmless, and the City did not preserve its right to appeal the latter. 1. Lore’s Expert Witness The City complains that, over defense objections, the court allowed Lore to present expert testimony by William Kenneth Katsaris, a former police officer and county sheriff with a master’s degree in science, who had fulfilled all the non-dissertation requirements for a doctorate in public administration, and who was a state police academy instructor on, inter alia, “issues relating to civil rights, discrimination, harassment retaliation for issues of complaints that may be lodged within the law enforcement agency” (Tr. 781; see id. at 776-84). Katsaris, testifying as “an expert in law enforcement” (Tr. 784), was allowed to opine that SPD’s treatment of Lore reflected retaliation for her having filed complaints of discrimination. (See, e.g., id. at 786-87 (“I believe very strongly there was [sic] elements of retaliation, between four and five occasions at least, for what appeared to be her filing of grievances and her EEOC complaint.”).) Katsaris gave his opinion, with a “reasonable degree of certainty,” that “Lore was subjected to retaliation for making a complaint of discrimination” (id. at 798-99; see id. at 788) when defendants, inter alia, prevented her from entering the ABC Office or from filing an injury report, or threatened her with criminal charges (see, e.g., id. at 788-90, 812-13). We apply abuse-of-discretion review to a trial court’s evidentiary rulings, see, e.g., Old Chief v. United States, 519 U.S. 172, 174 n. 1, 117 S.Ct. 644, 136 L.Ed.2d 574 (1997); United States v. Abel, 469 U.S. 45, 54-55, 105 S.Ct. 465, 83 L.Ed.2d 450 (1984), including those as to the admissibility of expert testimony, see, e.g., General Electric Co. v. Joiner, 522 U.S. 136, 138-39, 141-43, 118 S.Ct. 512, 139 L.Ed.2d 508 (1997). The hallmark of abuse-of-discretion review is deference, see, e.g., id. at 143, 118 S.Ct. 512; and a ruling on the admissibility of expert testimony “is to be sustained unless manifestly erroneous,” Salem v. United States Lines Co., 370 U.S. 31, 35, 82 S.Ct. 1119, 8 L.Ed.2d 313 (1962). Further, an erroneous evidentiary ruling warrants a new trial only when “a substantial right of a party is affected,” as when “a jury’s judgment would be swayed in a material fashion by the error.” Arlio v. Lively, 474 F.3d 46, 51 (2d Cir.2007); see Hester v. BIC Corp., 225 F.3d 178, 181 (2d Cir.2000); Fed.R.Evid. 103(a). The City argues that the admission of Katsaris’s opinions was error on the ground that “testimony that embraces the ultimate conclusion to be reached in a case is impermissible.” (City’s brief on appeal at 51; see also id. at 49-50.) We reject that contention, given the provision in Rule 704(a) of the Federal Rules of Evidence that, with an exception not applicable here, opinion testimony that is otherwise admissible is not objectionable merely because it “embraces an ultimate issue” to be decided by the factfinder. Fed.R.Evid. 704(a). Rather, our difficulty with the admission of Katsaris’s testimony is that his opinions did not seem likely to help “the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue,” Fed.R.Evid. 702. While the matter of whether a given defendant impermissibly retaliated against Lore had several components — (a) did the defendant perform the acts alleged by Lore, (b) at the time of those acts did the defendant know of Lore’s complaints of discrimination, (c) were those acts motivated by Lore’s complaints of discrimination, and (d) did those acts constitute materially adverse actions — those components are relatively straightforward. However, we need not decide whether the admission of Katsaris’s testimony constituted an abuse of discretion, for even if it did, the admission of his opinions was harmless, as the jury — quite clearly — was not unduly influenced by them. Contrary to Katsaris’s stated opinions, the jury found that Lore had not proven her retaliation claims against three of the four individual defendants under consideration. Further, the jury’s answers to the interrogatories reflected a painstakingly focused approach that resulted in no two sets of answers being the same. Thus, while finding that Lore had proven all the elements of her retaliation claims against Guy, it found that Lore had failed (a) to prove that Lemm engaged in the conduct of which he was accused, (b) to prove that Boyle, when engaging in conduct adverse to Lore, had known of Lore’s complaints of discrimination, and (c) to prove that Kerwin, when engaging in conduct adverse to Lore while knowing of her complaints of discrimination, was motivated by her complaints. Given the jury’s findings on Lore’s claims of retaliation, we cannot conclude that Katsaris’s testimony swayed the jury in any material fashion. 2. Instructions to the Jury With respect to the charge to the jury, the City does not point to any allegedly erroneous statement but complains that the court did not instruct the jury (a) that Lore’s discrimination claims had been dismissed (see City’s brief on appeal at 54), and (b) that Lore “was obligated to prove intent on her retaliation claims or that [Lore] had to prove her damages were proximately caused by the incidents for which a particular defendant was found liable” (id. at 53 (emphases in original)). “A jury instruction is erroneous if it misleads the jury as to the correct legal standard or does not adequately inform the jury on the law.” Perry v. Ethan Allen, Inc., 115 F.3d 143, 153 (2d Cir.1997) (“Perry ”) (internal quotation marks omitted). “[A] jury instruction will be deemed adequate if the charge ... is correct and sufficiently covers the case so that a jury can intelligently determine the questions presented to it.” Schermerhorn v. Local 100, Transport Workers Union of America, 91 F.3d 316, 322 (2d Cir.