Madrid

MEMORANDUM *

Melody Capps (“Capps”) appeals the judgment entered against her after a jury trial and award of $300,000 in compensatory damages to Cora Madrid (“Madrid”) in Madrid’s action against Capps for intentional interference with contract under Arizona law based on Capps’s termination of Madrid’s employment in the Apache County assessor’s office. Capps also appeals Judge Voss’s denial of her pre- and post-verdict motions for judgment as a matter of law under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50, both of which posited that Capps, who served as county assessor when she terminated Madrid, was acting within the course and scope of her employment as a matter of Arizona law when the termination occurred. Madrid cross-appeals Judge Broomfield’s grant of summary judgment to Apache County on Madrid’s claim of retaliation under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-3(a). We have jurisdiction to consider these appeals under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we reverse both judgments.

Capps’s Appeal

Under Arizona’s notice of claims statute, any person who wants to bring suit against a public entity or employee must first serve a notice on the entity or employee stating “facts…