Verdicts and Settlements
Quest Law Firm does not report on settlements or mediations, many of which are subject to confidentiality agreements.
Corporation pays out $338,168 after arbitration to President fired in retaliation for opposing discrimination
It takes a lot to become President of a manufacturing and distribution company: Advanced education, experience, the right balance of business savvy and leadership skills, and the ability and moral courage to directly address problems with others, including your CEO. This gentleman was 57 when he was hired. It was a time of upheaval at the company. He negotiated a one-year contract with the company that would automatically renew for successive one-year terms unless either party opted not to renew within a specified time frame.
He was doing very well as the new President during his first six months. At the sixth month point, he confronted the company's CEO about a remark made at an international sales meeting by an employee of an affiliated company, which claimant believed to be discriminatory. Within the next two months, communications and support from the CEO dropped off and he was informed in a brief conversation by phone that an executive of an affiliated company would be his successor and that his contract would not be renewed. However, because of other circumstances, the President's contract was renewed and he was kept on for another two years for a total of three years.
In the meantime, the company selected and groomed two individuals in their 40s to succeed him. He also applied for another position in the organization for which he claimed he was well qualified and was not hired. Ultimately, he was given his 60 days notice and terminated.
The terminated President initiated a binding arbitration proceeding pursuant to a provision in his contract, claiming lost income as a result of age discrimination and retaliation.
The arbitrator determined that there was not enough evidence of age discrimination, but there was in fact retaliation. The company was ordered to pay the terminated President $229,800 for lost pay and benefits and $108,368 in statutory attorney fees and costs for a total recovery of $338,168. The company learned an expensive lesson, and the former President's commitment to doing the right thing was validated.
Trial Lawyer for the President: Robby Robinson
(Reported in the Verdicts and Settlements section of The Los Angeles Daily Journal in July 2007.)
Physicians and other Professionals: Whether Employees, P.C.s, Partners, or Contractors, there are Financial Obligations to Business Relationships.
Lisa and Kathleen were M.D.s who joined Crest Medical Group, Inc., an established OB/GYN practice in Riverside, as employees. After several years of practicing as employees on a salary, the founder of the practice told them they would then be paid on a revenue less expenses formula. This evolved into being paid a percentage of the gross revenue attributable to each doctor, which was 48%. As time passed, the next change announced by Crest was that Drs. Lisa and Kathleen had to form their own professional corporations and obtain their own malpractice insurance, which previously had been purchased by Crest to cover all its physicians. Drs. Lisa and Kathleen would then be employees of their respective professional corporation, which in turn would provide services to Crest under the same 48% formula.
Although the three doctors had many discussions and exchanged various drafts of written agreements, there was no final agreement that they all signed. Drs. Lisa and Kathleen had worked through their newly formed PCs for months without a written agreement, and were being paid under the 48% formula that had been in place for several years, when they each independently decided it was time to move on. Dr. Kathleen left after finishing out the month of May. When she called to give Crest's business manager her new address where her checks for the 48% could be sent, she was told there would be no more payments. Not even for revenue received during the last month she worked there! When Dr. Lisa found out about this in mid-June, she inquired and was told that her check in June, based on the revenues received in May, would be her last, even if she continued seeing patients and delivering babies at all hours of the day through June!
Physician groups get paid by insurance companies and Medi-Cal or Medi-Care weeks or months, and sometimes many months, after the services are rendered. In this case, Crest Medical Group thought it could continue to collect 100% of the revenue generated by the services of Drs. Lisa and Kathleen as those monies trickled in over the next year. A Riverside County jury disagreed. Drs. Lisa and Kathleen proved Crest received $218,632 for services they rendered. They asked only to be paid their 48%, no more and no less, and the jury agreed with them to the penny.
Trial Lawyer for the two Physicians: Robby Robinson
(Reported in the Verdicts and Settlements section of The Los Angeles Daily Journal in October 2006)
Jury awards $49,500 plus $147,610 in attorney fees and costs to underpaid innkeeper when she was terminated after complaining about her overtime wages.
How should an employer react to an employee asking for overtime pay? Employers have a responsibility under the law to pay the minimum wage and to pay for overtime. If they do not, and they terminate based upon the employee's request, then the employee will have a remedy at law against the employer not only for the back pay, but for wrongful termination as well.
In this case, the employee worked as an innkeeper on Catalina Island. She worked many unpaid hours and complained about not getting time off or payment for those hours. The employer then terminated the innkeeper. The employer claimed that the innkeeper did not work any overtime hours and was terminated for legitimate reasons not related to her request for overtime.
After a fifteen day jury trial in Los Angeles Superior Court, the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff and awarded the plaintiff $1,355 on her claim for minimum wages, $32,488 for overtime wages, $3,350 for waiting time penalties, $2,315 in economic damages, and punitive damages in the amount of $50,000 (reduced to $10,000 by the judge) and $147,610 in attorney's fees and costs.
Trial Lawyer for the innkeeper: Robby Robinson
(Reported in the Verdicts and Settlements section of The Los Angeles Daily Journal, September 8, 2003)
Sexually Harassed Hotel Cook Fired For Complaining: $730,947 Judgment After Jury Trial
Would you think that the kitchen of a restaurant would be a harassment free workplace? Do you think that the workers should be able to expect that they would be able to carry out their job without any kind of sexual harassment or comments? In this case, a woman who was a "prep cook" in the kitchen of a 220-room hotel and restaurant suffered from unwanted sexual comments and touching from a supervisor and five of her co-workers. Her early complaints were ignored and when she complained to the general manager the employer decided to turn the investigation on her. Within about a two-week period, she was written up twice and fired for several trumped up reasons. In trial, plaintiff sought damages for sexual harassment and discrimination. A jury found for our fired prep cook on her claims of sexual harassment and retaliation against the employer and all six individuals, and valued her injuries at $482,500. An additional $10,000 was added for punitive damages, $225,000 in attorneys' fees and $13,447 in other costs.
Terminated CFO Recovers $128,000 Severance and $138,200 for Stock Options
Even when a key executive has a written employment agreement, he or she may have to fight for bargained for benefits upon termination. Most key employees or executive employment agreements will provide that the employer can terminate the employee for "good cause" without much or any severance, but if the termination is not for good cause (even for an at will employee) there will be severance and other benefits paid. Of course, that leads some unscrupulous employers to trump up alleged "good cause" where there is none, and to argue all kinds of technical, nitpicky excuses why the payout provisions do not apply.
When the corporation in this case terminated its CFO, it refused to honor the CFO's employment agreement that provided for a severance payment of $120,000 and a stock option agreement. The corporation raised several technical arguments to justify its refusal to honor the agreement. It soon agreed to settle the claim for the severance payment for $128,000 and it entered into binding arbitration on our client's stock option claim. The arbitrator found that the terminated CFO was entitled to exercise his stock options and awarded him $138,000 in damages plus an additional $28,312.46 in attorneys' fees for a total recovery of $294,512.46.
Trial Lawyer for CFO: Robby Robinson
(Reported in the Verdicts and Settlements section of The Los Angeles Daily Journal, August 6, 1999.)
Trial Lawyer for the Cook: Robby Robinson
(Reported in the Verdicts and Settlements section of The Los Angeles Daily Journal, August 5, 2002.)
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