$7M award for age discrimination scrapped by L.A. judge
Earlier this month, a California state judge invalidated a jury’s $7.1 million award to T.J. Simers, a former Los Angeles Times sports writer who alleged he was forced out due to his age. (He was initially seeking $18 million in compensatory and punitive damages.) The judge tossed out the damages award because Simers was never terminated nor did he formally resign.
Simers, 63, worked for the Times for 22 years and was once a featured sports section columnist. He argued that a combination of his age and his having suffered a ministroke motivated the paper to want to get him out of his $234,000 per year position. The paper lodged complaints about his writing and interviewing and discussed a demotion with him in response to Simers’ failure to disclose a conflict of interest when he conducted an interview with basketball player Dwight Howard.
In November, the jury awarded Simers $7.1 million, including $330,358 for past economic damages, $1.8 million for future economic damages, and $5 million for past and future non-economic damages.
The Times requested a “judgment notwithstanding verdict” due to Simers’ having never handed in his resignation, nor was he terminated. Judge MacLaughlin ruled that the plaintiff’s demotion was not the basis for his allegation that the Times had created intolerable working conditions for him. The paper’s conduct wasn’t a reasonable demonstration of malice, fraud or oppression.
Simers admitted during cross-examination that the editors of the paper “asked him to return to the company and he rebuffed them“. The paper claims they did not want him to leave, nor did it create intolerable work conditions to force him to resign.
The judge granted the Times a new trial to examine Simer’s constructive discharge claim, which is the key to Simers’ economic damages claim. A court official confirmed that the order was amended to also include a new trial to assess noneconomic damages claims.
Relevant reading
Read about the role of economic experts in age discrimination cases in these EmployStats case examples.
EEOC guide to age discrimination.
Learn about the types of damages that may be relevant in cases involving allegations of age discrimination.
