Courtney v. Safelite Glass Corp.

811 F. Supp. 1466, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20440, 60 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1097, 1992 WL 414707
CourtDistrict Court, D. Kansas
DecidedDecember 16, 1992
DocketCiv. A. 91-2223-JWL
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 811 F. Supp. 1466 (Courtney v. Safelite Glass Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Courtney v. Safelite Glass Corp., 811 F. Supp. 1466, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20440, 60 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1097, 1992 WL 414707 (D. Kan. 1992).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

LUNGSTRUM, District Judge.

This matter is before the court on defendant Robert Morosky’s motion for judgment on the special verdict (Doc. # 211), *1469 both defendants’ alternative motion for judgment as a matter of law or new trial (Doc. # 213), and plaintiffs motion for supplemental damages (Doc. #218). A trial was held from September 10 to September 23, 1992. On September 25, 1992, the jury returned a special verdict. The jury found that defendant Morosky did not discriminate against plaintiff Robert L. Courtney on the basis of his age. However, the jury found that defendant Safelite Glass Corporation (“Safelite”) did discriminate against the plaintiff on the basis of his age in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA”) and the Kansas Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“KADEA”). It also found that this discrimination was willful. The jury awarded the plaintiff $132,368 for his lost wages under the ADEA and the KADEA and $2,000 for his pain, suffering, and humiliation under the KADEA. In addition, the jury found that defendant Safelite breached an implied employment contract with the plaintiff. As damages for this breach of contract, it awarded the plaintiff $15,000 for his loss from the sale of his house, $166,768 for his future lost wages, and $96,997 for his future pension damages. The jury did not award a specific amount for past wage damages from the breach of the implied contract but merely marked the space on the verdict form with a check mark, apparently indicating that the amount was already covered by the lost wages award under the ADEA and KADEA section of the verdict form.

The motions at issue were argued at a hearing on November 30, 1992. The court ruled on certain aspects of the motions at the hearing and took the balance under advisement. The motion of defendant Morosky for judgment on the special verdict (Doc. # 211) is hereby granted for the reasons set forth on the record at the hearing. Safelite’s motion for judgment n.o.v. or judgment as a matter of law (Doc. # 213) is denied for the reasons set forth below. Safelite’s motion for a new trial (Doc. #213) is conditionally denied for the reasons set forth below.

The plaintiff’s motion for supplemental damages (Doe. # 218) is hereby granted in part and denied in part. The portion of the plaintiff’s motion requesting attorney’s fees is granted, with the amount to be determined pursuant to D.Kan. Rule 220, for the reasons set forth on the record at the hearing. The remaining portions of this motion will be discussed below.

I. FACTS

Plaintiff Courtney was born January 9, 1933 and worked for Safelite from 1980 to 1989. From 1982 to 1989, he was vice president of human resources. Safelite underwent major corporate changes during the period of the plaintiff’s employment. Initially, it was part of Lear Siegler, Inc., a publicly traded company. Safelite was then purchased and held privately by a joint venture, Forstmann Little & Co., which undertook an extensive expansion program. This was carried out by acquiring other companies in the same industry and assimilating them into Safelite’s corporate structure. Several different chief executive officers headed the company during this period, and many key Safelite employees left the company.

The plaintiff also considered leaving the company. In an effort to retain the plaintiff and other management level employees, Ernest Malbin, Safelite’s chief executive officer at the time, assured the plaintiff shortly after the takeover “that Safe-lite Glass Corp. was in need of his and other people’s services and that if he continued to perform his work satisfactorily, as he had in the past, his employment with Safelite Glass Corp. would continue.” The plaintiff then decided to stay with Safelite. The jury found that this constituted an implied contract between Mr. Courtney and Safelite. Ernest Malbin was replaced by Ron Kalich as chief executive officer, who in turn was replaced by defendant Robert Morosky in March of 1989.

As an incentive to remain at Safelite, Mr. Courtney was also given a stock option plan in April of 1987 which gave him the right to purchase 25,000 shares of Safelite stock at $10.00 per share. The plaintiff has not shown any period when the value of the stock exceeded $10.00 per share. On *1470 July 10, 1989, the capital of Safelite was restructured by a reverse stock split. The number of outstanding shares held by each shareholder was reduced. The option price to be paid was adjusted to reflect the effect of the reverse stock split and a dividend was paid in corporate debt.

The plaintiff was 56 years old when he was terminated on June 29, 1989. He was terminated by Safelite Executive Vice President Richard Krant, who was under the age of 40 at the time. Defendant Morosky and Chief Financial Officer Stephen Pohlit concurred in the decision to terminate the plaintiff. The jury determined that age bias was a predominate factor in Mr. Courtney’s termination though it did not ascribe that age bias to Mr. Morosky.

Mr. Courtney left his position on June 29, 1989 but continued to be paid until December 31, 1989. He retained all medical,-dental, life insurance, and other “COBRA” benefits until the end of 1989. He began employment with Electrolux Corporation as personnel director December 1, 1989 and continued there until December 1, 1990. Mr. Courtney had to relocate to take the Electrolux position and was forced to sell his house in Wichita for a $15,000 loss from his purchase price. The plaintiff earned $9823.30 from Electrolux in 1989 in addition to his salary from Safelite. In mid 1991, Mr. Courtney was employed by the Arizona Public Service Co. as head of its personnel department. Mr. Courtney recently took a position with Avnet in Dallas, Texas.

The plaintiff’s expert, Dr. Sturdevant, calculated that Mr. Courtney’s lost wages from January 1, 1990 to September 9, 1992 (the originally scheduled beginning date of trial) were $66,184. This did not take into account the $9823.30 he received in salary from Electrolux in 1989. He also calculated that the present value of Mr. Courtney’s expected earnings, if he had kept his position at Safelite until age 65, was $530,-625.00. The present value of Mr. Courtney’s current employment with Avnet to age 65 was calculated to be $363,857.00. The jury determined that the difference between these amounts, i.e. $166,768.00, was the plaintiff’s lost wages from the breach of the implied contract.

II. JUDGMENT AS A MATTER OF LA W

Safelite seeks judgment as a matter of law under Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(b) on several damage issues. 1 No entry of judgment has yet been made, so the motion is timely. It contends that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law on, essentially, three damage issues, which were not ruled on by the court at the November 30, 1992 hearing on post-trial motions.

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811 F. Supp. 1466, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20440, 60 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1097, 1992 WL 414707, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/courtney-v-safelite-glass-corp-ksd-1992.