A Washington state judge has refused to grant a new trial or reduce an $8.1 million jury verdict against Hanford Site support services contractor Mission Support Alliance (MSA) and one of its managers.
The company and Steve Young, an MSA manager and also mayor of the largest city near Hanford, were sued in 2015 for discrimination, retaliation, and wrongful discharge by former employee Julie Atwood. A Benton County jury ruled in favor of Atwood in October, after which MSA requested a new trial or a reduction in the jury award.
The defendants’ legal team said the jury’s $6 million award for emotional harm could only be explained by “passion and prejudice.” It also called the award of $2.1 million for lost past and future wages and benefits for the 62-year-old Atwood “unreasonable.”
Yakima County Judge Doug Federspiel, who presided over the case last fall in Benton County Superior Court, issued a 56-page order on Wednesday. The judge said that neither the $2.1 million nor the $6 million award “shocks my conscience. Neither is flagrantly outrageous. They are not so manifestly unreasonable that they could only have been the product of prejudice or passion. The size of each of the two verdicts is, in my opinion, within the bounds of the evidence presented.”
The plaintiff’s expert witness computed her economic damages as $2.1 million, and the jury was free to find damages within the range of testimony presented, the judge said. The defense had implied in its arguments that Atwood’s emotional distress lasted only one day, the date of her termination, the judge said. But evidence was presented to the jury that she subsequently suffered from depression, anxiety, and symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder, according to Federspiel.
“There was testimony about … the extraordinary shame, embarrassment and humiliation she endured in being escorted out of the building for all to see, moving the contents of her office out to her car in a wheelchair,” the judge wrote. “The evidence, if believed by the jury, indicates that her mental suffering went far beyond simple disappointment from losing her job.”
The defense also argued that Atwood had not proved she faced discrimination because of her gender. But Federspiel said the fact that MSA had opened an investigation into allegations of gender discrimination disproved the defense’s argument. He also said there is rarely direct evidence, or a “smoking gun,” to prove gender discrimination. Many discrimination cases are based on circumstantial evidence, he said.
Atwood had faced anonymous allegations shortly before she was terminated, including time-card fraud. She told investigators looking into allegations that they should instead be looking at Young, her supervisor, who she said was conducting business for the city of Kennewick during hours he was on the clock at MSA. Defense attorneys said Young made up the time he spent on mayoral business. A brief investigation cleared Atwood of wrongdoing, but MSA management told her she was being fired. She resigned in an attempt to save her pension and reputation.
Mission Support Alliance and Young have 30 days to file an appeal with the Washington state Court of Appeals.
