As reported in the Clarion-Ledger on January 29, 2009, the City of Jackson settled a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a female firefighter and three former firefighters. The case was originally tried in 2007 and resulted in a $757,000 verdict for the plaintiffs. Judge Henry Wingate threw out the verdict citing jury error and attorney misconduct. Here is Judge Wingate’s opinion, which is worth the read.
Judge Wingate was not impressed by one plaintiff who testified on cross-examination that the money for her car payment came directly from God who placed it into her account every month. Frankly, I thought this was a little cheap on God’s part. Couldn’t God have delivered the car without a note, or at least paid it all off at one time?
Judge Wingate was also unhappy with plaintiffs counsel’s trial conduct. Basically, Judge Wingate would tell counsel to stop doing something and counsel continued anyway. Judge Wingate indicated that he did not believe that any disrespect to the court was intentional. From the small amount of the trial that I saw it seemed that plaintiffs’ counsel were inexperienced in the courtroom and flustered by the pressure.
In any event, the parties’ settlement provides that Judge Wingate will decide the amount of the attorney’s fees recovered by plaintiffs’ counsel. Obviously not an ideal situation for attorneys who Judge Wingate was unhappy with at trial.