A Benton County, Wash., Superior Court jury found in favor of a former employee’s lawsuit against Mission Support Alliance on Tuesday, requiring the Hanford Site support services contractor to pay damages of $8.1 million.
Manager Julie Atwood resigned when she was told she would be fired from MSA in 2013. She filed a lawsuit claiming retaliation and discrimination by the company and MSA Vice President Steve Young.
The damages encompass $2.1 million for back and future pay for Atwood and $6 million for emotional harm. Her attorney said the firing had triggered a mental illness, with symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder.
Mission Support Alliance, rather than Young, is responsible for the damages. The company declined to comment and Young did not respond to a request for comment.
Atwood was accused in a 2013 anonymous complaint in of time-card fraud, creating a hostile work environment, and abusing her relationship with an influential DOE employee. During the investigation of the complaint, she said officials should be looking instead at Young – the mayor of the nearby city of Kennewick, who Atwood said did city business during hours he was being paid at Hanford by the federal government. Atwood’s attorney, Jack Sheridan of Seattle, said Hanford officials were told of her comments and three days later called her into a meeting to fire her even though a short investigation had cleared her of wrongdoing.
There had been no progressive discipline or performance improvement plan prior to the meeting, according to Sheridan.
“At trial we contended that Young was so valuable to MSA and to the DOE that when they perceived that Julie has focused a spotlight on him and with her report to the investigators, MSA took immediate action to terminate her,” Sheridan said after the trial.
As mayor, Young could lobby Congress for more funds for cleanup at Hanford, which was good for both the Kennewick economy and enriched site contractors, Sheridan said. The lawyer quoted Young as testifying that “the biggest return on me being a mayor is the Department of Energy. I’m able to do what the Department of Energy can’t do because I’m an elected official.”
It was an open secret at MSA that Young was conducting mayoral work during the work day, Sheridan said. In one instance, he had an MSA staffer deliver flowers to some Kennewick city workers, he said. Young used his DOE computer to conduct certain city work, including sending emails, Sheridan said.
Denise Ashbaugh, a Seattle attorney representing the contractor and Young, said records showed that when Young did city business during the workday, he made up the time later and was putting in more than 40 hours a week for MSA. His use of a DOE computer for city business was minimal, she said.
Ashbaugh said in closing arguments that Atwood believed she did not have to follow the rules. She had built a close relationship with the DOE official she worked with most often and used that as protection when she did not follow Young’s directions or went over his head, Ashbaugh said: “She simply did not perform her job very well.” Atwood would come to work late and then would be missing during the work day, Ashbaugh said. The defendants’ attorney added that Atwood did not give appropriate advance notice when she took planned medical leave or vacation, allegations that Atwood’s lawyer denied. Atwood accused Young of time-card fraud only to divert attention from herself, and Young was only named in the lawsuit to increase media coverage, Ashbaugh said.
Ashbaugh told the jury it should find in favor of MSA and Young, but that otherwise $71,000 would be an appropriate amount of damages, about six months pay for Atwood at MSA. Atwood should have been able to find a job in six months, but had only applied for a dozen jobs in the years since she left the company, Ashbaugh said.
Sheridan had asked for $2.1 million in past and future raises. He said Atwood, age 62, planned to work until she was 70 and then continue working as a consultant. He asked for $4 million to $8 million for emotional harm.
