This page is about wrongful termination settlements and verdicts in New York. It’s rare for great cases to go to court, because they usually settle out of the courtroom.
Most of these litigation cases consist of mixed settlements, implying they implicated a single, or perhaps a number of claims of unlawful termination as a consequence of age discrimination, constructive discharge, breach of employment contract, disability, whistleblower, firing in violation of public policy, workplace retaliation, sexual orientation, gender expression or gender identity discrimination, race, color, national origin, religion discrimination or pregnancy.
The table beneath presents a snapshot of the different types of cases filed together with their respective numbers in NY in 2017.
| State | 2017 Total Charges | % of Total USA Charges | Race | Sex | Natl Origin | Religion | Color | Retaliation All Statutes | TVII Retaliation | Age | Disability | EPA | GINA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 3690 | 4.40% | 1095 | 1142 | 577 | 242 | 225 | 1711 | 1492 | 858 | 1052 | 29 | 8 |
Source: https://www1.eeoc.gov/eeoc/statistics/enforcement/state_17.cfm
Wrongful discharge and discrimination cases & settlements in New York
$ 1,100,000
3/12/2009
Roberta Miller v. Nassau County
Roberta Miller worked as a civil servant for Nassau County for 8 years. She was the special program coordinator in the Department of Senor Citizen Affairs.
She was fired in 1992. She claimed that she was fired because of her political affiliation. She was a Democrat during a Republican Administration. She was the only Democrat in the department, and only she was fired in 1992, when about 2,600 county workers were laid off.
She originally sued the County in 1992. Her 17 year old lawsuit was finally awarded, when the jury awarded her $1.1 million in back pay. Source
$ 30,000
3/15/2012
EEOC v Warren Tricomi
Warren Tricomi is an upscale hair salon with several locations in New York and Connecticut.
The EEOC sued the company for violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. The company cancelled the promotion of a woman after they found out that she was pregnant, and terminated her employment not long after.
This pregnancy discrimination/wrongful termination case was settled through a consent decree, the woman received $30,000 and a positive employer referral. Source
$ 11,500,000
12/10/2007
Anucha Browne Sanders v Madison Square Garden and Isiah Thomas
Anucha Browne Sanders worked for the New York Knicks as the senior vice president of marketing and business operations. She was a top executive.
In 2006, she was terminated from her job. She alleged that the Knicks’ general manager, Isiah Thomas has harassed her sexually since 2003. She complained about the harassment to the owners of Madison Square Gardens (which owns the Knicks), but she was forced out of work while they investigated her complaint. Once the investigation was complete, she was fired.
She sued the GM and the Garden in 2006 for sexual harassment and retaliation, and a jury awarded her $11.6 million in punitive damages in 2007. Instead of carrying on with the lawsuit, the Garden settled with her for $11.5 million. Source
$ 110,000
11/8/2011
EEOC v Dresser Rand
Dresser Rand is an engineering/manufacturing company. They manufacture many things, including naval weapons.
Harry Davis was an employee of the company, working in Painted Post, NY. He was a Jehovah’s Witness with strong religious beliefs. He refused to work on a weapon that was to be sent onto a submarine, since his religion did not allow him to handle weapons. He requested to be switched to another assignment.
The company did accommodate his request, and fired him. This constitutes wrongful termination and religious discrimination, because the company could have easily transferred him to another manufacturing project.
The EEOC sued the company for violating Title VII. A consent decree was reached, where the fired employee received a $110,000 settlement. Source
$ 750,000
4/13/2012
Sandra Glaves-Morgan v New York City
Sandra Glaves-Morgan is a black woman from Jamaica. She had worked as a public servant for 25 years, becoming the chief contracting officer of the New York City Human Resources Administration.
She was forced out of her job after criticizing the conduct of the head of the city Mayor’s Office of Contract Services. She claimed that city contracts were awarded preferentially to members of a specific union. She was retaliated against through pay cuts and demotions, where she was replaced by white employees. Ultimately, she was forced to resign.
She sued the city for retaliation and bias, and was awarded $420,000 in compensatory damages by the jury, with punitive damages pending. The city decided to settle the case and pay her $750,000. Source
$ 85,000
7/10/2015
EEOC v Strategic Legal Solutions
Employment discrimination laws protect not just existing employees, but job applicants as well.
Strategic Legal Solutions is a legal employment agency based in New York. The company offered a temporary work assignment to a woman attorney, but withdrew it promptly after learning her age. She was 70 years old at the time.
When she inquired whether she was not hired because of her age, the company told her that she would be placed on a “do not hire” list. They discriminated against her because of her age, and retaliated for complaining.
Such conduct clearly violates the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the EEOC sued the company on her behalf. The case was settled through a consent decree, the woman received a settlement of $85,000. Source
$ 1,600,000
3/20/2014
Salemi v Gloria’s Tribeca Inc.
Mirella Salemi worked at the restaurant Gloria’s Tribeca as a chef and manager.
The owner of the restaurant, Edward Globokar, held weekly prayers, which were deemed as compulsory for staff. At these prayers, the owner would repeatedly say homosexuality is a sin, and that gay people are going to hell.
Salemi was lesbian. The atmosphere created by the owner became more and more hostile towards her. She was retaliated against because she objected to his offensive comments, and refused to fire a homosexual worker. With time, she was forced to quit the hostile work environment.
She sued the company for constructive discharge and sex discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The court of appeals upheld the jury’s decision to award her $400,000 in compensatory damages for emotional distress and $1.2 million in punitive damages. Source
$ 300,000
2/12/2015
EEOC v Seapod Pawnshops
Seapod Pawnbrokers is a chain of pawnshops in Brooklyn and Queens. Its former owner and manager, Frank Morea, subjected his employees to regular harassment based on their sex and race.
He referred to Hispanic female employees as “my Seapod bitches” & “shipping slaves”, and subjected them to sexual comments. Those employees who complained and resisted his sexual advances were fired in retaliation.
The EEOC sued the company on behalf of these women. The company settled the case through a consent decree, and paid $300,000 to the victims. Source
When looking at this listing of unlawful firing settlements from New York, understand that the bigger amounts of money are attributable to punitive damages, which are brought to deter companies from carrying out the same kind of unlawful conduct. Punitive compensation is very uncommon. A large percentage of cases settle for between fifty thousand to one hundred thousand dollars.
This unique directory of unlawful termination settlements in NY was created for informative purposes. Despite the fact that you feel resemblance to any of these lawsuits, do not forget that every single case is different.
What is the average wrongful termination settlement in New York?
If you believe that you were wrongfully terminated, it’s understandable that you would like to check approximately how much money you could get for your wrongful dismissal case.
In the event that you reach settlement, the total amount you acquire is primarily based on these factors: reason of termination, the costs of finding a new job, medical expenses, lost benefits, lost earnings and mental anguish. Punitive damages might also be awarded in rare situations, if the workplace behaved egregiously.
As you can see from the example claims in this article, providing an average settlement for unlawful termination claims in NY is actually really difficult since every case is different.
The average wrongful termination settlement in New York is between $6,000 and $80,000. Lawyers are certainly beneficial while negotiating a larger settlement.
The average jury awards are usually bigger, around $110,000 – $400,000. This is one reason why employers choose to settle before going to court.
Filing a wrongful discharge or discrimination claim in New York
If you think you were dismissed from your job for some kind of illegal reason, here are tips on what you should do.
Before anything else, you will need to speak to a wrongful termination attorney in New York to find out if you have got a claim worth going after.
Ensure you have enough time to submit your claim, look into the New York laws of limitations on wrongful termination.
Additionally, you are going to most likely need to submit a timely claim with the EEOC New York District Office.
Here are a few best practices on filing a wrongful discharge lawsuit.
