Archive for the ‘Rulings by Courts’ Category
School district pays $4.2 million to student paralyzed by known school bully
Wednesday, April 18th, 2012
When Sawyer Rosenstein was a 12 year old student at Eric Smith Middle School in the Ramsey (New Jersey) School District he was bullied. He wrote his guidance counselor to alert her to the ongoing problem. But the unnamed bully, known to school officials as a bully, punched Sawyer in the gut on May 16, 2006. The punch — which was physical battery, not bullying that is always defined as non-physical — caused an arterial clot in his spine and left him paralyzed ever since.
Read the April 18 Associated Press story.
The Ramsey Board of Education said the insurance carrier wanted to settle, not the district. In fact, the District claims that its anti-bullying initiative is world class. I guess the one exception was an isolated event.
Tags: Ramsey Board of Education, Sawyer Rosenstein, settlement
Posted in Employers Gone Wild: Doing Bad Things, Rulings by Courts | 1 Archived Comment | Post A Comment (
LA Times: California physician assistant wins $168 million in harassment suit
Friday, March 2nd, 2012
By Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times, March 2, 2012
Ani Chopourian told of sexually inappropriate conduct, bullying and retaliation at a Sacramento hospital. The award is believed to be the largest for a single victim of workplace harassment in U.S. history.
Tags: Ani Chopourian, harassment, hospitals, Sacramento's Mercy General Hospital
Posted in Rulings by Courts, WBI in the News | 15 Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
Australian state criminalizes workplace bullying
Monday, June 27th, 2011
Brodie Panlock 2006 suicide victim
News from the Australian state of Victoria confirms passage of the world's first anti-bullying law to criminalize bullying. Now, when bullying happens there, police can be called, instead of state health and safety investigators.
The law was prompted by the September 2006 suicide by 19 year-old waitress, Brodie Panlock, who was tormented by three older coworkers at Cafe Vamp in Melbourne since starting work there in 2005. They poured beer and oil on her, taunted her as fat, stupid, ugly and a whore, physically restrained her so that the other could pour fish sauce on her, spat on her, and offered her rat poison after an earlier failed suicide attempt. Her tormentors -- Nicholas Smallwood, 26, (with whom Panlock had had a sexual relationship that did not stop his cruel mistreatment), Rhys MacAlpine, 28, and Gabriel Toomey, 23 -- were convicted in Feb. 2010 under occupational health and safety laws and fined a total of $85,000. The cafe owner, Marc Luis Da Cruz, and his company were ordered to pay $250,000. According to WorkSafe Victoria (the government's health and safety regulatory agency), the penalties were among the largest fines ever imposed.
(more...)
Tags: Brodies' law, Hon. Richard Clark, stalking, Victoria, workplace bullying
Posted in Employers Gone Wild: Doing Bad Things, Healthy Workplace Bill (U.S. campaign), Rulings by Courts | 1 Archived Comment | Post A Comment (
U.S. Supreme Court (again) crushes American workers; Wal-Mart smirks
Tuesday, June 21st, 2011
Betty Dukes at SCOTUS
The June 20, 2011 Supreme Court decision in the Wal-Mart v. Dukes case (1) insulted any worker who dares complain about discriminatory mistreatment at work, (2) made it harder for individuals to join together for lawsuit efficiency in a class action to go up against a behemoth multinational employing corporation, (3) ignored and rewrote a 45-year legal precedent, and (4) cemented Justice Scalia and the conservative block’s motivation to serve corporate interests over those of ordinary working Americans.
Tags: Betty Dukes, Brad Seligman, Ginsburg, Gisel Ruiz, Impact Fund, Rule 23, Scalia, SCOTUS, VP People, Wal-Mart v. Dukes
Posted in Employers Gone Wild: Doing Bad Things, Events & Appearances, Fairness & Social Justice Denied, Rulings by Courts | 3 Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
Grand jury finds workplace bullying a problem within county government
Thursday, June 16th, 2011
In Ventura County just south of lovely Santa Barbara, California, a remarkable and unusual thing happened. A grand jury (GJ) was convened to act like consultants contracted to investigate complaints (one of their roles in that county) about workplace bullying by current and former county workers. The GJ as investigator concluded that bullying is a problem and employees deserve protection from it. An investigation conducted by HR might have concluded differently (as it nearly always does). The GJ reported that HR procedures are not trusted. Said the county HR director, John Nicoll, “We do not tolerate employees being mistreated because they’ve filed a complaint.” This directly contradicts facts in the GJ report. Note how outsiders found the truth about bullying.
Tags: grand jury, HR, John Nicoll, Ventura County, Workplace Bullying Institute
Posted in Employers Gone Wild: Doing Bad Things, Rulings by Courts, WBI in the News | 2 Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
Company with sadistic Manager will pay $41.6 million penalty
Sunday, June 12th, 2011
News from East St. Louis federal District Court: A young woman who was subjected to some of the grossest imaginable humiliation and harassment won a $95 million jury victory. $80 million was for punitive damages against the company, Aaron’s (Rents as in rent-to-own), that earned a profit of only $118 million last year. The jury sent the statement that most of that profit should be turned over to one former employee, Ashley Alford.
(more…)
Tags: Aaron's, Ashley Alford, assault and battery, EEOC, emotional distress, O'Fallon, Richard Moore, sex harassment
Posted in Employers Gone Wild: Doing Bad Things, Rulings by Courts | 2 Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
Mass law and responsibility for bullying in schools
Friday, May 7th, 2010
On May 3, Massachusetts Gov. Patrick signed into law (with much fanfare) S2404, a bill that languished until two headline-grabbing student suicides were traced to bullying by other students. Middle school student Carl Walker-Hoover hanged himself in 2009 and high school student Phoebe Prince did the same in Jan. 2010. Legislation was reflexively proposed to hold adults (educators, paraprofessionals, administrators, school nurses, cafeteria workers, etc.) responsible for stopping bullying when they see it or at least report it to the school principal. The principal, in turn, can decide to call or not to call law enforcement.
Tags: Carl Walker-Hoover, Desert Sands Unified School District, Deval Patrick, MA, Phoebe Prince, S2404, school bullying, Sioux City Schools, Work Doctor
Posted in Employers Gone Wild: Doing Bad Things, Fairness & Social Justice Denied, Rulings by Courts | 5 Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
A CEO Goes to Jail, Finally
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
No, it’s not one of the Wall Street gang. It’s Dick Gillman, the infamous CEO of the Republic Windows and Doors plant in Chicago. He’s in jail now on $10 million bail.
Posted in Fairness & Social Justice Denied, Rulings by Courts | 1 Archived Comment | Post A Comment (
U.S. Case — $11.65 Million Jury Award
Friday, May 15th, 2009
U.S. Emotional Distress Case Draws Record $11.65 Million Jury Award
Associated FMLA Violation by Employer
by Dee McAree
The National Law Journal
11-11-2002
A case in which an employee charged that he was retaliated against for taking time off under the Family Medical Leave Act to care for his aging parents has triggered an $11.65 million award.
The recent Chicago verdict — one of the largest won under FMLA — is just one of many that employment lawyers say they expect to see as baby boomers are faced with the predicament of caring for aging parents. In 1998, Chris Schultz, a 25-year veteran employee of Christ Hospital and Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Ill., was the esteemed “MVP Employee” with his picture hanging in the hospital lobby.
But two years later, he was out of a job. Lawyers for the 45-year-old Schultz sued the hospital in Schultz v. Advocate Health, No. 01C-0702 (N.D. Ill. June 5, 2002), claiming that he was unfairly penalized for taking time off to care for his aging parents.
Schultz, who worked in maintenance, was entitled to take 12 weeks intermittently over the course of a year after his request for family medical leave was granted in 2000. (more…)
Tags: FMLA, IIED, lawsuit
Posted in Fairness & Social Justice Denied, Rulings by Courts | 1 Archived Comment | Post A Comment (
First U.S. “Bullying” Trial
Friday, May 15th, 2009
Doescher vs. Raess, Indiana, Marion County (Indianapolis), March 2005
Jury found Dr. Raess guilty of battery, awarded plaintiff Doescher $325,000
Expert witness: Dr. Gary Namie, WBI
Appellate Court reversal
2008 Indiana Supreme Court restoral of trial verdict and award for plaintiff
Read the entire story and view the Supreme Court hearing
Tags: bully MD, healthcare bullying, trial, US courts
Posted in Fairness & Social Justice Denied, Rulings by Courts, Tutorials About Bullying | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
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