Legal Briefs

Iranian-born banker wins $1M in bias suit

President Bush, among other Americans, may see Iran as part of an "axis of evil," but that view does not give an employer in this country the right to discriminate against someone born there.

That's the message a Norfolk County jury sent to a defendant bank (previously, Fleet National Bank) when it awarded one of its former "top performers" $1 million in damages after he sued for discrimination based on national origin.

The plaintiff, who had moved to the United States from Iran in 1977, had worked his way up the financial services ladder to the title of vice president and branch manager during an18-year career.

But the plaintiff claimed that, starting in August 2002, he became the target of insults and demeaning conduct from a new district manager. He cited one incident in which the new manager had talked about a war game he played with his son and allegedly said, "We are the Americans, and we kill all the foreigners."

A few months after that incident, and unexpectedly, the district manager demanded the plaintiff's resignation, saying the bank's culture had changed. When the plaintiff refused to resign, he was given a written warning.

At trial, there was testimony that the warning was actually thrown at the plaintiff and that he was told the warning did not matter because the district manager would see to it that the plaintiff was fired.

In January 2003, the plaintiff was fired for allegedly giving a $600 credit to a customer whose deposit had been lost. But testimony at trial from other employees established that the district manager had told all the branch managers that credits of up to $1,000 could be approved.

According to the plaintiff's lawyers, David G. Hanrahan and Richard D. Vetstein, both of Boston, the plaintiff's successful verdict — which topped $1.3 million with interest — was aided by the fact that some of the defendant's arguments were discredited by witnesses as untrue or greatly exaggerated.

Drunk driver kills girl at unsupervised party

In a nightmare scenario for parents everywhere, a young girl was killed by a drunk driver while at a friend's birthday party that was supposed to have parental supervision but did not.

After confirming there would be adult supervision at the party, the parents of the deceased girl allowed a friend's parent to drop off their daughter at the gathering.

It soon became apparent that the adult supervision promised earlier would no longer be provided because the birthday girl's mother — who was divorced from the girl's father but had planned the party with him — had been called away on a family emergency.

Nevertheless, the girls were allowed to go to a beach near the birthday girl's house as part of the celebration. On the way back from the beach, tragedy struck.

The girl whose parents had cautiously inquired about supervision at the party was fatally struck by a drunk driver, who was eventually convicted of operating under the influence of alcohol and killing the young partygoer.

The attorneys for the deceased girl's parents — Jonathon D. Friedmann, Jeffrey A. Soilson and Adelita C. Press, all of Boston — report that the parents sued the mother and father of the birthday girl for negligence.

The parties ultimately settled for $400,000.

Mother gets $1M after sponge left in stomach

After giving birth by way of an emergency Caesarean section, a mother took home from the hospital more than just a newborn baby.

A month after her child's birth, the new mother suddenly fell ill and had to undergo emergency surgery after she was found to have a colonic obstruction.

The "obstruction" turned out to be a surgical sponge that had migrated to her colon from her abdomen where it had been left after the C-section.

As a result of the forgotten sponge, the mother had a colostomy bag placed on her abdomen and had to have her distal rectum closed. But her problems were not over.

After sustaining a leak from the sponge-removal procedure, the mother was forced to endure more surgeries and suffered a significant infection after her third surgery.

Having endured pain, scarring and three surgeries, the mother received a settlement of $1 million after private negotiations.