Federal Appeals Court Upholds Age Discrimination Case Argued by Bernstein Shur Attorney Lou Butterfield

The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has upheld a Maine jury’s verdict finding that Pratt & Whitney, a division of United Technologies Corp., committed age discrimination when it fired Durwood Currier of Sanford five years ago.

The higher court ruled that the evidence at trial supported Currier’s claim and that the jury properly awarded him $376,580 in damages when it decided in his favor last year.

“The award will approach $700,000 when attorney fees and interest are added,” said Currier’s lawyer, Lou Butterfield, who heads the employment law group at Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson in Portland.

Pratt & Whitney is a leading manufacturer of aircraft engines which claims its “engines power nearly half of the world’s commercial fleet” as well as “the Air Force’s front line fighters.” Currier worked for Pratt at its facility in North Berwick for 21 years before he was terminated in a reduction-in-force in mid-2000. He had received promotions and commendations for the quality of his work over the course of his career. Thomas Mayes, the General Manager of Pratt’s North Berwick plant, fired Currier when he was 61.

Mayes chose Currier for the layoff by giving him scores that were “half or less than half” than younger, far less experienced managers. According to the Court of Appeals, the jury reasonably saw that the rating was “implausible” and that “Mayes gave an inadequate explanation” for his decision. The jury properly found that Currier’s age was the real reason that he was terminated, the appeals court concluded in a decision dated December 22 but delivered to counsel Dec. 27.

Butterfield said the case shows how companies must be careful to ensure that their managers follow the law. “Unfortunately,” Butterfield said, “a company’s procedures are only as good as the managers who are responsible for applying them. Mr. Currier proved that Mayes used the layoff process as a way both to commit and to cover up his unlawful discrimination. The jury found the truth despite Pratt’s best efforts to conceal it.”

Currier said last week he is happy with the court’s decision because “it confirms that the jury got it right in the first place. A unanimous jury of my peers righted the wrong.” According to Currier, Pratt chose to use “hardball legal tactics” instead of dealing with him respectfully: “Maybe they’ve finally gotten the message that even a big company like Pratt is not above the law.”

A resident of Portland, Butterfield has practiced in the area of employment law for 15 years, representing clients in a full range of employment issues. He received his law degree in 1988 from the University of Maine School of Law in Portland, and in 1985 received his undergraduate degree from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Penn. He joined Bernstein, Shur as an associate in 1988, left in 1993 and formed Olafsen & Butterfield, and returned last summer.

Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson is one of northern New England’s largest law firms with more than 70 attorneys in offices in Portland and Augusta, Maine and Manchester, N.H. The firm provides legal services in all major subject areas, including corporate and commercial law, litigation and trials, municipal and governmental affairs, education law, construction law, employment law and tax and estate planning. Bernstein Shur also has an active practice in bankruptcy, health law, environmental law, technology and commerce, legislative law, intellectual property, public utilities and other regulated industries. For more information, visit the Bernstein Shur web site at www.bssn.com.

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