City wins suit City wins suit (August 19, 2005)

Former employee sought $2 million after comments cost him his job

By Jon Wiener

A disgruntled former city employee lost his case against the city last week when a jury rejected his argument that his firing was rooted in sexism and discrimination against the disabled.

Larry Barton, a former public works employee, had asked a jury to award him $2 million in damages. Barton lost his job after refusing a transfer the city offered after he had made comments about his supervisor's sexuality. City attorney Michael Martello said he had previously made disparaging remarks about the ethnicity of several of his coworkers.

"Sometimes people file these cases thinking they're going to win the lottery," said Martello. "This [verdict] has a chilling effect on those kinds of things. We don't get into lawsuits with people who have legitimate gripes. We try to resolve them."

The jury ruled against Barton's claim that he was fired because he was male. Barton had also sued under the Fair Employment and Housing Act, arguing that he couldn't be fired because he was disabled, but the jury did not buy that an injury he had sustained constituted a disability.

Barton's lawyer, Joseph Johnson, did not return calls seeking comment.

"There's so much pressure to settle these cases and pay some money. We just couldn't get there with this case. We were willing to talk potential settlement," said Martello.

Lewis Leone, the outside attorney who tried the case on behalf of the city, said the cost of defending the case was in the neighborhood of $125,000, not to mention staff time lost when two employees named as defendants spent two weeks in court. The city may be able to recover a fraction of that but cannot force Barton to reimburse it for attorney's fees.

E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener@mv-voice.com

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