Judge reduces city damages in suit

By Adam Tobias of the Daily Times staff
Wednesday, December 19, 2007 12:47 PM CST

Although a federal judge has upheld a jury's employment discrimination verdicts against the city of Watertown that were brought forward by a former water department employee, he also found that her emotional damages award was too high.

In a ruling that was issued on Friday, District Judge John C. Shabaz agreed that $128,000 of the $228,000 compensatory damages awarded to Judith Herzog was not supported by sufficient evidence. However, the city must pay Herzog $146,330 in lost wages and $75,000 in front pay.

Shabaz ruled that Herzog's compensation for pain and suffering should be lowered to $100,000 because the jury may have improperly included lost wages in the award and she did not present medical testimony of emotional stress. Shabaz also considered two similar court cases that involved compensatory damage awards when he made his decision.

“Based on these two cases in which plaintiffs did not present medical testimony of emotional stress and the plaintiff's testimony concerning her emotional pain and suffering, the court finds that an award of $100,000 is reasonable in this case and comparable to similar cases,” Shabaz said.

Herzog has until Jan. 15, 2008, to accept the $100,000 award or Shabaz will set the issue for trial. Herzog's attorney, Marilyn Townsend, told the Daily Times this morning that she expects Herzog to accept the $100,000 award before the Jan. 15 deadline.

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Herzog's motion for attorney fees and cost will not be addressed until the damage issue is settled. Townsend said she has submitted a fee petition requesting that Shabaz award $503,000 in attorney fees and $11,000 in costs.

Watertown Mayor Ron Krueger said this morning he was pleased to see that the amount of compensatory damages was reduced, but he still feels the city did not do anything wrong when Herzog's employment was terminated.

Herzog was laid off from the water department in September 2003 after working there for 13 years. Within months, Herzog learned that she wasn't considered for a newly formed assistant manager position in the water department and was looked over for an accounting clerk position in the city clerk's office. Richard Kuerschner was hired to fill the assistant manager position.

“I still feel that we didn't do anything wrong,” Krueger said. “It was just a special, almost a once in a lifetime personnel occurrence. We knew when we went into combining the two departments, it had been our plan for a reduction in employees from the beginning. I really don't feel that we discriminated on gender or age.”

Krueger said it will be the decision of the city's insurance company, Midwest Claims, if an appeal will be made.

“We have no say in that,” Krueger said. He added the city's only financial stake in the matter is a $2,500 deductible.