After a three-week trial, a Los Angeles County jury awarded Bienert Katzman Littrell Williams LLP's client nearly $21 million in a wrongful termination case.

Founding partner Thomas H. Bienert Jr. and co-counsel David Wiechert represented former UPS manager Michael Gnesda, who was fired for allegedly falsifying a worker's time card.  Tom and the BKLW team were able to prove to the jury that the real reason Gnesda was terminated was because he had complained to higher-ups about excessive surcharges on customers shipping odd-sized packages.  The surcharges resulted in tens of millions of dollars per year being paid to UPS. 

As Tom demonstrated during trial, after Gnesda lodged an objection to his superiors, Gnesda was transferred out of his department and UPS and its senior managers embarked on a pattern of punitive job assignments and sanctions in an effort to induce him to quit.  This included scheduling Gnesda to work the graveyard shift and to sweep warehouse floors.  When Gnesda refused to quit, UPS terminated him after alleging that he falsified an employee's time card to show that the employee worked 3 hours and 59 minutes instead of 4 hours.

The jury awarded Gnesda $748,000 in compensatory damages and $20 million in punitive damages.    

Read more:

• Fired UPS Worker is Awarded $21 Million, LA Times. 
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• BKLW wins record $280 million settlement in False Claims Act case, bklwlaw.com.
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