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| N.J. Prison sex harass verdict dismissed |
| By AP |
| Published: 08/14/2003 |
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Public agencies can be forced to pay damages in whistleblower cases and jurors do not have to worry about how state government will pay off such judgments, the state Supreme Court said yesterday. In two rulings, the court dismissed a $3 million verdict awarded to a prison officer who was the victim of sexual harassment and upheld damages awarded to a science teacher who became ill after she reported alleged wrongdoing at work. Both cases sought the kinds of damages from public entities usually paid by businesses or private individuals designed to punish misdeed in civil cases. Earlier decisions by the court have highlighted problems with the laws regarding punitive damages and public agencies, Chief Justice Deborah T. Poritz wrote. The court has several times suggested options for lawmakers, she said. 'For nine years the court repeatedly has requested the Legislature take up the issue of punitive damages against public bodies if it deems our interpretation to have been mistaken. The Legislature has not acted,'' Poritz wrote in the school district case. The attorney general's office said the court now treats state government more harshly than it would a private corporation. Others said the rulings would ultimately cost taxpayers and demanded the Legislature take action. In the sexual harassment case, the court said a new jury should decide if the state must pay $3 million to a Burlington County prison officer who was sexually harassed. The trial judge was wrong when he told the jury to decide if upper management had been involved in the case, but gave no direction on how to make that judgment. In May 199, a jury found that Robert L. Lockley, a guard at Mid-State Correctional Facility at Fort Dix, was sexually harassed by Ronda Turner and other female co-workers because he refused to have sex with her. Eighteen employees from the state Department of Corrections testified at the trial, but the court said jurors did not know who had the power to end the discrimination. The court also ruled that the new jury should not consider whether the state can afford such a large verdict. Unlike private companies, the state does not have a bottom line and cannot be punished by a large award, according to the ruling. Besides the punitive damages, Lockley was awarded $750,000 in compensatory damages. The jury found that Lockley's co-workers and supervisors retaliated against him after he reported the harassment. The state had argued that no sexual harassment or retaliation took place. It contended that the officers simply did not get along. Legal experts at the time said lawsuits in which a man accuses a woman of sexual harassment account for 10 to 15 percent of all such lawsuits. |
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