Facts

Robert Sallustio filed a lawsuit against Kemper Independence Insurance Co.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS:
Sallustio and his former wife, Nancy, were employees at Kemper. Sallustio alleged that after their divorce, Nancy had to take two leaves of absence for stress related disabilities. Sallustio also alleged that Nancy's supervisor wanted to terminate her employment because of her stress disability. Sallustio contended that when he complained about the treatment toward Nancy, co-workers defamed him and his employment was wrongfully terminated. Sallustio alleged that two co-workers defamed him to others regarding a lack of presence and availability at work. Sallustio contended that these false allegations led to an investigation, and claimed that the true facts were ignored, and ultimately he was terminated based on these false allegations.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS:
Kemper denied the allegations of Sallustio and argued that the allegations made by Sallustio's co-workers were not false.

Result

A jury returned a verdict in favor of Sallustio and awarded him $4,734,149 in damages, which included $3,000,000 in punitive damages. Thereafter, judgment was entered for Sallustio and against Kemper in the total amount of $5,653,604.38.

Deliberation

4.5 days

Length

five weeks