Facts

Plaintiff Melvyn Rosales started working for defendant Career Systems Development Corp. (CSDC) in 2002 at the CSDC's Sacramento Job Corps Center as a career counselor. Rosales was 59 years old when he was hired. In 2005, CSDC promoted Mr. Rosales to ACT/OCT Coordinator.

CSDC terminated Rosales's employment in December 2006, after attending the wedding of a current Job Corp student without Center approval, bringing the student a gift, and sitting with current Job Corps students of unknown age who were consuming alcohol. CSDC considered Mr. Rosales' conduct to be a breach of its fraternization policy. Rosales unsuccessfully appealed the dismissal.

Rosales filed suit against CSDC for race discrimination, age discrimination and retaliation. The retaliation claim was dismissed through summary adjudication.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS:
Plaintiff contended that he was wrongfully terminated by the CSDC and was discriminated against based on his age and race. Rosales contended that CSDC applied the anti-fraternization policy inconsistently, in favor of younger caucasians. Rosales also contended that there is a lack of racial diversity in the CSDC and that the CSDC demonstrated a pattern of terminating older minority employees for suspect reasons.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS:
CSDC contended that it terminated Rosales' employment after he admitted attending the wedding of a current Job Corp student without Center approval, bringing the student a gift, and sitting with current Job Corps students of unknown age who were consuming alcohol. The defense contended that he was properly terminated for violating express CSDC policy.

Result

The federal jury returned a verdict for Rosales on his wrongful termination (based on age discrimination) claim, awarding him $238,000 in back wages and emotional distress damages.

Other Information

A mistrial was declared on the issue of punitive damages.

Deliberation

three days