Saving My Job

My lawyer got right to the point.

"I asked for this meeting to see if we could possibly avoid a publicity nightmare for Titan and a half dozen very expensive law suits. My client intends to sue for wrongful termination, sexual harassment, age discrimination and alienation of affections leading to the end of his marriage of over twenty years. I'll let Mr. Walker describe the events leading up to this meeting."

I described my first meeting with Harriet where she said basically, "Fuck me or lose your job" and then I described what she'd said during the meeting when she had fired me. Boggs turned to Harriet and asked, "Is this true Ms. Mosser?"

"Absolutely not Jason. He is bitter over being let go and he is trying to scare us into taking him back or buying him off."

At that point my lawyer hit the play button on the tape recorder and sat back to watch how Boggs would react. I was watching Harriet and I saw the blood drain from her face and I smiled at her. When the tape ended Boggs turned to Harriet:

"I want you out of this building in an hour. If that isn't enough time for you to clean out your office give HR the address where we can send what you haven't carried out. One hour. Not one minute more or security will carry you out."

He turned to my lawyer and said, "What do you want?"

"First, let us see where we are. Rob, would you please tell these gentlemen why you were wearing a tape recorder to your meetings with Ms. Mosser."

I told them about my talk with Charlie and how he had warned me and then my lawyer said:

"We have contacted Mr. Ritter and he will testify if necessary. We have talked with Melvin Hicks and he also is willing to testify. Ms. Mosser also did the same thing at Dynetics, Ajax and Bryermann when you acquired those properties. We will find who she stuck it to at those places and I'm positive we can have them in court when we go to trial.

"Mrs. Walker will testify that the voice on this tape, Ms. Mosser, is the same voice that called her and told her that her husband was cheating on her (this was a bluff - neither of us had talked to Lois since she filed for divorce) and where she could go to find enough proof.

"We will maintain that the pattern is repetitive and that after the second or third time Ms. Mosser did what she did you either should have been aware or that possibly you were aware and didn't stop her because it is what you wanted her or expected her to do. A jury might accept once as Ms. Mosser's responsibility, but I doubt that a jury will buy that she did it five times on her own.

"Now, as to what we want. Obviously Mr. Walker doesn't not want his job back. It would be too difficult for all concerned to have him here. He has excellent merit reviews and he could reasonably have expected at least one more promotion to the level of executive vice president. He is forty-four and had sixteen years to go until retirement. At his base salary of eighty-five thousand a year, with annual raises and bonuses, he would have made one point nine million by the time he retired. That figure will cover the wrongful termination charge. The sexual harassment and age discrimination charges along with emotional pain and suffering, destruction of his marriage and a few other things I'm thinking of throwing in brings the figure we would be comfortable with to eight million dollars."

"You are out of your mind!" Boggs shouted.

"I would suggest you talk it over with your legal people. The wrongful termination, age discrimination and sexual harassment are a lock. The only iffy is the alienation of affections and I give us a solid seventy percent chance on that. What we are asking is quite possibly a great deal less than a jury would give us. Plus there is the publicity angle to consider. I will, repeat - WILL - make sure that the press has a field day with this case and how do you think that will go over on Wall Street?

"Talk it over and get back to us by day after tomorrow at the latest. If I don't hear from you by then I plan to file on Thursday. Come on Rob, let us leave these gentlemen to their discussions."

We got up and left.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The lawyer called me the next day at three and told me he had just gotten off the phone with XYZ.

"They offered to settle for four million."

"What should I do?"

"It's a gamble. I'm certain we can win in court, but you never know what a jury will do. They could find for you, but only award you a minimal sum or they could be so pissed at Titan that they give you ten times what we asked for."

"This is your game, not mine. Advise me."

"I would suggest that you turn it down. I do not believe they want to go to court on this. This is one case where I think we can plat hardball and win."

"Go for it."

We ended up settling for six point five million. The lawyer's cut was thirty-five percent which still left me with two point seven million after taxes. I bought a three bedroom town house so I'd have room for the kids when they came to visit and I set myself up in my own business and I'm doing quite well.

I talk to the kids at least once a week and they want Lois and me to get back together. They tell me that Lois keeps after them to try and get me to talk to her. They tell me that she knows she did a stupid thing and that she still loves me and wants us to be a family again.

I haven't seen her since I left the house the morning that she served me with the papers and I've only had three perfunctory talks on the phone with her. Every one thinks I'm being an ass for treating her the way I am, but she did it to her self. She should have at least confronted me and talked with me before she did what she did.

I'm dating Molly, my old secretary from XYZ, and we seem to be getting along well. These days I think back to what my dad said about taking the bad with the good and hoping the good will outweigh the bad in the end. I think that I am at that point, the good most definitely has the upper hand.