Paralegal Wins Damages From Former Firm

A Garden City, N.Y., tax certiorari firm must pay more than $716,500 in damages to a former associate and a paralegal who claim they lost their jobs after they became pregnant, a federal jury has decided.

Sitting in Central Islip, the panel of four women and three men Wednesday awarded only $16,499 in damages to Jacquelyn Todaro, a former associate at Siegel, Fenchel & Peddy, who was the lead plaintiff in the case.

However, the jurors decided that Maria H. Moscarelli, a former legal assistant who had worked at the firm for 16 years, should receive $203,838 for lost pay and $500,000 in punitive damages. The two plaintiffs had sought $15 million.

According to defense attorney Kevin M. Fox, punitive damages under federal law are capped at $50,000, meaning the firm would at most have to pay approximately $266,000, if the verdict is upheld. A motion to set the verdict aside will be filed, said Fox, who called the jury's verdict "inconsistent."

The Eastern District of New York jury in Todaro v. Siegel Fenchel & Peddy, CV-04-2939, accepted Moscarelli's Title VII and state Human Rights Law claims. However, it found against Todaro on her Title VII claim that she was discriminated against because she was a female employee who became pregnant. Instead, the panel awarded her $16,499 in damages under the federal Equal Pay Act for her claim that her salary was cut before she left the firm on maternity leave in 2003.

"It's a contradiction -- if you find that there is no discrimination, implicitly that means there was a legitimate and nondiscriminatory reason for the reduction in pay," Fox said in an interview.

However, the Equal Pay Act only requires that a plaintiff show that a member of the opposite sex in a comparable capacity is paid more.

"After her pay was reduced there was about a $20,000 difference [between Todaro] and the only male associate at the firm," Fox said.

A 1996 graduate of Hofstra Law School, Todaro was making $102,500 annually before the partnership informed her she was taking a pay cut in January 2003 to $76,875 due to what the firm claimed was her inability to perform her work.

Todaro claimed the real reason was her pregnancy.

During the trial Todaro testified that she did not notify or discuss her desire to leave the firm with any of the name partners -- William D. Siegel, Saul R. Fenchel and Tracie P. Peddy. (Siegel writes a tax certiorari and condemnation column for the New York Law Journal.)

Todaro admitted writing to Fenchel around February 2003 about how her pending cases would be handled during her maternity leave and gave an approximate return date.

She did not return to work after her maternity leave, but informed the partnership in July 2003 that she was leaving due to what she termed a hostile environment.

On the stand, Todaro claimed she had been passed over for prime assignments given to male associates and been asked to wear a "Playboy bunny" outfit by a partner. She acknowledged that she was not fired, but said she felt "forced out" due to her pay cut.

According to the plaintiffs attorney, Steven I. Locke, that may have been taken into account by the jury in awarding Todaro lower damages than Moscarelli.

"Certainly one difference between the two is that Ms. Moscarelli was fired and Ms. Todaro was not -- her salary was cut by 25 percent," Locke, a partner in Carabba Locke, said in an interview.

Moscarelli claimed that since beginning work for the firm in 1987, she had received pay increases every year, except in 1998, when she had a child. She contended that in 2002, when she became pregnant again, she was told she would not receive a raise for 2003, according to the suit. At that point, she was making around $60,000 a year.

She was terminated in August 2003, shortly after returning from maternity leave, according to Locke.

In court documents, the firm claimed it was downsizing, rather than firing employees vindictively, when it let Moscarelli go. Neither Todaro nor Moscarelli was replaced. The firm also claimed Moscarelli's assigned tasks were handled more smoothly while she was on leave.

During opening statements, Fox told the jury that cutting salaries was within management's discretion, as raises were based on merit. He also denied that the work atmosphere was discriminatory toward women, citing the fact that there were four female associates and two male associates. He also pointed out that one of the name partners, Peddy, is a woman with children.

Locke said the verdict validated his clients' claims.

"We are very pleased with the outcome and that our clients' rights are vindicated," he said.

Nevertheless, Locke acknowledged the cap will "definitely come into play."

Moscarelli and Todaro now work for the Mineola, N.Y., tax certiorari firm Schroder & Strom, founded by two former attorneys of Siegel, Fenchel & Peddy.

Siegel, Fenchel & Peddy merged with Koeppel Martone & Leistman, another Mineola tax firm, earlier this year.

Eastern District Judge Joanna Seybert presided over the trial.

Phillip D. Nykamp, of counsel to Twomey, Latham, Shea, Kelley, Dubin & Quartararo, was co-counsel to the firm. (Source>>>)