Widow of Los Angeles Times Columnist Who Won Fair Employment Suit Gets Over $3 Million in Damages
After nine years of litigation and three trials, Virginia Simers, the widow of longtime Los Angeles Times sports columnist Thomas J. Simers (T.J.), won the right to collect attorney fees from the newspaper that employed her husband for over 20 years. He was fired from his job in 2013 and sued the Times for “constructive termination” and age and disability discrimination, actions that violated the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). Constructive termination is recognized in California as a legal concept that can allow recovery if an employee quits because the working conditions have become so intolerable that working for the company is no longer possible.
T.J. and Virginia will be referred to by their first names in order to avoid confusion. T.J. died in June 2024 at age 73, and Virginia is the executor of his estate.
T.J. was hired by the Times in 1990, got his own column in 2000, but suffered a “mini-stroke” in 2013 when he was 62. The noticed his reduced abilities and decreased his columns from three to two a week. The paper said the reduction would give him additional time to write. He was then suspended due to a possible ethics breach. When he was reinstated, he was demoted to senior reporter, but his salary was not cut. He resigned and briefly went to work at the Orange County Register.
He sued the Times for age and disability discrimination in violation of FEHA and for constructive termination. FEHA provides protection from harassment or discrimination based on age due to many factors, including medical conditions.
This case, which began the same year T.J. was dismissed from his job, led to three jury trials. The first two were presided over by then-Superior Court Judge William MacLaughlin, now retired. The first trial resulted in a jury verdict for T.J. of $2,132,391 for economic damages plus $5 million in non-economic damages. However, the Times moved for and received a judgment notwithstanding the verdict on the constructive termination claim and a new trial on his noneconomic damages.
The second trial resulted in a $15.4 million jury award for T.J., but MacLaughlin granted a new trial due to “misconduct” by one of the plaintiff’s attorneys because she referred to the wealth of the Times in her closing argument. She said that damages should be assessed based on the wealth of the and its ability to pay. The judge also found the jury award “excessive.”
In the third trial, presided over by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Armen Tamzarian, the only issue was the determination of the amount of noneconomic damages resulting from his employment demotion from columnist to senior reporter. T.J.’s attorney asked the jury for between $30 and $50 million, while the Times argued that between $500,000 and $1 million was reasonable. In 2022 Tamzarian entered a judgment for T.J. and in June 2022, the paid T.J. $1,292,123.29, which partially satisfied the award and was the same amount the Times had offered as settlement on December 7.
A month before he received his partial judgment payout, T.J. filed another motion that asked for over $15.5 million in attorneys’ fees. The Times opposed the motion, arguing that the code of Civil Procedure Section 998 ruled out any attorney’s fees recovery for time spent on the case after the December 7 offer was refused. Section 998 says, “… a plaintiff who does not accept a defendant’s offer and “fails to obtain a more favorable judgment . . . shall not recover his or her post-offer costs…” The Times also argued that T.J. could not recover fees for the lawyer who committed misconduct.
Tamzarian awarded T.J. attorney’s fees in the amount of $3,264,906, but the Times motion to tax part of the payment was granted and left T.J. with $210,882.55 in costs. Back on the offense, the Times then told the court that the hourly rate T.J. asked for was “too high,” and the damages were not properly assessed. The newspaper further argued that T.J.’s lawyer’s misconduct should prevent an attorney’s fees award. Tamzarian ruled that only pre-offer costs and costs incurred in the second trial could be recovered, minus taxes. The appealed again.
On August 30, a unanimous three-judge panel from Division Eight of California’s Second District Court of Appeal ordered the owner of the Times to pay Virginia $3,475,788.55, rejecting the newspaper’s argument that the jury award was canceled because of the lawyer’s misconduct. Justice Elizabeth A. Grimes wrote the opinion, with concurrences by Presiding Justice Maria E. Stratton and Justice John Shepard Wiley.
The Times' main argument was that Tamzarian abused his discretion when the court awarded attorneys’ fees for the appeal and the second trial. Grimes found no “merit” in these charges. She wrote that the Times’ position was that the “trial court has no discretion where counsel’s misconduct caused the need for a new trial.”
Then she elaborated, “Defendant loses sight of the basic principle that a FEHA plaintiff is entitled to compensation for all time reasonably spent on the litigation in which he prevailed.” In addition, she reminded the parties that public policy favors giving attorney’s fees to successful FEHA plaintiffs.
Now Virginia is finally one of them.
