Jury Finds for AMD in Discrimination Lawsuit

On the second anniversary of Sept. 11, a federal jury cleared chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. of accusations that it forced out a Muslim employee after the terrorist attacks.

Walid Maghribi, who was born in Lebanon, had alleged in a lawsuit that AMD Chairman Jerry Sanders and Chief Executive Hector Ruiz discriminated against him because of his race and religion.

But after two hours of deliberations Thursday, the San Jose jury agreed with AMD’s argument that Maghribi, 51, resigned voluntarily from his position as head of AMD’s memory chip unit. He had disagreed with Sanders and Ruiz over AMD’s efforts to form a joint venture with Fujitsu Ltd. to manufacture and sell memory chips for cell phones, digital cameras and other gadgets.

Maghribi, who worked at AMD for more than 15 years, resigned in December 2001 and sued the Sunnyvale, Calif., company in April 2002.

Jury forewoman Julie McGowan said that the panel believed his quitting the company “was business-related. They didn’t tie enough pieces together for us to find discrimination.”

Maghribi’s attorney, Allen Ruby of Ruby & Schofield in San Jose, said Maghribi has not decided whether to appeal.

AMD spokesman Dave Kroll said the verdict affirmed the company’s culture of “meritocracy and fairness.”

“The jury made the right decision,” Kroll said.

Maghribi, who did not return calls seeking comment, alleged that Sanders inquired about his religion at a company event after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Ruiz, Maghribi alleged, told an anecdote at the same event about being mistaken as an Arab.

The tone of the two men’s comments was disputed during the trial. AMD executives testified that they meant no harm. Maghribi said they showed bias.

After the executives made the remarks, Maghribi alleged, he was given assignments he considered impossible. For instance, as AMD and Fujitsu negotiated their memory chip venture, Maghribi said he was ordered to tell Fujitsu that AMD would take over all sales functions.

Maghribi said he did not believe Fujitsu would agree to such a condition, and quit in protest.

Indeed, once the venture was finalized in July the companies kept separate sales forces.

Although the jury found no connection between the executives’ remarks and Maghribi’s departure, labor attorneys uninvolved with the case said it is always unwise to discuss employees’ race or religion.

“While AMD won the lawsuit ... they still had to go through this entire trial,” said Anthony Amendola, labor and employment attorney and partner at Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp in Los Angeles. “The lesson in these kinds of cases is that it’s important to be sensitive about the kinds of comments that are made at work.

“Even a stray remark or inquiry about an employee’s religion or race can fuel allegations,” he said. “It raises questions: Why were these inquiries made? Why were the anecdotes told?”

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Bloomberg News and Reuters were used in compiling this report.