Court Partially Overturns Judgment in Age Bias Case

A $500,000 judgment in an age-discrimination suit won by an Orange County man who lost his job as manager of a Newport Beach Mercedes Benz dealership was overturned in part Thursday by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The manager, Bruce Gilchrist, now 63, alleged that he was fired from his position at Jim Slemons Imports Inc., one of the largest Mercedes Benz dealerships in North America, in 1981 because of his age. He was 58 at the time.

In 1984, a jury in U.S. District Court awarded Gilchrist $600,000 in damages. He later accepted a reduced award of $500,000, including $50,000 for emotional distress, in an attempt to avoid a retrial. Slemons appealed anyway.

The appeals court Thursday overturned the damages for emotional distress and ordered a retrial on the portion of the case that dealt with the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

A portion of the judgment accounting for $225,000 of the damages awarded was allowed to stand.

Attorneys for Slemons argued that Gilchrist was fired for business reasons after a consolidation of the company’s used car operation, which was in Costa Mesa, and its new car facility in Newport Beach.

The company never raised any questions about Gilchrist’s job performance, and attorneys for the firm said he was offered several different positions. The manager of the consolidated operation was also 58, the company said.

Gilchrist said the alternative job offers were either non-existent or not comparable to the one he held. Gilchrist’s successor was fired six months after the consolidation for what were termed behavioral problems by the company, and he in turn was replaced by a 35-year-old manager, according to the court’s written opinion.