Woman Gets $9 Million in Suit Against Xerox

More than $9 million in damages has been awarded to a Texas woman by a federal court jury that found Xerox Corp. discriminated against her because of her age.

The jury on Tuesday awarded Elizabeth Layman $284,000 in actual damages and $8.75 million in punitive damages, concluding that Xerox fraudulently induced Layman to move to California and then refused to provide her a job.

Xerox said it will ask U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater to overturn the verdict. If he refuses, it will appeal.

“We do not believe the evidence supports the jury’s verdict, and the size of the damages are grossly disproportionate to the claimed wrong,” said Tom Abbott, manager of public relations at the company’s headquarters in Stamford, Conn.

According to her lawsuit, Layman, now 46, was a software marketing manager at a Xerox office in Dallas for about six years until her job was eliminated in a general reorganization shortly after she turned 40 in 1983.

She was demoted to a lower-grade job, but within a year, her suit claims, a younger woman was named to fill her former position.

In 1986, the suit said, her entire unit was disbanded, and she was told that she could transfer to a Xerox office in California. Although the company bought her house, the suit said the job offer did not come through until after she had filed suit, and then was for an entry-level position.

When she refused the transfer, she was fired.

Attorney Grady Swindle said the verdict shows “you’re entitled to be treated fairly even after age 40.”

Swindle said the large jury award means “that employers should not take the prime use of employees and then dump them out of a company.”

The jury award also includes $145,000 in back pay and lost benefits, and $139,716 in compensation for the trouble Layman had after the sale of her house.