Worker Wins $386,500 in Job-Harassment Case

A tape recording in which a Long Beach Unified School District supervisor said he was specifically hired to get an employee fired led to a $386,500 jury verdict for a Yorba Linda man employed by the district.

Fred R. Meier, an employee who said he endured four years of harassing tactics by district supervisors, was awarded the damages Tuesday in a civil-case verdict in Long Beach Superior Court.

“I didn’t do this because of the money. It was the fact that a worker shouldn’t have to put up with this,” Meier, 67, said. “They wanted to get me to retire, and I was doing a good job and enjoying what I was doing.”

Crucial to the case were statements that Meier recorded in a conversation with one of his bosses, Ronald Tessada, in a closed-door meeting on March 5, 1987, and referred to in court.

On the tape, Tessada, an assistant maintenance director, told Meier that he was specifically hired “to get you fired--that’s my job,” said Meier’s attorney, Maurice Mandel II.

“Tessada didn’t know that my client had tape-recorded that conversation, and (he) also returned to his office and jotted down notes of what was said at the meeting,” Mandel said.

Meier charged that harassing tactics used by the district in an effort to discourage him included moving his ground-floor office to an upstairs, windowless room with no telephone, ventilation or air conditioning after he suffered a heart attack.

In addition to $375,000 in damages assessed against the district, Tessada and Louis R. Baker, the maintenance director and Meier’s immediate superior, were held liable for punitive damages of $3,000 and $8,500, respectively.

The dispute that led to the damage award focused on whether Meier had qualified as a handicapped individual under state law and was entitled to less-strenuous job duties. Both sides agreed that under state Department of Fair Employment and Housing regulations, the employer must provide a qualified handicapped individual with a “reasonable accommodation” on the job.

Meier had argued in court that he had severe hypertension due to job stress and that the district gave him additional physical labor. The district contended that he did not qualify as disabled.

Meier was hired by the district in 1982 as its plumbing manager. The job was mostly managerial, but after several years, his health problems increased after Baker demanded more physical labor from him, Mandel said.

Mandel said a job previously assigned to subordinates was then given to Meier, requiring him to personally visit the district’s 80 schools.

The district continued to ignore Meier’s requests for a less-strenuous job, and his medical condition deteriorated, leading to a heart attack and a disabling stroke, Mandel said.

Thomas argued that no medical evidence was presented linking Meier’s heart attack in December, 1986, to his job duties.

On March 10, 1987, Meier filed a charge of discrimination with the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing, charging the district with failing to reasonably accommodate him and with retaliation for making the request.

In the same month, Meier took a two-week medical leave and returned to find that his office was relocated to the windowless, upstairs room.

“I went back to work and my office was gone; they never did tell me about the move,” Meier said in an interview Wednesday. “Later, they said they were going to use my old office to store parts, but they gave it to my subordinate. Here I was, off all by myself without air conditioning and a telephone, far, far removed from my previous responsibilities.”

Four days later, Meier suffered a stroke.

Meier, who was never terminated by the district, said he remains willing to return to work. “That’s all I ever wanted to do,” he said.

The district intends to file a motion for a new trial. If the motion fails, the district will then decide whether to appeal the verdict, Thomas said. District officials refused to comment, saying that the case involved pending litigation.