Suit by Boss Who Tried to Protect His Subordinate Is Reinstated

A state appeals court has reinstated a suit by a Northridge watch salesman who said he was fired because he tried to protect a female co-worker from sexual harassment by a company vice president.

Stuart Flait’s suit against the North American Watch Co. of New York had been dismissed before trial in January, 1991, by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephen O’Neil, who said Flait had no reason to believe his subordinate had been harassed.

O’Neil also ordered Flait to pay the watch company nearly $154,000 for legal fees, a requirement usually imposed when a judge believes a suit was baseless.

But the 2nd District Court of Appeal said Thursday that Flait’s claims should have been allowed to go forward to a trial where a jury would decide whether they were credible or not. Flait, who was in charge of sales in California and Hawaii for the nationwide watch company, claimed in the suit that he was fired in retaliation for telling the vice president to stop making sexually offensive comments to a woman who had complained to Flait.

The appeals court’s 3-0 ruling said state law requires a supervisor such as Flait to take “immediate and appropriate corrective action” after getting a complaint of sexual harassment. A supervisor who acts as a whistle-blower has strong legal protection against retaliation, the court said.

Even if the subordinate was not actually harassed--an issue the court did not resolve--Flait was immune from company discipline as long as his belief that the harassment occurred was “reasonable, in good faith and sincere,” said the opinion by Justice Roger Boren.

Boren said a jury could conclude that “by saying Flait was not a ‘company man,’ NAWC meant it wanted salesmen who did not complain about the sexual remarks directed at female employees by a company senior vice president.”

The ruling overturns the award of legal fees and allows Flait to take his case to trial. He is seeking lost wages from the time of his firing in January, 1988, plus punitive damages.

The ruling could be appealed to the state Supreme Court. The attorney representing the company did not return telephone calls for comment.

Flait, who now works as a jewelry manufacturer’s representative, was out of town Friday and could not be reached for comment.

“Flait was a top salesman,” said his lawyer, Herbert B. Richmond. “He showed a 57% increase in sales the year he was let go. They told him the company was lucky to have him and talked about promoting him to regional sales manager” until he was abruptly fired by the same vice president who was the subject of the complaints.

Richmond said Flait, a 20-year veteran of the business and former president of a sales representatives association, made more than $100,000 in his last year with North American. The company is one of the country’s largest manufacturers and distributors of watches, according to Richmond. It also distributes foreign-made watches, including the Movado line, he said.

According to the court case, Flait, hired in February, 1984, said he started getting complaints in March, 1987, from marketing representative Pamela Berger, in Los Angeles, that company Vice President John Pistner, in New York, was making offensive sexual remarks to her.

According to the court case, Flait said he promptly called Pistner and told him the comments were improper, and Pistner hung up on him. A month later, after more complaints from Berger, Flait told Pistner to stop, and he replied, “Next subject.” Flait said the same thing happened a third time.

Flait said that when he was summoned to company headquarters in January, 1988, he was expecting a promotion because of his outstanding sales record. Instead, he said, Pistner fired him, saying he was dissatisfied with Flait’s work and his loyalty to the company.

The court said no other company officials could recall Pistner previously complaining about Flait’s work. Flait told company President James Reilly he thought he was being fired for protecting Berger, but Reilly dropped the subject after Pistner denied making comments to Berger, the court said.

Berger, who quit her job around the same time, wrote a statement supporting Flait’s account. But in sworn pretrial questioning, she denied being harassed and said her parents, who were in the watch business, had told her to have nothing to do with the suit, the court record said. Berger has since moved to Las Vegas, Richmond said.