Diocese to Fight Award by Jury

The Catholic Diocese of San Diego is seeking to overturn a $360,000 award to a woman who jurors determined suffered sexual discrimination when she was fired from her teaching post at University of San Diego High School.

Vincent Whelan, director of the diocese’s Office for Civil Affairs, said Monday that the diocese has instructed its attorneys to file a motion asking the Superior Court judge in the case to throw out the jury decision.

Elizabeth Gorsich won the award last week after a jury found that the diocese’s education division committed sex discrimination and broke Gorsich’s contract with the high school.

The jury decided that the Diocese of San Diego Education and Welfare Corp. owed Gorsich, who was chair of the school’s Religious Studies Department, $327,000 for lost wages and $37,000 in punitive damages for emotional distress.

Gorsich, 46, was a 19-year veteran of the high school when she was fired at the end of the 1990 school year. School officials said she was terminated because she took a European vacation during the last eight class days.

The diocese said in a statement last week that it is “appalled” by the jury’s verdict because Gorsich “could, without notifying the school administration, abandon her classes for nearly two weeks at the end of a school year, while she enjoyed a European vacation.”

While the teacher admitted a mistake in leaving some students unattended, her attorney said two male teachers did the same thing but kept their jobs. Richard M.

Whelan said that if Superior Court Judge Kevin Midlam denies the motion to overturn the jury verdict, attorneys for the diocese will seek a new trial.