Worker Who Lost His Job in Drug Search Gets $550,000 : Courts: Jurors find that Chevron violated employee’s right to privacy. The company says it will appeal the case.

A Chevron worker fired from his job at the company’s El Segundo refinery because he refused to hand over his wallet for a drug search has been awarded $550,000 in damages for the dismissal.

Jurors awarded 45-year-old Garnett Overby $275,000 for wages lost after his March 6, 1986, dismissal and another $275,000 for emotional distress he suffered because of the firing, his attorney, Robert Ross, said.

The jury, convened in Norwalk Superior Court because no courtrooms were available in Torrance, agreed unanimously Thursday that Chevron violated Overby’s constitutional right to privacy. Jurors voted 10 to 2 on the financial award to Overby; the two jurors who voted against the award wanted him to receive more, Ross said.

A spokesman for Chevron said the company will appeal the ruling because attorneys for Chevron believe the company was within its rights when it ordered Overby to submit to a search.

“This issue was not necessarily directed to drugs,” spokesman Rod Spackman said. “He was terminated for cause because he did not submit to a normal search with regard to an issue of contraband,” which could include items stolen from the refinery.

Overby, a Vietnam veteran who had been a Chevron plant operator for eight years, was an exemplary employee who had served on the refinery’s safety committee, his attorney said.

Shortly after the refinery workers’ union contract expired in 1986, Ross said, Chevron began extensive drug searches of the refinery and its employees, which included using dogs to sniff for narcotics. Overby agreed to a search of his company-owned locker, but balked when ordered to turn over his wallet for a search.

“At no time did they suspect Garnett of using drugs or possessing drugs or having anything to do with drugs,” Ross said. “Garnett told them, ‘I fought for this country and I know that that wallet is my private, personal property.’ He just didn’t want to give up his rights.”

Supervisors charged Overby with insubordination and fired him on the spot, Ross said.

Overby searched for another job for over a year, eventually finding work as a baker’s assistant at half his Chevron salary, Ross said. He since has begun working for a petrochemical contracting firm but still does not earn what he did when he worked for Chevron.

Jurors listened to evidence in his lawsuit for four days and deliberated for less than a day before deciding in Overby’s favor.

“I think the message to employers is that their workers have rights that are protected under the Constitution,” Ross said. “There was no compelling need to have this man, who was not a suspect in any wrongdoing, hand over his wallet.”