U.N. Settles Sex Bias Case for $94,000

The United Nations said Friday it had settled one of its most protracted sex discrimination cases, awarding American Catherine Claxton $94,000.

In addition, she will be reimbursed $110,300 for legal fees and $6,500 for costs in the case she brought against Luis Maria Gomez, an Argentine official, who was second in command in the U.N. Development Program (UNDP) before he resigned.

Technically, the deal worked out with Claxton means she receives the money for compensation resulting from the “prolonged and complex nature of the proceedings that led to the resolution of her case,” a U.N. announcement said.

The settlement also provides that Claxton, an office worker, can appeal a decision concerning her job classification at the United Nations without liability.

But U.N. sources said the settlement does not cover her suit in New York State court against Gomez personally, where she and her lawyers seek $2 million damages.

Claxton, in still secret papers, charged three years ago that in 1988, Gomez shut the door to his office, grabbed and kissed her, and in another incident in a routine meeting, made sexual remarks.

Gomez denied the entire episode as fiction and his lawyers at one point demanded the case be reopened.