RETAILING : Mattel Wins Motion in Whistle-Blower Suit

Mattel Inc. persuaded a Superior Court judge to throw out a key claim in a fired executive’s wrongful-termination lawsuit without ruling on her allegations of improper accounting by the toy maker. Judge Stephen O’Neil granted the El Segundo-based toy maker’s motion to dismiss a “whistle-blowing” cause of action filed by Michelle Greenwald, a former Mattel senior vice president. She was fired in July 1995. O’Neil said he wasn’t ruling on the merits of Greenwald’s accusations of accounting irregularities but simply determining that she hadn’t complained enough about her concerns to legally qualify as a whistle-blower. Greenwald may continue to press her accusation that she was wrongfully fired without claiming status as a whistle-blower, which would have made her eligible for punitive damages. It wasn’t immediately known if she would do so. Mattel shares lost 25 cents to close at $30.50 on the New York Stock Exchange.