Woman Fired for Being Pregnant Wins in Court

A Rialto woman has won a $247,900 jury verdict from McDonnell Douglas Corp. on her claim that the company and two supervisors discriminated against her and wrongly terminated her because she was pregnant.

The jury found by a 9-3 vote Wednesday afternoon that Joy Young, 40, was a victim of a hostile work environment based on sex and race and that her two immediate supervisors were negligently supervised, her lawyer said. The bosses themselves were found liable for intentionally inflicting emotional distress.

The Superior Court jury in Long Beach, however, split 7-5 on whether to award punitive damages, said Young’s attorney, Roy Ginsburg of Minneapolis. He said he will likely seek a new trial on the punitive damages issue.

Defense attorneys and McDonnell Douglas executives weren’t available for comment.

Young worked as a buyer on the company’s C-17 military transport project in Long Beach, negotiating multimillion-dollar contracts with suppliers, Ginsburg said, when she told colleagues in early 1992 that she was pregnant.

Her high rankings in her evaluations suddenly plummeted, and one supervisor decided she no longer could fly cross-country to meet with suppliers, the lawyer said. The jury, he said, found that sexist and lewd remarks also were made or tolerated by the supervisors, creating a hostile environment.

Young, an African American, was laid off in July 1992, in what the company called a reduction in force. But, Ginsburg said, two white males were hired the following week to handle her work.