Judge issues $200,000 award
The Springfield Urban League has been ordered to pay more than $200,000 in a reverse discrimination lawsuit filed by a woman who says that she was fired because she is white and refused to participate in workplace religious activities.
The order issued last month by Sangamon County Associate Judge Jack Davis came on top of a $100,000 jury award for emotional distress to Jamie Schnitker, a former Head Start teacher who lost her job in 2010 and won her case against the Urban League last summer after a week-long trial. Davis’ award of $160,222 for attorney’s fees, $4,403 for various costs and $46,718 for back pay and benefits brings the total owed to more than $310,000, which doesn’t include what the Urban League must pay its own lawyers.
The legal tab equals a hefty portion of the Urban League’s most recently reported financial reserves. According to the Urban League’s most recent report to the Internal Revenue Service, the agency had a yearend fund balance of slightly more than $1 million as of June 2013, with similar amounts reported for the two previous fiscal years. The Urban League is funded largely by government grants. In the fiscal year ending in June 2013, the agency had slightly more than $13.2 million in revenue, with nearly $11 million coming from government grants.
Schnitker in her lawsuit said that she lost her job because she objected to prayer meetings at work organized by Ann Burris, a supervisor who no longer works for the Urban League. Burris is married to a Jacksonville pastor, and Schnitker complained that members of the congregation who worked at the Urban League received preferential treatment. She also alleged that blacks and members of Burris’ church were hired instead of more qualified job candidates.
Colleen Lawless, Schnitker’s lawyer, prevailed almost entirely in her motion for attorney’s fees. She convinced Davis that she deserved $250 an hour for her work and presented affidavits from several attorneys saying that the charges were reasonable. Geri Airrendell, attorney for the Urban League, presented no opposing affidavits during a hearing last month. When Airrendell told the judge that an affidavit from attorney Carl Draper that was presented by Lawless supported a figure of $175 an hour, the judge pointed out that Draper, in fact, had supported the higher figure of $250 an hour.
During last month’s hearing and in his written decision, the judge criticized Airrendell for inflating litigation costs by insisting that a lawyer in Lawless’ firm testify before a court reporter that Lawless had been unexpectedly detained in a court hearing that ran long and so could not attend a deposition. Davis last month said that such scheduling snafus are common and that the matter should have been handled with a phone call rather than requiring a lawyer and a court reporter to create a record. In his written ruling, Davis decreed that the Urban League must pay the court reporter and a partner in Lawless’ firm for his time.
“In the world of litigation there are two roads one may elect to travel,” Davis wrote. “One is the route of zealous advocacy and reasonable cooperation with your opponent. The other is a more treacherous path that has become a generally undeserved cliché of lawyers and the legal profession. The easier and more reasonable path would have been for the defendant to have…postpone(d) the deposition for a later start time in the day, or, simply, reschedule it.”
Airrendell presented no arguments against the figure of more than $46,000 for back pay and benefits, telling the judge that she didn’t quibble with math used to calculate the amount, but the Urban League believes that the jury’s verdict was wrong.
Last week, the Urban League filed a motion for a new trial, arguing that the jury received faulty instructions. The Urban League also argues that the jury’s verdict wasn’t supported by the evidence. The plaintiff presented no evidence that Nina Harris, executive director of the Springfield Urban League, who decided not to retain Schnitker for the upcoming school year, was aware that Schnitker had complained that churchgoers got preferential treatment, the Urban League says. The Urban League also says that there is no evidence that anyone interfered with Schnitker’s religious practices. Schnitker, the Urban League says, was let go due to unprofessional conduct.
Another wrongful termination case with similar allegations filed by a former Head Start employee who worked with Schnitker and was fired at the same time is pending in Jacksonville. The lawsuit filed by Rhonda King is buttressed by a conclusion from the Illinois Department of Human Rights, which conducted an investigation and determined that there is “substantial evidence” that King’s allegations are true.
Like Schnitker, King says that religious activity was common in the workplace and that black employees kept their jobs while she lost hers, even though she was more qualified and had more seniority.
Urban League officials could not be reached for comment.
