Los Angeles Times
MARCH 14, 1989
A former employee of a Tarzana medical testing firm who last week was awarded
$9 million in a lawsuit against the company, was ordered Monday to pay his
ex-employer $600,000 in damages.
Jurors had sided with employee Harvey J. Lippman in the suit, which argued
that he was entitled to a 20% share of the company at the time he was fired. The
$9-million verdict last Tuesday was one of the largest awards in Van Nuys
Superior Court history, said Judge Thomas Schneider.
Lippman filed the suit against the company in October, 1985, after he as
fired by the firm's owner, Dr. Allen M. Levy. Lippman who worked for the firm 14
years, claimed he was entitled to 20% of the company under an oral agreement
with Levy.
Don Howarth, Lippman's attorney, maintained that Levy fired Lippman to avoid
giving him 20% of the company, an oral commitment the attorney said Levy agreed
to in 1971.
Browne argued that since Lippman, 46 could produce no written document, the
oral agreement was not valid. He also maintained that his client fired Lippman
when he discovered that his employee was using the firm's client lists and other
assets to establish his own company.
|
