Hanford contractor appeals ‘truly shocking’ $8 million jury award. Judge was unfair, they say

The $8.1 million verdict against Mission Support Alliance in a case brought by a former manager is “truly shocking” and should be reversed, said the Hanford contractor in court documents.

It will make its case Tuesday to the Washington state Court of Appeals in Spokane to have the jury verdict overturned.

Mission Support Alliance, or MSA, said that Judge Doug Federspiel, who was temporarily assigned to Benton County Superior Court, was wrong to not allow some testimony to be heard that supported Mission Support Alliance and to allow testimony against the contractor by another employee who was not a party to the lawsuit but claimed discrimination.

In October 2017 a jury found that Mission Support Alliance retaliated and discriminated against manager Julie Atwood, and that one of its vice presidents, the late Steve Young, Kennewick’s mayor, aided and abetted.

Atwood was forced to resign from the Hanford nuclear reservation contractor in 2013.

The verdict includes $2.1 million in lost wages and benefits, covering both past and potential future wages. The remaining $6 million is for emotional harm.

Mission Support Alliance said that the verdict “shocks the conscious” given that Atwood is capable of working and that her emotional harm will require therapy for just one to four years, according to trial testimony.

Atwood’s attorney, Jack Sheridan of Seattle, improperly invited the jury to “call (MSA) out,” stop their “conduct tomorrow” and “eradicate discrimination.”

MSA accused of protecting Young

Atwood said she was forced out of her job when she told MSA investigators they should be looking into the actions of her boss, Young, as they were interviewing her about a complaint filed against her.

She believed her comments were confidential when she said that Young, then the mayor of Kennewick, was conducting business for the city on hours he was supposed to be working for the Hanford contractor and getting paid with federal tax dollars.

Young died in May 2019 from complications of cancer.

The investigation cleared Atwood of wrongdoing, but she was told she was being fired, anyway. She resigned, hoping to save her pension and professional reputation, Sheridan said.

Mission Support Alliance attorneys said during the trial that her employer had good reason to want her gone.

Atwood was accused of creating a hostile work environment, abusing her relationship with an influential Department of Energy official and timecard fraud.

MSA works for DOE at the Hanford site, where environmental cleanup is being done after the past production of plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program.

But the timing of her forced resignation showed it was really to protect Young, since she would have been fired earlier if allegations about her workplace performance were true, Sheridan said.

MSA: Judge made wrong calls

Mission Support Alliance argues in appeals court documents that Federspiel improperly and repeatedly shut down testimony about why Atwood was forced to resign as hearsay, or statements made by other people that were repeated by a trial witness. Hearsay comments do not allow the person who made the statement to be cross-examined.

Atwood’s attorney responded to the appeals court that Mission Support Alliance had claimed attorney-client privilege to keep information out of the trial about a meeting of the company’s upper management with attorneys present.

At the meeting the company’s chief executive, Frank Armijo, ordered that Atwood be fired, according to Sheridan.

Mission Support Alliance could not withhold information about the meeting as privileged and then call a witness to describe some of what he heard at the meeting, Sheridan argued.

Mission Support Alliance also argued that the judge improperly allowed Atwood to call its former attorney, Sandra Fowler, to discuss her own gender discrimination claims against the company.

The gender discrimination claims of Atwood and Fowler were about different issues and involved different departments, Mission Support Alliance said.

Judge sanctioned Hanford contractor

Fowler said that she received less money because she was a woman and was retaliated against when she raised the issue. She did not prevail in an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint.

Atwood’s attorney said that Mission Support Alliance was sanctioned by the judge for trying to hide the existence of Fowler as a witness.

He said that Fowler’s testimony showed that she was verbally attacked and demeaned and harmed by an anti-women culture at the company when it was under Armijo’s leadership.

Sheridan said that “gender trumped performance” and that male managers under Armijo who committed serious infractions — including exposing the company to lose millions of dollars because of an insurance mistake — received light or no discipline while women were treated harshly.

Sheridan pointed out that Mission Support Alliance is not challenging Atwood’s claims of retaliation, gender discrimination or wrongful discharge, which he said were correctly decided by the jury and an “intelligent trial judge.”