Schools
Iowa State Wins Partial Appeal in Employee Firing
An appeals court ruled that a former employee failed to prove he was fired in retaliation but was able to prove he was mistreated, reports say.
An Iowa Appeals court threw out a landmark whistleblower damage award in the firing of an Iowa State employee, but upheld a half million dollar award for inflicting emotional distress on an ISU College of Engineering marketing employee, according to an AP report posted on the Sacramento Bee.
Dennis Smith had argued that he was fired for reporting his boss' financial misconduct, but the appeals court said he failed to prove his whistleblower claim. Smith had previously been awarded $784,000 in damages. However the court ruled that the University “did intentionally inflict emotional distress” by falsely accusing Smith of being a security threat. Smith was awarded $500,000 for that claim.
Smith had previously been awarded a total of $1.28 million in damages, according to a report in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
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