GE Age Discrimination Suit
A federal jury has awarded approximately $800,000 to a former General Electric employee for claims brought under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. Murray Garden of Oreland, Montgomery County, formerly a senior engineer at GE’s Moorestown facility, submitted evidence establishing that GE’s system of ranking its engineers was age-biased to favor younger engineers. The jury found that testimony by GE concerning the alleged poor performance of Garden was pretextual. The nine-day trial was conducted in Trenton before U.S. District Judge Clarkson Fisher. The award was broken down as follows: back pay, 137,000; front pay $114,044; liquidated damages under the ADEA, $137,000; punitive and compensatory damages under the NJLAD, $408,000. Garden, 65, was represented in the suit by Philadelphia attorney Stephen G. Console. Garden who has been unemployed since his layoff from GE in 1990, was hired by RCA at age 58, but was terminated at age 63 as part of a reduction in force after RCA was acquired by GE.