$80 million verdict for three workers fired for “unofficially” taking leave in California

Three former employees of a Northern California office of Zurich American Insurance Co. who were fired after taking “unofficial” paid leave were awarded more than $80 million in damages Thursday by a jury of Sacramento, Sacramento attorney Lawrance Bohm said.

The case stems from a lawsuit originally filed in 2018 that went to trial after Zurich American refused settlement offers starting at $150,000 for each of three plaintiffs who worked at the insurer’s offices in Gold River, a Bohm said in an interview.

“I’m jubilant,” Bohm said. “It is shocking that a U.S.-based insurance company, which covers 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies, made a zero-dollar offer… This is vindication.”

Zurich American spokeswoman Robyn Ziegler said in an email response to the Sacramento Bee that the company does not comment on litigation: “So I have no comment to offer you.”

Wednesday’s verdict included damages for economic injury, reputational harm and $25 million in punitive damages for each of the employees – Melinda Brantley, Nicholas Lardie and Daniel Koos – who were part of the compensation division of Zurich American Workers’ Compensation, Bohm spokesman Daniel Harary said in announcing the details of the $80,252,412 verdict.

Bohm’s spokesperson said the three plaintiffs were fired in December 2017 after following a supervisor’s policy of taking time off “unofficially” as an incentive to work hard.

These days off were called “Omen days,” in reference to then-Assistant Vice President Chris Omen, according to court documents.

“Omen provided free paid time off (“PTO”) based on performance,” court documents state. “Employees of the Omen Department referred to the free paid leave as “Omen days.”

“Omen’s free paid time off was used to reward employees who performed at a high level or achieved certain goals. Free paid time off awards did not require any application or entry into the official PTO system.

“If an employee used Omen-approved paid leave, they were asked not to use official Zurich paid leave. In most cases. Omen asked the employee to “take the day off or delete the leave requests in the system and stated that “it’s my fault,” indicating that the employee deserved the free paid leave.

“The entire Rancho Cordova branch was aware of and benefited from this unofficial rewards program.”

The three men were fired days before Christmas 2017 after a brief investigation by the company, Bohm said.

Zurich American argued in court that the employees were fired after a “time theft” that resulted in them being paid a total of more than $100,000 over two years.

“Stealing is not justified just because your boss asked you to do it,” the company argued. “The plaintiffs are three former managers of a Zurich insurance company who had not sufficiently declared their paid leave at work.

“They admitted to engaging in this activity and explained it by saying that their supervisor had asked them to do so.”

Bohm said Zurich American “maliciously defamed three very good people in our Sacramento community” and that his clients did not want to be involved in a lawsuit.

Bohm initially offered to settle the case for $150,000 for each plaintiff, but was refused, he said. In 2021, he tried again, offering to settle for $500,000 each, but was refused. Finally, before the trial began in Sacramento Superior Court last month, he offered to settle for $2 million per plaintiff, but was told no, he said.

“Zurich had years to prevent this and act properly,” Bohm said, adding that company supervisors spent 71 minutes investigating allegations against employees before firing them.

“For a company that prides itself on being fair, this is scary,” he said. “Thousands of us in California have claims handled by Zurich.

“If this is how she treats her employees, what does that say about what we can expect from them when we need them?”