Top court keeps punitive damages intact – and it all comes down to one letter the chief wrote
A Massachusetts town just paid $1.4 million for retaliating against its fire chief after he flagged gender bias in his department.
The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts on May 15 upheld a jury verdict against the Town of Marshfield in a retaliation case brought by Kevin C. Robinson, the town's former fire chief. The jury awarded him $300,000 for emotional distress and $1.1 million in punitive damages. The town's attempts to get the verdict tossed, win a new trial, or knock the damages down all failed.
Robinson joined the Marshfield Fire Department in 1978 and became chief in 2003. By the time this dispute started, he had no disciplinary history and a positive 2012 performance review. His niece, Shauna Robinson, was hired in late 2013 along with another woman, Jodi Corrigan, after both topped the civil service exam. Robinson recused himself from his niece's training and filed conflict-of-interest disclosures, as state law requires.
Within weeks, supervisors raised concerns about Shauna's performance. Robinson eventually wrote to the town's board pointing out that male firefighters with similar gaps had been given extra training, coaching, and second chances, while his niece was being shown the door. He named specific examples in his letter.
That letter set off a cascade. According to the court's decision, the town's labor counsel told Robinson at a June 2014 meeting that he...
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