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Greensfelder team wins defense verdict in Illinois employment trial
A Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale legal team won a jury verdict in favor of an employer after a three-day trial over an employment discrimination claim.
The trial took place Oct. 3-5 in Clinton County, Illinois. Greensfelder’s team, which included attorneys Dennis Collins, Chris Bailey and Lauren Daming and paralegal Kate Boyd, defended Kehrer Brothers Construction Inc., an Illinois-based roofing contractor.
The plaintiff, former employee Ricky Koehler, claimed Kehrer Brothers forced him to quit his job as a roofer in 2008 as retaliation for having filed a workers’ compensation claim. Kehrer Brothers, however, denied that the workers’ comp claim was related to his leaving the company. The company maintained that the plaintiff himself made the decision to quit a few weeks after returning to work from his leave for carpal tunnel surgeries, and after declining a work assignment in New York City.
After two hours of deliberation on Oct. 5, the jury sided with Kehrer Brothers, rejecting the plaintiff’s claim for lost wages and disability benefits totaling nearly $250,000, plus additional emotional distress and punitive damages.