Towers Perrin, a Stamford-based company that ranks among the most prestigious human-resources consultancies in the country, is being sued by two former managers who allege the company violated federal labor laws in firing them following crippling hospitalizations.
The company denies wrongdoing.
Eric Wurzel, a former Towers Perrin sales manager who made more than $200,000 annually, and his former associate Deborah Cole are suing the company in separate lawsuits filed in U.S. District Court. Both were fired within weeks of each other in September and October 2006.
Formally known as Towers, Perrin, Forster and Crosby Inc., the company consults on strategies to help companies manage their personnel policies and hedge against insurance risks.
Beyond the ironic circumstance of employees suing such an authoritative expert ”“ Wurzel and Cole marketed insurance programs to protect companies from catastrophic health claims ”“ the cases could provide fuel for opponents of a recent trend to limit punitive damages companies have paid the past few years in court cases.
The Supreme Court last month ruled Exxon Mobil Corp. need only pay punitive damages equal to the actual damage created by the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1986, rather than a multiple of five times the actual damages previously directed by a lower court.
Writing for the majority, Justice David Souter said the court based its ruling in part on wide swings in jury verdicts on punitive damages, suggesting unfairness in the system.
Legal experts immediately said the maritime law ruling could have far-reaching implications in the U.S. court system ”“ not unreasonably to include employee lawsuits alleging misdeeds by their deep-pocketed employers.
In his lawsuit, Wurzel describes being broadsided by a drunk driver in February 2006 after picking up his two sons at a baseball practice in Fairfield where he lives. Wurzel nearly died in the accident, and required three months to recuperate to the point where he could return to work on crutches.
Wurzel said he joined Towers Perrin in 2005 to help the company sell insurance to mid-sized companies, and hatched the idea to employ Towers Perrin”™s own list of vendors as an initial list of sales leads.
After returning from the accident, Wurzel said he found that much of the responsibility for his business tasks had been shifted to other managers, impacting his ability to make his financial goals. In reality, he asserted, Towers Perrin was motivated by the company”™s regarding him as disabled.
In an amended answer to Wurzel”™s complaint filed in late June, Towers Perrin denied wrongdoing and said whatever actions it took were based on legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons.
Deborah Cole makes a similar allegation, also alleging age discrimination.
In her lawsuit, the Rowayton resident said was diagnosed with a tumor suggesting ovarian cancer, with doctors performing an emergency hysterectomy in June 2006. While the operation demonstrated the cancer fears were a false alarm, Cole was left to battle back to work that July while still experiencing residual effects of the operation like nausea. In August, she said she was informed that her job had been eliminated, despite the company hiring several new employees in their 20s to work on medical stop-loss insurance programs Cole helped structure for White Plains, N.Y.-based ITT Corp. and other Towers Perrin clients.
Towers Perrin denies Cole”™s claim that the company discriminated against her on the basis of disability or age.
Wurzel has since started his own company in Norwalk called Bold Lion Brokerage L.L.C. He declined to comment on the case, as did Cole who would only confirm that she is a residential real estate broker today in the Darien office of William Pitt Sotheby”™s International Realty.
