Peterson v. Wilson

141 F.3d 573 (5th Cir. 1998)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Peterson (P) was fired as grant director of TSU. P sued D and after a five-day trial, was awarded almost $200,000. During trial, it was shown that P was a Title III Director and that those grants were used for faculty development, equipment purchases, and institutional research. The grants that P was responsible for provided millions of dollars per year for expenditures at TSU. During trial, P was painted as a highly principled objective grant administrator who refused to play ball with high ranking TSU administrators when they attempted to loot the grants being given the school. The termination letter from D to P outlined nine items constituting cause for the firing and P presented evidence which if believed methodically refuted those causes and showed that they were a pretext by D to get rid of P so that a new director could be appointed who would play ball with the school administrators and loot the grants being given the school. The jury believed P's version of the events and answered an interrogatory that D arbitrarily and capriciously terminated P. Following the verdict, D renewed a motion for judgment as a matter of law or in the alternative a new trial. Four months later, the district court granted a new trial on its own motion based on the fact that the jurors made comments to the court outside the presence of the parties after the verdict that led the judge to believe that the jury considered improper factors in reaching its verdict. The case was retried, and D got the verdict. P appealed.