Opinion ID: 2972446
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Award of Front Pay Until Retirement at Age 65

Text: DuPont argues on appeal a factual proposition that Pollard would have retired at age 58 rather than age 65 and that the District Court was clearly erroneous in its finding that she would have continued to work until age 65. The District Court based its finding of front pay damages on retirement at age 65, increasing the damages for the additional seven years that she would have continued to work. DuPont does not argue on appeal that plaintiff was a malingerer or that she failed to mitigate her damages or that she should have accepted reinstatement to her job. DuPont argues simply that plaintiff had made a statement at the first trial that she might consider retirement at age 58 had she not been discharged. The District Court’s finding of fact on this issue is stated as follows: The Court will award front pay to Plaintiff through age 65 because the Court finds it is more likely that she would have retired at age 65 than at age 58. The Court found Plaintiff to be a credible witness throughout the original trial and the recent damages hearing. She testifies that she would have worked until she reached age 65. DuPont argued that during the 1997 trial, Plaintiff expressed a desire to work only until age 58. For Plaintiff, age 58 is significant because under DuPont’s retirement plan the sum of her age and years of service would equal 85, which would make her eligible for a full pension. However, Plaintiff’s hope of retiring at age 58 depended upon Plaintiff having amassed over one million dollars in her 401(k) Nos. 03-6611/6612 Pollard v. E.I. DuPont de Nemours Page 10 retirement savings count. Given the market downturn of the last several years, her projected retirement savings have not materialized and her account presently contains approximately three hundred thousand dollars. These recent economic conditions make it highly unlikely that she would have retired at age 58. Furthermore, Plaintiff testified that her husband is six years younger and would not have been able to retire at that time. DuPont also argued that the average employee in the peroxide area retires prior to age 65. (Tr. Ex. 22.) However, the evidence presented during the hearing suggests that DuPont’s statistics for peroxide employees actually includes former DuPont employees who did not really retire. When DuPont sold its peroxide unit to Atofina, certain employees “retired” from DuPont, but continued to work for the peroxide unit now owned by Atofina. These employees appear to have been included in DuPont’s charts, making the charts less reliable representations of the operator retirement ages. 338 F. Supp. 2d at 879-80. Pollard explained in considerable detail at the District Court hearing in July 2003 that she would have “remained [at DuPont] until I couldn’t perform my duties any longer,” and went into detail about her 401(K) plan and her need to work until age 65. DuPont’s own expert economist, Dr. Mary Baker, conceded that from the statistical chart offered by DuPont concerning retirement one could not tell when Pollard would have retired and that there was no certainty that Pollard would not have worked until age 65. Based upon the testimony before the District Court, we cannot say that its finding on this issue is clearly erroneous.