Opinion ID: 444135
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Liability for Back Pay

Text: 11 Goss submitted her resignation to Exxon on February 9, 1981, effective February 28, 1981. By April 13, 1981, she had found employment, at a lower income, with Data Point Corporation. She left Data Point at the end of May, 1982 to work for Agency Automation Services in June, still at a lower income level than at Exxon. Finally, in January, 1983, she obtained her present employment with Hewlitt Packard Corporation. The court calculated a back pay award of $78,454.23. Included in that award are lost commissions between January 5, 1981 and February 23, 1981, when she was on Exxon's payroll without a new territory. The court also found that she incurred $850 in compensable job search expenses as a result of Exxon's constructive discharge. Finally, the court found that Goss's estimate that she would have earned $117,165.71 in commissions between February 24, 1981 and June 30, 1983 was fair and reasonable. From these sums were deducted her actual earnings, from February 24, 1981 through June 30, 1983 of $55,554.47, for a net back pay award of $78,454.23, to which was added prejudgment interest at 12% per annum. 12 Exxon objects to the foregoing calculation on two grounds. First, Exxon disputes the court's selection of 1981 as the base year for calculating her likely earnings, because in that year sales territories had to be reassigned as a result of a reorganization. Exxon therefore urges that some average from prior years should have been utilized. We reject this contention. The risk of lack of certainty with respect to projections of lost income must be borne by the wrongdoer, not the victim. Story Parchment Co. v. Paterson Parchment Paper Co., 282 U.S. 555, 51 S.Ct. 248, 75 L.Ed. 544 (1931). Exxon failed to convince the factfinder that its lower projection was reasonable. Exxon also maintains that the court erred in rejecting its contention that Goss had failed to mitigate damages. The contention is in part predicated on Exxon's objection to the court's constructive discharge finding, which we have affirmed. Exxon argued that Goss failed to mitigate damages by removing herself from consideration for a position with Lexitron, which might have paid more than her projected earnings with Exxon, prior to accepting employment at Data Point Corporation. The court found that Exxon, which had the burden of proof on mitigation, failed to prove that she would have earned more at Lexitron or that she ought to have gone to work there despite personal misgivings about that company. These findings are not clearly erroneous. 13 Thus we conclude that the judgment against Exxon for $78,454.23 in back pay, through June 30, 1983, plus interest, must be affirmed.