Opinion ID: 1486808
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Amount of Damages Awarded.

Text: Georgetown also argues that the award of $90,000 in damages was excessive because Ms. Knight was an at-will employee and therefore, even if she relied to her detriment on a promise of employment after the unit closed, she could not reasonably expect a steady stream of income from such employment. [12] We have held, however, that an employer's oral promise not to discharge an employee during a reorganization would be sufficient to rebut the presumption of at-will employment. See Rinck v. Association of Reserve City Bankers, 676 A.2d 12, 16 (D.C. 1996). The jury could find that Georgetown, through Dr. Sacher, made a promise of continued employment after the elimination of the Transfusion Services Unit, and that Ms. Knight remained with the unit until the very end in consideration of the promise. See id. at 17-18; Nickens v. Labor Agency of Metro. Wash., 600 A.2d 813, 817 (D.C.1991) (supervisor's promise that employee would have a job as long as he [the supervisor] remained with the [employer] was sufficient evidence to withstand summary judgment on at-will employment status). Although the promise stated no definite length of employment, at a minimum it assured a reasonable transition period for Ms. Knight to find a new job. As the trial court observed, the award of $90,000 was short of any sinecure and probably intended to tide her over until she could find comparable employment. Nor do we think Georgetown has demonstrated that the specific amount awarded was excessive. In this jurisdiction, a jury verdict is excessive when it is so inordinately large as obviously to exceed the maximum limit of a reasonable range within which the jury may properly operate, or when it is beyond all reason, or is so great as to shock the conscience. Moss, supra, 580 A.2d at 1035 (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). We cannot say that the award of $90,000 was excessive by this standard. After almost twenty-nine years of uninterrupted employment at Georgetown University Hospital, Ms. Knight had been earning $61,000 per year. Her expert economist estimated the present value of her economic damages, as measured by lost salary and retirement benefits, at up to $718,000. Even the defendants' expert estimated Ms. Knight's damages from lost salary and pension to be $523,000.