Opinion ID: 790574
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Woodman's Termination

Text: 6 Woodman learned of her termination on July 26, 2001, in a telephone conference call with Brian Kelly, then Chris-Craft's General Counsel. Kelly advised Woodman that her employment with WWOR would terminate effective July 30, 2001, the day before the formal close of the News Corp./Chris-Craft merger. In explaining the late notice, Kelly stated that News Corp. had only recently supplied him with a list of the Chris-Craft employees who were to be terminated before the formal merger. 4 Woodman's termination was also confirmed in writing by Herbert J. Siegel, Chairman of the Board of Chris-Craft, whose letter informed Woodman that she was eligible for a severance payment of $340,953.85, representing 70% of her previous year's salary. To receive this payment, Woodman signed a required release waiving any employment claims against BHC Communications, Inc., the Chris-Craft subsidiary that owned WWOR. The release specified that the waiver applied to claims under any statute, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Civil Rights Act of 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, each as amended, and any other federal, state or local law or judicial decision. Release Agreement ¶ 2. The release did not, however, specifically reference the ADEA. 7 As this chronology indicates, Chris-Craft executed Woodman's termination, but it acted at News Corp.'s direction, specifically, at the direction of Fox executives. The individuals who participated in Woodman's termination decision were Fox's Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Elisabeth J. Swanson; Fox's President of Station Operations, Thomas R. Herwitz; its President of Sales, James Burke; its Senior Vice President for Human Resources, Jean C. Fuentes; its Executive Vice President for Engineering and Operations, Richard Slenker, Jr.; and its Vice President for Finance, Gary DeLorenzo (collectively, the Fox executives). It is undisputed that, at the time of the termination decision, none of these Fox executives had ever met, seen, or spoken with Woodman. From information supplied by Chris-Craft, however, it appears that the Fox executives did know that Woodman had worked at Chris-Craft for slightly more than 16 years. 8