Opinion ID: 2974347
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Denial of Severance Package

Text: At the same time he was informed of his termination, Martinez was offered a severance package. Before Martinez accepted the severance package, Limited learned that he had apparently entered into a two million dollar contract without company authorization. Limited therefore revoked the severance offer while it conducted an investigation into the matter. While the investigation was pending, Martinez accepted a position with another employer. This action, according to Limited, effected a cancellation of the severance contract, whose express terms stated that the terminated No. 05-4410 Martinez v. Limited Brands Page 9 employee would receive severance benefits only so long as he continued to be unemployed.1 The district court found that Martinez made out a prima facie case regarding Limited’s withdrawal of its offer of his severance package, and Limited does not dispute this determination. It offers a nondiscriminatory basis for the revocation, namely that it temporarily withheld the severance package while it was investigating a contract entered by Martinez, and that during this time, Martinez accepted employment elsewhere. The district court found that this reason was not pretextual. Martinez challenges the district court’s determination by claiming that he was in fact authorized to enter the two million dollar contract, because the agreement he entered into was simply a refinancing of an existing contract. Even if Martinez’s explanations of the contract are accurate, such explanations have no bearing on the pretext inquiry for this claim. Limited has not stated that it revoked the severance package because Martinez exceeded his authority as Director of Loss Prevention. Rather, Limited claims merely that it temporarily withheld the severance package while it investigated his actions. Martinez does not argue that such investigatory action by Limited somehow violated the terms of the severance agreement, and thus Limited’s investigation appears to have been a legitimate basis for the temporary withholding. It appears from the record that had Martinez not accepted another 1 The first substantive paragraph of the proposed separation agreement included the following language: Subject to the Executive’s compliance with the terms and conditions contained in this Agreement, the Company agrees to pay the Executive . . . on a weekly basis for a period beginning . . . February 7, 2003 and ending upon the earlier of: (i) the Executive’s receipt of twenty-six such payments or (ii) the Executive’s first day of employment with another employer. (emphasis added) No. 05-4410 Martinez v. Limited Brands Page 10 job, and had Martinez been correct that he was authorized to enter into the two million dollar contract, he would have received the severance package. Thus, Martinez’s claim as to Limited’s discriminatory denial of his severance package must fail.