Opinion ID: 767290
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Zigelman's Promotion Decision

Text: 10 Zigelman recommended Smith for the Supervisor I position and district administrator Henline concurred. 9 Zigelman, in an affidavit filed with the trial court, claimed that he chose Smith for four reasons: (1) he worked with Smith personally and knew the quality of his work firsthand; (2) experience did not play a major role in the ultimate promotion decision because the candidates were equally experienced; (3) he preferred to promote from in-house to improve worker morale; and (4) he wanted to retain another employee, Carol Cross (Cross) who caused the vacancy by requesting a voluntary demotion. In making his decision, Zigelman admitted that he did not consider the complexity of the audits that the respective candidate had responsibility for nor did he consider Hasham's superior experience to that of Smith. He also stated that he did not take into account that Hasham had been asked to train new auditors, teach a law class or temporarily fill in for a supervisor. Further, prior to 1993, Zigelman on two occasions had an opportunity to make promotions to supervisory positions: Carol Cross and Joe Clayton. 10 11 Following Smith's promotion, Hasham filed his discrimination claim with the EEOC and thereafter with the district court. After a jury trial, Hasham was awarded back pay and compensatory damages. On post-trial motions, the trial judge upheld the jury's liability verdict while vacating the compensatory damages award and awarded Plaintiff $15,548 in back pay, calculated from the date of his promotion denial, $4,188.48 in interest, the Supervisor I promotion with seniority, calculated from the date of his promotion denial, and attorneys fees and costs. Defendant CBOE appeals.