By Daniel Siegal
Law360, Los Angeles (December 24, 2015, 4:45 PM ET) -- A California judge declared a mistrial Thursday after a jury deadlocked on a former NBC journalist's claim that the network's Los Angeles station fired him because he was too old, causing him $5.5 million in damages.
After nearly four days of deliberation following Friday's closing arguments, the jury found it could not come to a verdict on the main question facing it: whether age was a substantial motivating factor in NBCUniversal Media LLC's firing of then-69-year-old Frank Snepp's firing, according to Snepp's legal team.
The jury first indicated it was stuck on the question of age discrimination in Snepp's firing on Tuesday, sending repeated notes to Los Angeles Superior Court Stephen Moloney, and then answering in the negative when the judge asked whether further argument from the parties might help them reach a verdict. On Thursday morning, with the jury still claiming it was stuck, Judge Moloney declared a mistrial.
Snepp's attorney Suzelle Smith of Howarth & Smith said in a statement on Thursday that her team had learned from the trial, and were committed to seeing "justice done no matter how long it takes."
“While we believe the majority voted for Frank Snepp, we didn’t quite get to the magic number of 9 out of 12 jurors needed to reach a verdict,” she said. "We look forward to trying the case again as soon as possible."
Snepp filed the suit in October 2013, claiming he was a victim of the station's efforts to appeal to a younger demographic when he was fired in October 2012 at age 69, and that the station's managers had trumped up a false record of insubordination as cover to fire Snepp for his age.
Snepp, who was a chief intelligence analyst for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, has decades of television news experience under his belt. He was hired by NBC in 2005 at age 61 and one year later earned the Peabody Award for a four-part series that investigated environmental and safety hazards at a commercial and residential development in southwest Los Angeles.
The trial focused on NBC's move in 2009 to a new business model focused on its online content, which Snepp's attorneys argued led to the station to begin marginalizing him and other older employees. After longtime news director Bob Long retired in August 2010, his replacement, Vickie Burns, and other managers immediately moved to get rid of older employees or physically separate them in the newsroom, according to Snepp.
During Friday's closing arguments, Ames Smith of Howarth & Smith, representing Snepp, argued that NBC had refused to straightforwardly rebut Snepp's claims of age discrimination and wrongful termination, instead putting on a case composed of “days and days and days of misdirection and red herrings,” including details about Snepp's dating life.
NBC was duplicitous both in arguing the case and in firing Snepp, Smith argued, saying that the evidence had shown the company had backdated a negative performance review in order to falsely support its trumped-up claims that Snepp was fired for failing to perform his job duties, calling the action “dishonest, fraud, despicable.”
That despicable behavior left Snepp out of work and traumatized him about the loss of his “life's purpose,” Smith said in urging the jury to award $5,558,400 in economic and non-economic damages. Smith also asked the jury to find that Snepp's bosses acted with malice — which would warrant punitive damages.
The network's attorney Bart Williams of Munger Tolles & Olson LLP told the jury during his closing argument that the actual evidence showed that Snepp was treated fairly, and was fired because he refused to embrace the new position — Content Producer — he was hired to do after the 2009 newsroom reorganization.
Williams pointed out that Snepp was first hired by the station as a freelancer at age 61, was made a staffer at age 62, and was re-hired during the reorganization at age 66 — at a time when the station was hit with mass layoffs, and every laid off employee was younger than Snepp.
On Thursday, the jury found it could not marshal a sufficient number of votes for either side, and Judge Moloney declared a mistrial, sent the jury home, and said a new trial date would be set, likely for sometime in spring 2016, according to Snepp's team.
Snepp is represented by Suzelle Smith, Don Howarth, Jessica C. Walsh and Ames Smith of Howarth & Smith.
NBC is represented by Bart H. Williams, Manuel F. Cachan, Margaret G. Maraschino and Erin J. Cox of Munger Tolles & Olson LLP.
The case is Frank W. Snepp v. NBCUniversal Media LLC et al., case number BC523279, in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles.
Law360, Los Angeles (December 24, 2015, 4:45 PM ET) -- A California judge declared a mistrial Thursday after a jury deadlocked on a former NBC journalist's claim that the network's Los Angeles station fired him because he was too old, causing him $5.5 million in damages.
After nearly four days of deliberation following Friday's closing arguments, the jury found it could not come to a verdict on the main question facing it: whether age was a substantial motivating factor in NBCUniversal Media LLC's firing of then-69-year-old Frank Snepp's firing, according to Snepp's legal team.
The jury first indicated it was stuck on the question of age discrimination in Snepp's firing on Tuesday, sending repeated notes to Los Angeles Superior Court Stephen Moloney, and then answering in the negative when the judge asked whether further argument from the parties might help them reach a verdict. On Thursday morning, with the jury still claiming it was stuck, Judge Moloney declared a mistrial.
Snepp's attorney Suzelle Smith of Howarth & Smith said in a statement on Thursday that her team had learned from the trial, and were committed to seeing "justice done no matter how long it takes."
“While we believe the majority voted for Frank Snepp, we didn’t quite get to the magic number of 9 out of 12 jurors needed to reach a verdict,” she said. "We look forward to trying the case again as soon as possible."
Snepp filed the suit in October 2013, claiming he was a victim of the station's efforts to appeal to a younger demographic when he was fired in October 2012 at age 69, and that the station's managers had trumped up a false record of insubordination as cover to fire Snepp for his age.
Snepp, who was a chief intelligence analyst for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, has decades of television news experience under his belt. He was hired by NBC in 2005 at age 61 and one year later earned the Peabody Award for a four-part series that investigated environmental and safety hazards at a commercial and residential development in southwest Los Angeles.
The trial focused on NBC's move in 2009 to a new business model focused on its online content, which Snepp's attorneys argued led to the station to begin marginalizing him and other older employees. After longtime news director Bob Long retired in August 2010, his replacement, Vickie Burns, and other managers immediately moved to get rid of older employees or physically separate them in the newsroom, according to Snepp.
During Friday's closing arguments, Ames Smith of Howarth & Smith, representing Snepp, argued that NBC had refused to straightforwardly rebut Snepp's claims of age discrimination and wrongful termination, instead putting on a case composed of “days and days and days of misdirection and red herrings,” including details about Snepp's dating life.
NBC was duplicitous both in arguing the case and in firing Snepp, Smith argued, saying that the evidence had shown the company had backdated a negative performance review in order to falsely support its trumped-up claims that Snepp was fired for failing to perform his job duties, calling the action “dishonest, fraud, despicable.”
That despicable behavior left Snepp out of work and traumatized him about the loss of his “life's purpose,” Smith said in urging the jury to award $5,558,400 in economic and non-economic damages. Smith also asked the jury to find that Snepp's bosses acted with malice — which would warrant punitive damages.
The network's attorney Bart Williams of Munger Tolles & Olson LLP told the jury during his closing argument that the actual evidence showed that Snepp was treated fairly, and was fired because he refused to embrace the new position — Content Producer — he was hired to do after the 2009 newsroom reorganization.
Williams pointed out that Snepp was first hired by the station as a freelancer at age 61, was made a staffer at age 62, and was re-hired during the reorganization at age 66 — at a time when the station was hit with mass layoffs, and every laid off employee was younger than Snepp.
On Thursday, the jury found it could not marshal a sufficient number of votes for either side, and Judge Moloney declared a mistrial, sent the jury home, and said a new trial date would be set, likely for sometime in spring 2016, according to Snepp's team.
Snepp is represented by Suzelle Smith, Don Howarth, Jessica C. Walsh and Ames Smith of Howarth & Smith.
NBC is represented by Bart H. Williams, Manuel F. Cachan, Margaret G. Maraschino and Erin J. Cox of Munger Tolles & Olson LLP.
The case is Frank W. Snepp v. NBCUniversal Media LLC et al., case number BC523279, in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles.
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