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Compliance December 1, 2004
Massachusetts Court Tosses Out Avon Discrimination Verdict
January 24, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has thrown out a
$633,000 jury award in an age discrimination case involving
Avon.
Reported by Fred Schneyer
The state’s high court ruled that plaintiff Mary Shea Knight had to show that she was replaced with a substantially younger person after her firing in order to show age discrimination, according to a National Law Journal article. The court threw out the earlier verdict in favor of Knight and ordered that the case be decided in favor of the cosmetic marketing company. Knight’s replacement was 28 months younger.
According to the Law Journal article,
Knight owned two stores that also
sold cosmetics when Avon hired her. She agreed to close
one and have her daughter operate the other. Once hired,
Knight temporarily covered two Avon territories. In one,
she was replaced by a 24-year-old and, and after her
termination, by a 43-year-old in the other.
On appeal, Avon argued and the
Supreme Judicial court agreed, that Knight was replaced
by the 43-year-old, not the 24-year-old. Avon said Knight
had no age discrimination claim because her replacement
was not substantially younger.
The case is Knight v. Avon
Products Inc., No. SJC-08776.