DES MOINES – A man once employed by Iowa State University will get a $650,000 payday for treatment by his former bosses that damaged his reputation and inflicted emotional distress, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled last week.
After an earlier trial of more than two weeks, a jury and a judge awarded Dennis Smith, a writer formerly employed by the College of Engineering at Iowa State University, a total of $1,284,027.40 in damages against ISU and the State of Iowa. Smith recovered $500,000 for intentional infliction of emotional distress and an additional $784,027.40 under a whistleblowing statute for retaliation suffered because he reported managerial misconduct to ISU’s president. ISU and the State appealed, and the court of appeals affirmed the intentional infliction of emotional distress award, but set aside the statutory whistleblowing award.
On further review, the Iowa Supreme Court affirmed the jury’s emotional distress award and reduced, but did not set aside, the district court’s award of damages under the whistleblowing statute. Instead, he was awarded $150,000 for the damage done to his reputation.
Smith’s boss was Pamela Reinig. Over the years, Smith received positive job performance evaluations from her. Reinig’s reviews of Smith’s writing were especially laudatory. By 2002, Smith was taking on supervisory responsibilities, and Reinig told him she would have his job classification upgraded.
For the next three years, Smith did not get the promotion. Reinig gave Smith various excuses as to why he had not received it, while continuing to tell Smith she was submitting him annually for reclassification. It later came to light that, despite her promises, Reinig had not submitted Smith’s name for reclassification.
Smith later filed a grievance against Reinig, who then reported to her superiors that she feared Smith because he once belonged to a gun club, and the relationship between the two spiraled out of control from there, leading to legal action. It was soon uncovered the Reinig was stealing money from the university, totaling $58,505. She was later found guilty by a jury of felony first-degree theft and was sentenced to probation and restitution.
[poll random]
