HUNTINGTON BEACH : Jury Awards $150,000 to Woman Who Lost Job

An Orange County Superior Court jury awarded $150,000 to a Huntington Beach woman Friday, almost two years after she was fired without warning from her $30,000-per-year job with a Los Angeles-based landscaping firm.

Two-thirds of the jury award--$100,000--was for punitive damages against Valley Crest Landscape Inc. for breach of an implied contract and unfair business dealings with the plaintiff, Alexis Sims, juror Julian Feldman said.

The remaining portion of the jury award was divided equally for financial losses and emotional damage.

“I feel great, absolutely great,” Sims said after the verdict. “But I’ve decided not to make an issue out of this. I’m going to put this all behind me.”

Sims had worked at the firm for six years and nine months until she was fired July 19, 1985, according to her attorney, William M. Crosby.

The Santa Ana branch office of the Los Angeles-based firm had been having financial difficulties when it brought in a new branch manager that same year. The new manager began issuing new directives and complained if employees were a few minutes late for work, Crosby said.

After many clashes, the manager fired Sims, Crosby said.

“The general feeling on the jury was that she had not been treated fairly by Valley Crest,” Feldman said. “The only real question was over compensation.”

Feldman described the jury award as “a substantial slap on the wrist.”