Ex-Cendant Worker Wins $1MM in Suit

DANBURY

Karen Ali
Danbury News Times

Newspaper A jury has awarded a Redding woman $1 million after she complained that the Cendant Mobility Corp. mistreated her because her husband began working for a competing relocation firm.

Elizabeth Stewart, 42, was a Cendant vice president and one of its top salespeople, earning about $500,000 a year when she was fired in June 1999. The company maintained, among other things, that Stewart had been sharing secrets with her husband, said Stewart’s lawyer, Scott Lucas.

Cendant, a Danbury firm that is a subsidiary of the New Jersey-based Cendant Corp., won’t comment on the case. But in her suit, Stewart traces the problems to April 1998. Her husband, Gregory, who was an executive vice president for Cendant, was terminated during corporate restructuring, according to the suit.

Before her husband got a new job, Elizabeth Stewart said she went to her Cendant supervisor, James Simon, and asked if her job would be jeopardized if her husband chose to work again in the relocation industry.

“What does that mean for me?” Lucas quoted her as saying. “She’d trusted her boss. She’d known him.”

Simon assured Elizabeth Stewart that her job was secure, despite her husband’s “potentially competitive activities,” according to her suit.

In March 1999, both Gregory Stewart and Cendant officials arrived at a meeting with Citibank. Stewart had hooked up with another relocation company that was vying with Cendant for Citibank’s business.

Immediately after the Citibank meeting, Simon told Elizabeth Stewart that because of her husband’s “competitive activity” it was unlikely that she would be able to keep her current job, the suit states.

Stewart’s suit, filed in Danbury Superior Court, also claims that at this point she was unable to earn commissions, which made up the bulk of her income with Cendant.

In May 1999, she was ordered by her bosses to sign an agreement that set forth new conditions of her employment. She declined, and was fired.

“Had the plaintiff agreed to the conditions set forth in the letter of May 11, 1999, she would have effectively been stripped of all her responsibilities, making it impossible for her to conduct the duties necessary to maintain her position,” the lawsuit states.

Stewart began working at Cendant in May 1997, and was steadily promoted until she became vice president of international sales. That was the post she held until she was fired in June 1999, her lawyer said.

The case went to trial this month, and the jury issued its decision Monday. Danbury juries typically are conservative, say court observers, who were surprised by the size of the award.

The jury found that Cendant officials made false statements and promises to Stewart and that by relying on those statements she lost income. They also found that Cendant owed her wages, including commissions, benefits, and stock options.

A Cendant Mobility spokesman issued a terse comment on the verdict. “It is the policy of Cendant Mobility to not comment on matters that are in litigation or that may be the subject of an appeal.”

Stewart, who is out of state, could not be reached for comment. Lucas said she was pleased with the decision, noting that it’s “quite a nice verdict.”