Wilson v. Yor Accounting Firm The Characters …. Andy Wilson, CPA, Fifth Year Ass

Question

Wilson v. Yor Accounting Firm

The Characters….

Andy Wilson, CPA, Fifth Year Associate at Yor

Paul Bigote, Supervising Partner at Yor

You, Managing Partner of Yor Accounting Firm

Andy was employed for approximately five years. He was given increasing amounts of responsibility at the firm. His yearly performance evaluations were quite impressive, scoring yearly between 8 and 10 (with 10 being the highest). Comments included “good worker, devoted to his profession.” “Superior skills and good ability to communicate with clients.” “Routinely exceeds expectations.” For the past four years, the reviews were always written by Mr. Wilson’s immediate supervisor. It was Mr. Barnegat for the last two years. Now, it is Mr. Bigote. Except for this last review, Mr. Wilson was repeatedly told that based on a canvassing of other partners and Andy’s work performance, that he was “on track” to make partner.

The March performance evaluation this year showed a marked difference from earlier evaluations. Mr. Bigote noted that Mr. Wilson appeared to be disinterested in his work, that total time spent at work had slipped, that he appeared late to meetings and was somewhat disheveled and that he almost failed to meet an important IRS filing deadline for a client. Mr. Bigote advised Mr. Wilson that if things did not improve, he would be asked to leave the firm. Mr. Bigote noted no improvement in performance and in April of this year, Mr. Wilson was terminated.

Andy Claims:

He had always been a stellar performer

He “came out” to Bigote in a private meeting in January of this year

After he “came out,” he noticed a distinct “aloofness” and shunning by Bigote and others

He had always come to work late and stayed late to avoid traffic; no one had ever complained

He was fired because of his sexual orientation

Bigote Claims:

He is new to the firm and had no experience with Andy’s work ethic or lack thereof

He knew nothing about Andy’s sexual orientation…and could care less

Andy’s work was slipping even Andy’s assistant says so

Andy was coming in late and looking disheveled

He can’t take a chance when clients are at issue

Your Mission

Make a recommendation to your fellow partners about how to proceed. Be sure to explain the standard(s)a court will use in deciding this case and identify issues that will be important to the firm in making a decision on how to proceed.

Other Information:

Results of the Investigation by Outside Law Firm:

H. Louis Dewey, Esq.

Your State’s laws do not have a provision specifically prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation

Another former employee may also claim discrimination based on sexual orientation

Andy has AIDS

Litigation will cost over $600,000.

Explanation / Answer

If Andy is to be put to charge, it is clear that he has been coming to late office every day for avoiding the traffic but avoiding the traffic could not be a reason. Andy is at fault at this. Also not showing up at meetings is also an serious issue. The other facts are that much of these are facts that are easy for evidence purpose because most of the records of minutes of meeting would be present with the company which could show Andy fault.

However if Andy decides to go to the court, the courts are always inclined towards labor or employee, the court would look into the issue of whether he was fired on wrong reasons and ther is no doubt that it will create and doubt in judge mind that how is it possible that Andy performance suddenly gone down in 5th year and especially when he himself would have known about his promotion.

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