43
Youngstown appeals panel hears $14.5M Nationwide case
YOUNGSTOWN
The equivalent of a David- and-Goliath battle resurfaced in the 7th District Court of Appeals between a former insurance agent and an insurance giant.
A three-judge panel of the appellate court heard oral arguments Wednesday in the case, in which Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. of Columbus is challenging a trial court’s $14.5 million judgment against Nationwide and in favor of its former agent, Christine Lucarell.
A jury awarded Lucarell, of Boardman, $42.8 million in a 2012 trial, but visiting Judge Thomas J. Pokorny, who presided over the trial, reduced that amount to $14.5 million.
In her civil lawsuit in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, where the trial occurred, Lucarell alleged that Nationwide enrolled her in an agency executive program, then withheld financing from her agency and made her working conditions so intolerable she was forced to quit.
Nationwide’s lawyer, Thomas D. Warren of Cleveland, however, told the appeals panel, “There was no adverse employment action that was taken against her” by Nationwide.
Warren added Lucarell could not make a valid claim that she was harassed into quitting without alleging some form of discrimination, and that she never alleged discrimination in this case.
“This case is not an accident. It’s not a runaway verdict,” said Lucarell’s lawyer, Caryn M. Groedel of Cleveland.
Nationwide’s motivation “was to take her book of business and not pay her the commissions,” Groedel told the judges.
After court, Groedel said Lucarell “had built up her book of business to $1.8 million, and Nationwide took it all.”
The appeals panel consisted of Judges Gene Donofrio, Cheryl Waite and Carol Robb.
“She was meeting all of her goals. She was receiving all these awards [from Nationwide]. She was excelling by all accounts, and then she’s presented with this modified agreement [with Nationwide] that basically said: ‘Sign or you’re done,’” Judge Robb told Warren.
Warren replied that Lucarell was given the choices of continuing in the original program, signing the modified agreement or exiting the program.
When she signed the modified agreement, Nationwide invested nearly $400,000 in her agency, Warren said.
The appeals panel will rule in a written opinion at a later date.