=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/c/a/2008/07/18/BA7S11R9JJ= .DTL --------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, July 18, 2008 (SF Chronicle) Flight attendant wins $1.2 million in suit Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer A federal court jury in San Francisco awarded more than $1.2 million in damages Thursday to a former American Airlines flight attendant who said the airline concocted reasons to fire her after she complained about an assault by a passenger. The eight-member U.S. District Court jury found that American Airlines fired Greta Anderson in 2005 at least in part because of the company's belief that she was mentally disabled, even though she was able to do the job she had held since 1976. The jury awarded her $238,000 for wage losses and $1 million for emotional distress. The airline said it dismissed Anderson for insubordination because she disobeyed supervisors' orders by repeatedly asking a psychiatrist for a copy of his report that found her unfit for duty. Company lawyers were unavailable for comment late Thursday, but Anderson's attorney, Gregory Redmond, said the airline's position during the trial left little doubt that it would appeal the verdict. Anderson, 57, lives in Reno and was based in San Jose as a flight attendant. In trial testimony and an interview, she said her problems with the airline started in May 1995 when a passenger frustrated by flight delays kicked her in the back. The passenger turned out to be the wife of a French diplomat, Anderson said, and when she tried to get American Airlines to do something about it, the company turned on her instead. Anderson said she was referred for a series of psychiatric evaluations over the next eight years, all of which found her fit to work, while she spoke out publicly about safety problems posed by combative airline passengers. After an incident on a flight in August 2003 - in which, she said, the pilot raised a fist to her and later had her removed from the plane - the company referred her to another psychiatrist, who found her unstable. She was suspended without pay after the flight, was fired in September 2005 and filed suit a year later. Her case shows that "psychological evaluations cannot be used as a surgical tool to cut out employees from a 30-year career, to silence them," Anderson said after the verdict, which followed a two-week trial. Redmond, Anderson's lawyer, said the verdict showed that the jury agreed with Anderson that the psychiatrist's assessment of her as unstable and unfit for duty was unfounded. "It vindicates my client," he said. In court papers, Kenneth O'Brien, a lawyer for the airline, defended the psychiatrist's conclusions and said he reasonably refused to give Anderson a copy of the report because it might cause her further mental trauma. The airline's treatment of Anderson was "neither discriminatory, retaliatory nor wrongful," O'Brien said. E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx --------------------------= -------------------------------------------- Copyright 2008 SF Chronicle <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> If you wish to unsubscribe from the AIRLINE List, please send an E-mail to: "listserv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx". Within the body of the text, only write the following:"SIGNOFF AIRLINE".