Defenses to Employment Discrimination. Dorothea O'Driscoll had worked as a quality control inspector for Hercules, Inc, for six years when her employment was terminated in 1986. O'Driscoll, who was over forty years of age, sued Hercules for age

Question

discrimination in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. While preparing for trial, Hercules learned that O'Driscoll had made several misrepresentations when she applied for the job. Among other things, she misrepresented her age, did not disclose a previous employer, falsely represented that she had never applied for work with Hercules before, and untruthfully stated that she had completed two quarters of study at a technical college. Additionally, on her application for group insurance coverage, she misrepresented the age of her son, who would otherwise have been ineligible for coverage as her dependent. Hercules defended against O'Driscoll's claim of age discrimination by stating that had it known of this misconduct, it would have terminated her employment anyway. What should the court decide? Discuss fully.

Answer 1

Defenses to employment discrimination
The court refused to grant O'Driscoll relief, because "Hercules successfully demonstrated that it did not know of Plaintiff's misconduct when she was terminated, it would have been justified in terminating Plaintiff for the misconduct, and it would, in fact, have terminated Plaintiff had it known of her misconduct." For after-acquired evidence of employee misconduct to bar relief in a termination case, the court required proof that (1) the employer was unaware of the misconduct when the employee was discharged, (2) the misconduct would have justified discharge, and (3) the employer would have discharged the employee, if the employer had known of the misconduct. The court commented that O'Driscoll's "repeated misrepresentations demonstrated a pattern of dishonesty and disregard for the truth." The court concluded that "[i]n light of the seriousness of these misrepresentations, the sheer number of misrepresenta-tions indicating Plaintiff's general disregard for the truth, the sensitivity of her position with Hercules as a Quality Control Inspector, and Hercules' reservation of the right to discharge any employee making a misrepresentation on an employment application," O'Driscoll's misconduct would have justified her termination. Hercules provided a copy of O'Driscoll's employment application, the company's employment manual, and affidavits by management personnel to show that O'Driscoll would have been terminated immediately if the company had discovered her misrepresentations.