EMPLOYMENT
Company’s firing justified, judge rules
On Oct. 7, a judge ruled in favor of a helicopter manufacturer that fired its president, who claimed he was terminated for leading an investigation. Michael Prieto sued Bell Aerospace Services in 2008 for wrongful termination. He said the company didn’t want him to investigate the mischarging of labor. The defense contended that the plaintiff was fully authorized to perform the investigation. The defense argued that Prieto’s leadership yielded a disproportionately large number of “corrective action reports” from the Defense Contract Management Agency, indicating that the company was not performing to standards under its contracts. The court granted a directed verdict for the defense.
