The recent matter of Marcus v. PQ Corp. has seen the latest development in the application of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Gross v. FBL Financial Services , 129 S.Ct. 2343 (2009).
Marcus v. PQ Corp., Nos. 11-2009, 11-2066 slip op. (3rd Cir. Jan. 19, 2012), dealt with a handful of plaintiffs who were all terminated from their employment with PQ Corp. not long after PQ purchased their previous employer back in 2005. According to court documents, all of the plaintiffs were over age 55 at the time of their termination, and, as discovery eventually revealed, no one under 55 was terminated by PQ. Consequently, because of what the plaintiffs believed to be something other than coincidence as to their commonality of all being over 55 and terminated from their employment, they brought suit against PQ for violating the ADEA. After a trial on the matter, a jury entered a verdict in favor of the plaintiffs, awarding the two appealing plaintiffs sums of approximately $2.5 million each.
