ROANE MAN AWARDED $200,000 IN WRONGFUL FIRING

(10/18/2008)

A Roane County man has been awarded about $200,000 after he says he was fired for trying to receive workers' compensation benefits. A Boone County jury ruled that Nile R. Patton Jr. was wrongfully fired when Kentucky-based Raven Crest Contracting failed to reinstate him to his former position. The company terminated him while he was off work because of a job-related injury and receiving total temporary disability benefits. The jury awarded Patton $147,200 in back pay and $25,000 for aggravation, inconvenience, humiliation, embarrassment and loss of dignity. Other costs attached to the suit total about $200,000. Patton claimed Raven Crest - and other defendants later removed from the case - "willfully, maliciously and unlawfully" terminated him on Nov. 6, 2006. Patton had been a heavy equipment operator for the company since April 2003. He was represented by Mark A. Atkinson of the Charleston law firm of Atkinson & Polak and by Matthew M. Hatfield of the Madison law firm of Hatfield & Hatfield.

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