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Jelinek v. Abbott Laboratories10/27/2005
n. Plaintiff filed an application for reconsideration, which this court denied. The Supreme Court of Ohio declined jurisdiction to hear the case. Jelinek v. Abbott Laboratories (2002), 94 Ohio St.3d 1431.
{ } Plaintiff's remaining claims were thereafter tried to a jury from April 8 to April 29, 2002. The following evidence was presented at trial.
{ } Plaintiff, born May 15, 1942, began his career at Ross, a division of Abbott Laboratories, in 1967 as a salesman, or a "territory manager," and over the next 30 years he was employed in various positions with Ross, including working as a district manager in Syracuse, New York, as a district manager in Atlanta, Georgia, and as a national sales manager. The geographic framework for sales for Ross operates under regions, districts, and territories. Regions comprise of districts and districts comprise of territories. Plaintiff left Ross for about nine months in 1970, and then returned to work for Ross. Plaintiff held "quite a few" different positions at Ross, and when he changed positions, it was not necessarily a promotion. (Tr. 586.) For example, he had moved laterally, and had changed positions from a district manager to a sales representative. In 1987, plaintiff moved back to Columbus and was the national sales manager for a sports nutritional drink called "Exceed." In early 1997, plaintiff became a primary care district manager ("PCDM") in Columbus. He was one of seven PCDMs. At trial, primary care was characterized as "calling on physicians." (Tr. 1045.) Plaintiff testified regarding a five-year commitment for his PCDM position. During his employment with Ross, plaintiff consistently received good evaluations. Phil Pini, a former supervisor of plaintiff, described him as an "outstanding" employee who was "conscientious." (Tr. 1048.)
{ } Plaintiff testified that after he assumed the PCDM position, he received an announcement in the summer of 1997 regarding the collapsing of territories by the company. Plaintiff described the "collapsing" of a territory as the dissolving of a territory. Plaintiff further explained, "You eliminate the salesman's base in that territory. And then you take that territory and assign it to other salesmen around that territory. So, you continue to generate sales, but you don't have a person responsible just for that piece of geography by itself. It is shared by other people." (Tr. 152.) According to plaintiff's testimony, the Gary, Indiana territory (also known as the Lake County, Indiana territory), which was part of the Columbus region and was contained within the Indianapolis, Indiana district, had been collapsed. Plaintiff testified that Charlie Fisher, a regional manager, informed him that a large part of geography of the Gary, Indiana territory had been given to a salesman in South Bend, Indiana. According to plaintiff's testimony, the Lake County area, which included Gary, Indiana, was placed in the Chicago region, and the Memphis, Tennessee area was placed in the Columbus region. According to plaintiff, this switch occurred in conjunction with the collapse of the Gary, Indiana territory. Plaintiff testified that the reason for this move was to "keep balance in the areas." (Tr. 161.) At the time these changes occurred in July 1997, they did not affect plaintiff or his job . At some point, plaintiff was aware that there was going to be "downsizing." Id.
{ } Karl Insani, who had been a vice president of sales at Abbott Laboratories, testified that in July 1997, Gary, Indiana, was part of the Columbus region, and Memphis was part of the Chicago territory that summer. Mr. Insani added that the Gary, Indiana territory had gone "back and forth" with respect to the Columbus and Chicago regions. (Tr.
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