Ex-contractor loses $600G suit on damages

A former salesman who worked on the Town of North Hempstead's Year 2000 computer project has lost a bid for damages in a long-running court battle over his termination.

Emil Szafran, who was dismissed in 2002 from Sandata Technologies Inc. in Port Washington, won nearly $600,000 in awards in 2008. But U.S. District Court Judge Joanna Seybert in 2008 and 2009 threw out the awards. The U.S. Court of Appeals Second Circuit this week upheld the ruling.

Szafran's attorney, Sanford Young of Manhattan, Thursday criticized the ruling and said he would ask the court to reconsider. "The decision is so wrong," he said. "My client cannot allow this to go untested."

Martin D. Edel, a Manhattan attorney representing Sandata, said, "I do think it's the end of it. We have the Second Circuit stating in no uncertain terms that the District Court should be affirmed in all respects."

In March 2003, Szafran, then 61, filed an age discrimination lawsuit in U.S. District Court against Sandata, an information technology company, for not renewing his contract. A jury found in favor of the company in August 2005, according to court documents. Szafran appealed and was granted a new trial on his breach of contract claim.

Szafran, who was paid a base salary of $96,000 for the first year and $125,000 per year for the next four years, plus commissions as an independent contractor, claimed that he was entitled to additional commissions for the project to ensure that North Hempstead's computer systems were prepared for the transition to the year 2000. In April 1999, Sandata began overhauling the town's computer systems.

At a second District Court trial in July 2008, a jury awarded Szafran $382,753 plus interest on the breach of contract claim and recommended an additional award of $194,808 plus interest for his work on the town project.

In May 2009, Seybert declined to adopt the jury's additional award, finding that Szafran should not be paid for the town project because that work was covered under his contract. In February 2010, Seybert vacated the jury's award of $382,753, ruling that it had used the wrong formula for calculations.

In August 2010, Szafran and the company settled the breach of contract claim, with Sandata agreeing to pay Szafran $60,000. In a decision on Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals Second Circuit affirmed the settlement and the district court's ruling.