Former Zona Rosa general manager wins big verdict in lawsuit claiming retaliation
A federal jury in Kansas City awarded former Zona Rosa general manager Rosemary Salerno a $4.9 million verdict Friday in a lawsuit in which she claimed she was fired in retaliation for refusing to cooperate in unethical behavior.
A jury spent a few hours deliberating after a week-long trial before finding that MPI Management LLC, the former owner of the Northland shopping center, owed Salerno $439,470 in damages for lost wages, plus another $500,000 for pain and suffering and $4 million in punitive damages.
MPI Management, which does business as New York-based Olshan Properties, will also have to pay Salerno’s attorneys fees, an amount that U.S. District Court Judge Beth Phillips will determine later.
Salerno sued MPI Management in federal court in 2019, claiming that the company fired her in 2018 after telling executives that she would not participate in their plan to divert revenue from parking meters, which was supposed to go to charity, instead to covering the shopping center’s operating costs.
Salerno had managed Zona Rosa since 2004. Her attorney Athena Dickson said she had received a favorable review just weeks before she was fired. Salerno sued for violations of the Missouri Human Rights Act and Msisouri Whistleblower Act.
“I think the jury took note that you have a long-term employee and then you terminate her six days after she indicates she is not going to participate in their unethical behavior,” said Dickson, who represented Salerno along with Rik Siro.
An attorney for MPI, as well as representatives for Olshan Properties, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Salerno had said that a corporate treasurer for Olshan Properties had approached her in 2018 about cash flow issues at Zona Rosa and suggested using fees paid to about 250 parking meters at the shopping center to shore up finances. Parking meter fees at Zona Rosa ordinarily would go to local charities, which had been broadly advertised to the public.
Salerno responded that it was “unethical and immoral” to divert parking meter fees and refused to do it, according to her lawsuit.
“I think at the end of the day, the defendants never acknowledged that this Change for Charity program was supposed to go to the community...and continued to justify the reasons they wanted to use that money for their operating expenses,” Dickson said. “The jury was able to determine that was not the right thing to do.”
Friday’s verdict was Salerno’s second victory against MPI in court. MPI sued Salerno in Platte County Circuit Court in 2019, accusing her of using company money to buy equipment that she would use for a furniture restoration business she ran with another Zona Rosa employee.
A judge in that case entered a verdict in Salerno’s favor. Salerno’s lawsuit against MPI claimed its allegations against her amounted to a pretext for firing her.
Olshan Properties sold Zona Rosa to Trademark Property Group in 2018.
