Using Ipod can get you fired

But I'm sure surfing Clutchfans all day is acceptable.

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Think getting fired is bad? It gets worse
Del. employer sues ex-worker for lost profits, pay

By SEAN O'SULLIVAN
The News Journal
05/05/2006

If you are reading this at the office, stop immediately and get back to work.

And don't make any personal phone calls. Or listen to music.

Instead, learn from the case of Drew Scopelliti, who earned $90,000 for eight months of work as sales director for U.S. Card Partner Services in Newark.
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His former employer claims the 44-year-old, who now lives in Chicago, overstated his qualifications to get the job, and once hired, made too many personal phone calls and played with his iPod too much.

The company not only fired him in July, it is now demanding in a federal lawsuit that he pay back the $90,000 plus an additional $210,000 in profits that the company believes it lost because of his poor job performance.

The lawsuit's demands for damages are "startling," said Paul Regan, associate professor at Widener University School of Law, but he said the suit is a plausible, if unusual and aggressive, use of contract law.

While there is some novel legal logic behind the suit, Regan said, there does not appear to be any economic logic.

"In theory, if it saw a jury, they might spend as much [as they are seeking] in legal fees," he said.

"Are they trying to send a message to middle managers? To put the fear of God into the rank and file?" he said. Perhaps company officials expect to get the money back through increased productivity of frightened employees, he added.

As a practical matter, Regan said, most companies would just fire the guy and move on.

Scopelliti's attorney, Richard Weir, said his client plans to vigorously defend himself.

The attorney for U.S. Card Partner Services did not return phone calls.

The Web site for Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank lists U.S. Card Partner Services in Newark as its "exclusive marketing arm" for affinity credit cards, but bank spokeswoman Teri Charest said the company is a subcontractor, and its employees do not work for U.S. Bank.

U.S. Bank advertises itself as the seventh-largest financial services holding company in the nation, with $192 billion in assets. U.S. Card Partner Services is a small company, according to state and bank officials, with only three employees in Delaware. The Web site states the company also has offices in New York and Minneapolis.

The lawsuit, originally filed in Superior Court but transferred to federal court this week, claims Scopelliti was hired in December 2004 to be "sales director" in charge of marketing affinity credit cards to schools.

But the company alleges Scopelliti made false representations that he was qualified for the job and that "if employed in that position he would faithfully perform its duties."

The company stated Scopelliti failed to regularly submit paperwork on his marketing efforts and failed to supervise his employees.

The only specifics offered about Scopelliti's problems at work are that he "made an inordinate number of personal telephone calls" to his girlfriend and sister, and "spent an inordinate amount of time engaged in personal iPod-related activities."

There are no specific details of serious fraud or other wrongdoing in the suit, which charges Scopelliti breached his employment agreement by his inadequate job performance.

The lawsuit demands "at a minimum" $300,000 in damages; it does not specify how the company arrived at that figure.

Regan said the company might have a shot at getting its $90,000 back under contract law, but the demand for lost revenues seems "problematic" at best, even if the defendant "sat there like George Costanza for eight months," a reference to the slacker character on the sitcom "Seinfeld."

"I don't see them getting lost profits," he said, adding that as a matter of contract law, "This is really something."

Contact Sean O'Sullivan at 324-2777 or sosullivan@delawareonline.com.