In 2010, a Miami-Dade jury awarded former WSVN anchor and health reporter Marilyn Mitzel nearly $1 million in her age discrimination case against the station and its owner Sunbeam Television. Now, according to the Miami Herald, an appellate court has reversed that decision.
Here’s the Herald:
The appellate court ruled that the trial judge shouldn’t have allowed Mitzel to add a charge of sex discrimination to her lawsuit late in the case. And it was harshly critical of an expert witness who testified on Mitzel’s behalf.
In December 2005, WSVN dismissed Mitzel when she was 52. She spent 17 years with the station working as an anchor and reporter.
Speaking with the Miami Herald, Mitzel’s attorney said that he plans to continue fighting.
“We would like to have won it, obviously,” he said. “But we’ve won this trial once, and now we’ll go back and win it again.”
Mitzel was WSVN’s highest-paid reporter, making $158,000 annually, when the station terminated her contract two years before it was set to expire.
In 2010, a six-person jury awarded her $937,000 for lost wages, future pension losses, and punitive damages.
The appellate court’s full decision can be viewed here.