(CN) - A former newspaper employee based in Atlanta can claim age discrimination in New York, because that's where the decision to fire him was made, a New York appellate division ruled.
Howard Hoffman worked in the Atlanta office of Parade Publications for all but one of his 16 years with the company.
He received a call from Parade publisher Randy Siegel, stating that the Atlanta office would be closed and his employment would be terminated. The 62-year-old Hoffman sued the company for age discrimination.
The trial court ruled for Parade, stating that it lacked jurisdiction because the impact of the decision was felt in Georgia, not in New York, as required by the appellate division's 2005 decision in Shah v. Wilco System Inc.
Judge Saxe of the 1st Department Appellate Division overturned the lower court's ruling, stating that the deciding factor is where the decision took place, not where the impact was felt.
"We observe that it would be contrary to the purpose of the (city and state anti-discrimination statutes)," Saxe ruled, "to leave it to the courts of other jurisdictions to appropriately respond to acts of discrimination that occurred here."
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