A total of seven salesmen, including dad, were wrongfully dismissed from dad’s former employer over the past nine years to divert commissions from continuing sales to the customers they established to the commission account of the Sales V.P. Out of the seven men, three were currently gainfully employed in new sales positions and declined participating in the suit, fearing repercussions from their new employers or damage to their reputations as "problem" employees.

The three remaining former co-workers were employed in lower paying positions elsewhere. None of the three had serious health problems, although they were all heavy drinkers, attributing their alcohol dependence to the rigors of traveling and entertaining customers, a part of sales work. They agreed to be enjoined in the civil suit and retained dad’s attorneys to represent them as well.

Filing amendments to the petition to the court took time, delaying any decisions. The extra time enabled dad’s attorneys to negotiate with the company’s attorneys over the likelihood of a guilty verdict. The additional plaintiffs sworn statements substantiated dad’s position. Our attorneys felt we had a solid case and the judge would find the company guilty

Then, a strange thing happened. All three of the other plaintiffs approached our attorneys urging them to accept an offer made by the company for 75,000 plus an option for reinstatement. They all wanted their jobs back! The company was in need of salesmen! The offer was extended for dad as well, but the cash offered wouldn’t cover a fraction of his future anticipated medical maintenance costs, and he was in no condition to return to work in a sales job on the road.

The lawyers urged the others to be patient. They balked, and threatened to ask for separate attorneys, as ours were "greed driven" and out to "ruin the company" by stripping away "working capital" to force the company into dissolution to the dire detriment of the many families of the rest of the work force.

The shrewd defense attorneys spoon-fed the three men an accusatory premise that they were being "used" by dad’s attorneys to filch money from the company and break its back, after which, the company would be financial unable to honor their promise of gainful employment in their old positions. Not only that, but the continued legal battle would endanger the jobs of all of their former co-workers.

The three agreed to accept the company offer, causing our attorneys to petition the court a third time for a change back from the class-action to a single plaintiff. The out of court settlement by the three attempted to make dad’s attorneys out to be blood-sucking vampires seeking monetary vengeance solely for the fees they would earn off of the case.

The story did make the headlines, with some non-complimentary descriptions of my dad. "ALCOHOLIC REFUSES TO ACCEPT SETTLEMENT OFFER FROM SUBTANTIAL COMMUNITY EMPLOYER FOR WRONGFUL FIRING." I imagine the company sent a prepared statement to the press to save them the bother of inquiring into why dad couldn’t accept reinstatement in his old job.

The judge set a trial date, and further requests for continuances were declined. A few days before the trial, the company’s lawyers doubled, and then quadrupled their offer to settle out of court. Dad refused. He admitted being a drunkard, but said he came by it "honestly". He was wiling to abide by the court’s decision.

Dad’s attorneys joined us the hospital to see dad while Terry and I were visiting. The company’s final offer was for 2.1 million dollars in damages, plus the full, continued medical benefits for dad for the rest of his life until he became eligible for Medicare, and for myself until I finished my education and I was gainfully employed, full-time. The amount of cash offered was not to be disclosed for any reason. Disclosure would terminate the continued benefits if made publicly.

With advice of counsel, dad declined. He instructed the attorneys to go directly back tell the company president, personally, and tell him that he not only let his sales vice president rob dad of his health irreparably, and put his life at risk, but he willfully tried to destroy what little dignity he had left when they fed the media with the slanderous picture of him, a man that once served the company well and helped build it for over twenty years.

Dad told the attorneys how small the company was when he first started, and how he personally helped it grow, back when it was struggling to get a foothold on the market niche, and how he took all the new salesmen under his wing to help them start new territories to speed up the process, never asking for the promotions he deserved for his part in building the firm.

He should have gotten the sales vice-president’s position. He earned it, but didn’t mind, because he didn’t really want to be tied down to a desk job. Instead, the president hired a man from outside, a bad choice, one who used his men like pawns; lined his own pockets with commissions dismissed salesmen were due.

Dad spent a good part of his adult life for the company, neglecting his wife and son for weeks at a time, and got stabbed in the back in return. The vice president got stock options and fleeced his salesmen to exercise them and buy cocaine.

Well, dad closely followed the arrest and conviction reports about his former boss. Those valuable stocks were confiscated under the Ricoh statutes along with other assets as gains from a criminal activity. What dad wanted was to have the company buy those stocks back from the police and award them to him as a part of the out of court settlement, in addition to the 2.1 million in cash offered. Dad wanted the president to know that he would share in the future growth and profits of the company from now on.

If the company president refused, he would take the story to the press.

The company president accepted dad’s counter-offer, and sent dad a personal letter of apology. Dad would also be appointed to the vice-presidential position he had originally deserved, before the company would accept a request for medical retirement with full benefits. He only asked that dad participate in a press release to publicly clear the firm of any blame for the crimes of the vice president .The president publicly admitted fault for giving the errant man too much "free reign".

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