PITTSBURGH - Lawyers who scored a nearly $80,000 jury verdict in an age discrimination lawsuit now want to be paid three times that amount.
Peter Winebrake and Mark Gottesfeld of Winebrake & Santillo in Dresher on Oct. 24 filed a motion in Pittsburgh federal court for attorneys fees and costs of roughly $224,000. They say they spent 481 hours on William Pepke's lawsuit against Manor House Kitchens.
A jury ruled for Pepke earlier this month, finding the custom cabinets company discriminated against him when it laid him off at age 60.
Winebrake billed at $600 per hour and Gottesfeld at $400. Affidavits from Pittsburgh-area attorneys support those rates.
"Because prevailing in civil rights and employment rights lawsuits can entail large investments of attorney time, it is not uncommon for counsel's statutory fee recovery to exceed the employee's underlying judgment amount," the motion says.
Pepke won $79,148.50, which includes $30,000 in compensatory damages and $11,500 in liquidated damages under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. The rest is for front and back pay.
The verdict followed Manor House's unsuccessful attempt to avoid trial. Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan rejected the company's motion for summary judgment in August, partly thanks to statements made by Manor House president Jeffrey Backus when he laid Pepke off in August 2023.
Backus allegedly said he was going to keep the "younger guys working" when he laid off Pepke. Backus allegedly added "the younger employees live pay-to-pay and they are the future of the company."
"A reasonable jury could conclude from this record that these remarks by the decisionmaker at a termination meeting are direct evidence of age discrimination and that age discrimination was the but-for cause of Mr. Pepke's layoff," Ranjan wrote.
Pepke was the lead installer in Manor House's granite installation department but was laid off on Aug. 7, 2023. He sued Manor House under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act.
Manor House defended its actions by pointing to a decrease in revenue from granite installations, a decrease in overall sales, lighter work for granite installation and Pepke's stats as the highest-paid employee in the granite installation department.
It laid off eight other employees in 2023 who ranged in age from 32 to 62. It even brought back one of those laid off who is older than Pepke in 2024.
Pepke says he was asked when he was retiring a month before he was laid off during an annual performance review.
Earlier in 2023, Pepke turned 60 years old. Backus was allegedly "very boisterous" in announcing the birthday in the Manor House shop, adding, "Oh, Bill Pepke is 60 years old. He's got seven more years until Social Security. He's going to be here seven more years."
Manor House said there were several economic factors for Pepke's termination and that age-related statements when combined with statements about cost are not actionable.