Lawsuit dropped, city pays

A former Chula Vista fire official who won a $1.2 million disability discrimination lawsuit against the city of Chula Vista has agreed to a $900,000 settlement with the city in exchange for dropping a separate legal action, pushing the total award to $2.1 million.

The $2.1 million settlement, recommended by a mediator, drops former Chula Vista Deputy Fire Chief Jim Garcia’s defamation claim against the city and includes the jury-awarded $1.2 million.

“The parties enter this agreement with no admissions or accusations of fault or wrongdoing by or against any other party, but to avoid the ongoing expense, stress, disruption and uncertainty of potential and existing disputes and litigation between them, and to obtain final peace and resolution and go their separate ways,” the settlement agreement states.

Attorney Bradley Gage, who represented Garcia, called the agreement “fair and reasonable.”

“When you look at everything in this case, what my client went through, it certainly is vindication for him,” Gage said.
City Attorney Glen Googins said the settlement made financial sense for the city.

“The city’s decision to settle the Garcia case was purely a business decision,” he said. “The city continues to believe that the fire chief acted within his rights when he released then deputy fire chief Garcia, an “at-will” employee, as part of his reorganization of that department. After the trial, and after years of expensive and disruptive litigation, the city ultimately decided it was in the best interests of all to settle the matter. The alternative would have been to seek a retrial, appeals or both. This would have involved even more expense and disruption.”

Garcia, 58, sued the city in May 2015 alleging that he was a victim of age discrimination and disability discrimination.
In January, a jury ruled in Garcia’s favor in the disability discrimination claim but could not reach a verdict on the age discrimination claim.

Weeks after winning his case, Garcia filed a defamation claim against the city, alleging that statements made by the city in the media about his firing were  defamatory.

The city had said in its statement that Garcia was legitimately and appropriately terminated from his at-will deputy fire chief position “in the best interest of public safety and the department.”

The city had also contended that Garcia was “terminated for having participated in decisions contrary to the safety and welfare of the city’s citizens and firefighters.”

But Gage previously said that statement differs from the city’s own interrogatory answers in which he said the city claimed different reasons for Garcia’s termination.

In sworn statements the city had said Garcia was fired because of reorganization in the fire department, which gave the then-newly appointed fire chief an opportunity to select his at-will executive staff.

The city had also said that Garcia had been subjected to a National Censure by the International Association of Firefighter’s.  Gage had said this statement put Garcia in a false light because it failed to identify that the censure was later withdrawn.

Garica had demanded that the city retract its statement and demanded them to “remove defamatory statements from any and all public places, including without limitation on San Diego’s ABC 10 News website,” the source where the statements were published.

The claim solely mentioned San Diego’s ABC News 10 as the source where the statements were published. However, in February the Star-News also published the city’s statement that was issued in a press release.

In court documents  Gage said Garcia was fired from his deputy fire chief position on Jan. 14, 2015 because of a reoccurring work-related neck injury. Gage said Garcia first injured his neck in 1998 in a work-related incident. Gage said at that time Garcia had neck surgery and missed a few months of work due to recovery but came back and had a successful 25-year fire career in Chula Vista.

Then in 2015, Garcia was fired from his job by the fire chief after Garcia reinjured his neck, Gage said.

“Hopefully next time the city of Chula Vista – and other cities – will see this verdict, and judgment and settlement and realize that they just can’t discriminate against people  whether it’s based on disability, or age, or  race, or sex or whatever the characteristic is.”