Remember the article in the Brownsville Herald (and in this blog) reporting that Brownsville Independent School District bus driver Alfredo Sobrevilla had successfully sued the district in a Whistleblower Act lawsuit and a jury had rendered a $175,000 verdict against Transportation Dept. director Art Rendon?
Well, guess what? Judge Migdalia Lopez, of the 197th District Court, has granted the BISD counsel's petition to appeal the case and are seeking to have the jury's verdict overturned and award the bus driver nothing, hoping a new jury will come down instead on the BISD and Rendon's side. The way we understand it, BISD lawyers will claim that the jury had misunderstood the instructions when they heard the charge and rendered their verdict (and award).
Sobrevilla, a former school bus driver, sued the
BISD in a whistleblower case arguing that BISD transportation administrator Rendon fired had him in retaliation for reporting to BISD police an assault
by his supervisor Noe Guerrero on Sept. 12, 2012.
The jury, unanimously, found that Sobrevilla made the report of the alleged assault in
good faith and that the termination would not have occurred were it not
for the report.
The local newspaper reported that the verdict included a judgment of
$30,000 for lost wages, $25,000 for lost benefits and $125,000 in
compensatory damages. The jury also recommended that Sobrevilla not get
his same job back with BISD.
At the time, BISD said it would appeal the decision.
NOw that they did, however, perhaps the loud crowings of delight made by trustee Minerva Peña and her bus driver union ally Petra Ramirez will cease. We know that Peña has been vocal about her criticism of Rendon as a result of the original jury verdict, as had Ramirez. Both Peña and trustee
4 comments:
Yet another indication that BISD trustees "court" the unions (including the teachers union) and don't court students (who can't vote) and thus policy is made to benefit the staff...and they let education and academics fall by the wayside. This is why BISD students, after graduation, can only hope to be a bus driver or staff employee....nada mas.
My brother Arthur is about as honest as can be. He does not try to embarrass or fire anyone without just cause.
His kind of thinking does not work with the likes of Pena.
Corruption is deeply imbedded in Cameron County, how ever with honest Judges like Magalia Lopez, we are stamping out the corruption.
For a Judge to render a verdict NOV (Not withstanding the verdict) is a rare thing as well it should be. The jury is the decider of disputed facts and they really have to get it wrong for a judge to do that.
I hope this verdict is appealed, as these things should be examined closely by the appellate court to make certain the judge acted correctly. We don't want this stuff to be too common.
If this poor bus driver were an high paid administrator at BISD the district would pay and not appeal.
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