Suit over promised job can proceed to jury

MEDFORD, Ore. – The Oregon Supreme Court ruled that a jury should decide whether a Medford sales associate is entitled to compensation from an employer who he says promised him a job and then denied it.

Michael Cocchiara worked at a Lithia Motors dealership for eight years until suffering a heart attack in 2004. Doctors told him to decrease his stress and work fewer hours, said his attorney G. Jefferson Campbell.

Cocchiara discussed the situation with his sales manager while pursuing other employment options. When Cocchiara got an offer to be a sales representative for the Mail Tribune newspaper, a position that satisfied his doctors’ requirements, he told his boss he was leaving, Campbell said.

“And they said, ‘Oh, don’t take that job. You’re too valuable,’ ” Campbell said. The lawyer said Lithia offered his client a “corporate job” that would satisfy his health needs. But the company never followed through, and the Mail Tribune job was filled when Cocchiara later tried to accept it.

Lithia attorney Ryan Vanderhoof said his clients deny Cocchiara’s allegations, and he characterized this week’s Supreme Court ruling as “just a procedural victory.”

“It’s a legal decision that means he can have his case heard as a matter of law,” Vanderhoof told the Mail Tribune. “There’s no winner or loser yet.”

The high court ruling reverses the decisions of a Jackson County circuit judge and the Oregon Court of Appeals.