Man wins $5.8-million in age case against car dealer

TAMPA -- A former Ernie Haire Ford employee who claimed the dealership fired him because of his age won a $5.8-million jury verdict today.

Benjamin Atkinson, 54, worked as wholesale manager for Ernie Haire Ford's Florida Avenue store in Tampa. He filed a lawsuit in July 2006, alleging that a general manager at the dealership had a pattern of terminating employees over the age of 40. The man who replaced him was 26, he said.

Atkinson worked there for nearly six years and lost his job in June 2005. The dealership claimed Atkinson was fired because he committed fraud while authorizing paperwork on two car transactions, according to Ty Zdravko, Atkinson's attorney.

"The jury said he had not committed any falsehoods," Zdravko said.

Jurors reached their verdict in about an hour.

Geoffrey Todd Hodges, the attorney for Ernie Haire Ford, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Zdravko said there was no indication in court that the dealership would appeal.

Zdravko said he used records at trial to show that Ernie Haire Ford had 131 employees who were at least 52 years old in October 2005, about the time Atkinson lost his job. That number dropped to 49 employees by March 2006, he said.

A recently fired Ernie Haire Ford general sales manager testified for the plaintiff. He said the dealership told him it was eliminating his position, Zdravko said. He was replaced a short time later by a man in his 30s, Zdravko said.

Ernie Haire Ford markets itself as the largest new and used Ford dealership in Tampa and among the top-selling Ford dealerships in the nation.

(An earlier version of this story misidentified the job title of the general sales manager, and the side in the suit that presented him as a witness.)

-- Kevin Graham, Times staff writer