Cain Accuser Got a Year’s Salary in Severance Pay ($35k)

NY Times ^ | November 01, 2011 | JIM RUTENBERG, JEFF ZELENY and MIKE McINTIRE

[Steelfish]

Cain Accuser Got a Year’s Salary in Severance Pay By JIM RUTENBERG, JEFF ZELENY and MIKE McINTIRE November 1, 2011

WASHINGTON — The National Restaurant Association gave $35,000 — a year’s salary — in severance pay to a female staff member in the late 1990s after an encounter with Herman Cain, its chief executive at the time, made her uncomfortable working there, three people with direct knowledge of the payment said on Tuesday.

The woman was one of two whose accusations of sexual harassment by Mr. Cain, now a Republican candidate for president, led to paid severance agreements during his 1996-99 tenure as the association’s chief. Disclosure of the cases has rocked Mr. Cain’s campaign just as he was surging in polls.

Further challenging Mr. Cain, a lawyer for the second woman called on the restaurant association to release her from a confidentiality agreement signed as part of her settlement, raising the prospect that she could publicly dispute Mr. Cain’s account of what happened. The lawyer said the confidentiality agreement had left her unable to respond to Mr. Cain’s dismissal of the complaints against him as a “witch hunt” or to his denials of any inappropriate behavior toward the women.

“He’s basically saying: ‘I never harassed anyone. These claims have no merit,’ ” said the lawyer, Joel P. Bennett of Washington, who represented the woman in her initial agreement. “And I’m sure my client would have a comeback to that.”

The precise nature of the encounters between Mr. Cain and the two women remained murky. He has said over the past two days that he joked with one of the women about her height, but he has not addressed what happened with the first woman — the one who received the $35,000 payment.....

[muawiyah]

Mr. Cain need do nothing more than call Bill Clinton and ask him how long he’s known Br’r Bennett ~

[pieceofthepuzzle]

“There are a lot of worthless employees out there who, when they realize that their days with a company are numbered, come up with a “discrimination” or “sexual harassment” complaint as a way of leaving with with little more walking around money.”

Irrespective of this particular case, and for the record I support Cain, I have also seen real harassment, sexual and otherwise, and the people who do it generally get away with it. On the other hand, you are right that people will also bring cases to either get ‘revenge’ or to make money. Neither is acceptable.

[justsaynomore]

SEVERENCE PAY

This is an amount of money you are given when you are let go from a company.

This is NOT a SETTLEMENT as in a court case or out of court case, nor is it hush money or anything else. Please don't help the liberal media. Severance pay is not uncommon when an employee is fired.

[Mike Darancette]

so now how can she speak out?

She can and she will lie and be paid well. There is no honor among the jackals on the left.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Yeah. I just have seen what I talked about happen so many times. When the handwriting is on the wall for a piece of deadwood, the “complaints” come out.

[bgill]

Anything less than half a million against the president of the company is a joke. 35k isn’t even worth the time it took to write out the check.

[RightFighter]

Sorry, Herman made his own bed by continually changing his story in the last few days. I’m afraid he is toast.

[BagCamAddict]

The lawyer said the confidentiality agreement had left her unable to respond to Mr. Cain’s dismissal of the complaints against him as a “witch hunt” or to his denials of any inappropriate behavior toward the women.

Grrrrrrr!! This makes me so angry! This particular woman is not the person who is being wronged here! SHE got her settlement for anything Cain did or did not do wrong back in the 1990's. SHE is not being named by name, so there is no SHE here.

HE is the one who has been publicly named, and HE is the one who's name is being drug through the mud. So can HE sue HER now for harassment???

If she would just keep her head down, keep her mouth shut, keep to herself, and go on about her business, then there would be no problem here. The parties involved had an agreement that said the matter was resolved. For better or worse, they signed on the dotted line and paid/accepted the money, so it is OVER.

Now only HE is being drug through the mud. SHE is not being harmed here. SHE doesn't need to clear anything up, and SHE doesn't need to, nor does she have a right to "respond to" anything Cain says, no matter how dismissive he is on the matter. She accepted the check, end of story.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

Settlements don’t always mean guilt. For example, depending on where you work and what insurance you have, as a physician you may have to agree to accept settlement if the insurance company and/or hospital thinks this would be a cheaper and better option than fighting the case in court. It would really be horrible if the plaintiff was able to collect settlement money from a frivolous lawsuit, and then be able to trash the physician publicly. This could be similar. It’s probably a lot cheaper to settle for $35,000 than to fight a case in court, where jury decisions can be unpredictable.

[Steelfish]

True. That ‘s about 60-100 hours of preliminary litigation in the 1990s and loss of reputation for NRA.

[Baynative]

"...like Justice Thomas went through. This is simply one thing, TO DESTROY MR. CAIN, no matter what."

With Thomas he was only working to be confirmed by the Senate. Cain is making his appeal to the entire population. This gambit by "occupy Politico" just might backfire. It has given Cain a huge amount of free air time and if he learns to turn the conversation away from this smoke screen and use it to his benefit it may be a gift.

[NonValueAdded]

From a caller to Mark Levin today, $35k is the “industry standard” settlement, the baseline cost a firm’s insurer would incur to mount a defense. Therefore, the insurer will offer that as settlement and the ambulance chaser will be more than happy to take his or her cut.

[UB355]

I for one agree with the way he has delt with the jackels in the press.

[Wayne07]

Severance just means you left, not that you were fired (though that, and retirement are most common reasons).

[Bernard Marx]

One more cost of doing business in the US.

That's exactly right. My wife is an expert Human Resources consultant who handles these cases daily. The tragedy is that it's far more cost-effective to pay these parasites off than to fight them in court. They walk with an easy $60-$100 K, a fraction of the $600,000 the company would have to spend on lawyers and other costs before the first day of the trial.

[RedMDer]

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[danielmryan]

I have also seen real harassment, sexual and otherwise, and the people who do it generally get away with it. On the other hand, you are right that people will also bring cases to either get ‘revenge’ or to make money.

Or to take it out on someone they can nail.

[G Larry]

They ALL get $35k!
That’s the going rate for settling these fraudulent suits.
Has been for quite awhile now.

[50mm]

Your post made me very uncomfortabe.

I kinda enjoy being made "uncomfortable."

[Jay Santos CP]

The tragedy is that it's far more cost-effective to pay these parasites off than to fight them in court.

I've got no legal background whatsoever. But this is solved with tort reform. The loser pays the costs of the case. If it's a fraudulent, frivolous case, it won't be filed. It's that simple.

We are being robbed by these people. Our industries are being robbed and our government is now completely in their control. It's a crime syndicate everywhere you turn.