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This August 2010 photo shows the Nike campus from the air.
(Torsten Kjellstrand/The Oregonian/2010)
A 56-year-old Nike electrician who claimed he was fired because he complained about safety violations at the athletic apparel maker's Beaverton campus has lost a $27 million lawsuit against the company.
A Multnomah County Circuit Court jury Wednesday ruled in favor of Nike, which had argued it wasn't retaliating when it fired Douglas Ossanna in January 2013.
Ossanna was fired because he broke a cardinal rule by sneaking his son and two other men into the Bo Jackson Fitness Center to let them shoot hoops on an unfinished court, Nike lawyers said during the more-than-two-week-long trial.
Ossanna irrevocably broke Nike’s trust after he used his all-access campus pass to let the three unauthorized guests into the building while it was closed for the holidays on Dec. 27, 2012, the lawyers said. The court’s surface had been refinished and was still drying, and suffered some minor marks.
Nike attorney Amy Pedersen said any employee would have been terminated because "no violation of trust is minor" to Nike.
"His background information is irrelevant," Pedersen said. "It wasn't taken into consideration in his favor. It wasn't taken into consideration to his detriment."
Pedersen said Nike takes safety very seriously.
Ossanna said he visited the building to do some urgent work with the two contractors and his son, who is an electrical engineer. Afterward, he said he briefly let them shoot hoops, and they didn't cross any tape restricting them from accessing the court -- nor did the court feel sticky. No cameras recorded activity on the basketball court, and Ossanna's attorney, Glen McClendon, argued any number of unknown people could have damaged the court.
McClendon told jurors that Nike’s official reason for firing Ossanna was just the excuse it had been looking for to retaliate against Ossanna.
“Do you buy that Mr. Ossanna was likely to break into other buildings to steal trade secrets, contracts?” McClendon asked jurors. “... Do you believe it was likely he was to break into Phil Knight’s office?”
Ossanna had complained to managers within Nike -- and ultimately to government safety regulators -- that a Nike electrician apprenticeship program was allowing apprentices to do electrical work without supervision. Among Ossanna's concerns, a person was shocked in the Tiger Woods building because of shoddy electrical work, McClendon said.
Ossanna’s side had called on a witness who said he had played late night basketball in the Bo Jackson gym without approved access and he wasn’t fired or seriously punished.
Ossanna had asked for more than $27 million: $572,00 in economic damages, $1.5 million in non-economic damages and $25 million in punitive damages. McClendon had asked jurors to award a monetary verdict that stung, big enough that “CFO Donald Blair hears.”
While McClendon argued Nike was lying, Nike's attorney, on the other hand, pointed to Ossanna as the one who was misleading jurors.
“Mr. Ossanna has 27 million reasons to tell you the story the way he told it,” Pedersen said.
-- Aimee Green