Let’s Go To the Videotape

The New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department dismissed Warner Wolf’s age discrimination claim against Don Imus.

Supreme Court properly dismissed plaintiff’s age discrimination claims brought under the City and State Human Rights Laws, because the impact on plaintiff from the termination of his employment occurred in Florida, where he lived and worked (see e.g. Hoffman v Parade Publs., 15 NY3d 285, 290-292 [2010]; Shah v Wilco Sys., Inc., 27 AD3d 169, 175-176 [1st Dept 2005], lv dismissed in part and denied in part 7 NY3d 859 [2006]). “Whether New York courts have subject matter jurisdiction over a nonresident plaintiff’s claims under the HRLs turns primarily on her [or his] physical location at the time of the alleged discriminatory acts” (Benham v eCommission Solutions, LLC, 119 AD3d 605, 606 [1st Dept 2014]).

Plaintiff’s claim for tortious interference with contractual relations, also arising from the termination of his employment, was not viable because the documentary evidence demonstrates that his employer did not breach his employment contract, but declined to exercise its contractual right to renew the contract for an additional year (see American Preferred Prescription v Health Mgt., 252 AD2d 414, 417 [1st Dept 1998]; see also Willis Re Inc. v Hudson, 29 AD3d 489, 490 [1st Dept 2006]).

Jim Baumbach reported on the suit

Longtime New York sportscaster Warner Wolf says he was fired from Don Imus’ radio show because of his age, according to a lawsuit filed in a Manhattan court on Thursday.

Wolf also says he wasn’t paid severance of nearly $100,000 that he says he was owed.

Wolf, 80, was a regular personality on Imus’ WABC morning show until November 2016, when he was replaced by Sid Rosenberg.

The lawsuit says Wolf agreed in October 2016 to reduce his salary from $195,000 to $80,000 so he could continue doing the Imus broadcasts via satellite from his home in Naples, Florida

According to the lawsuit, Imus changed his mind less than two weeks later, writing to Wolf in an email, “You asked me if I was OK with you doing sports from Florida. I said I was. We tried it. It [expletive].”

Wolf’s last broadcast for WABC was four days after that email.

The lawsuit, which also names three WABC executives as defendants, does not specify the amount of money it seeks in damages. WABC representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Imus, 77, is scheduled to end “Imus in the Morning” on March 29

(Mike Frisch)