The ruling restores Alice Cleveland's $495,000 jury award. The Home Shopping Network fired her in 2001.
By SCOTT BARANCIK
Published May 13, 2004
During her many years as an on-air host for Home Shopping Network, Alice Cleveland persuaded viewers to buy thousands of collectible dolls.
But when the St. Petersburg shopping channel fired her in 2001, several years after she was diagnosed with a neuromuscular disease, Cleveland let her lawyers do the talking.
On Wednesday, a federal appeals court ruled in the Pinellas Park resident's favor. In a 17-page decision, the three-judge panel said a Tampa jury acted reasonably in 2002 when it concluded that Home Shopping Network might have illegally fired Cleveland because of her disability.
The Atlanta panel's ruling restores the jury decision to award Cleveland $495,000 in actual and punitive damages. It also permits U.S. Magistrate Thomas B. McCoun III to award her attorneys' fees as well as additional damages for future lost wages.
In addition, the ruling could bring an end to Cleveland's three-year legal saga. It reverses a 2003 decision by McCoun that had overturned the jury's verdict.
Home Shopping Network's only option is to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, said Cleveland's attorney, Craig Berman of St. Petersburg. It's unclear what the company will do. Outside counsel Tom Gonzalez of Tampa referred a call to the company, and a call to the company's public relations department Wednesday afternoon was not returned.
Cleveland, 55, was unavailable for comment. She still sells products on television, appearing on rival channel QVC as a guest host representing various vendors.
But she no longer has the regular income she once did at Home Shopping Network, where she began selling dolls on-air in 1985. Berman said Cleveland was the family's main breadwinner at the time and her husband had retired from the Florida Highway Patrol on disability.
According to a short history included in the appeals court's opinion, Cleveland was still selling dolls in 1997 when a newly appointed supervisor decided she "did not like Cleveland's hosting style."
The following year, Cleveland was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, a disease that causes extreme fatigue but has few if any visible manifestations, and took the first of two medical leaves.
After Cleveland returned to work with a doctor's restricted approval, the new supervisor met with Home Shopping's in-house counsel about firing her. "The in-house counsel advised against it, concerned about a possible ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) suit," the judges panel wrote.
Cleveland was instead assigned an off-the-air position, with occasional appearances on America's Store, "HSN's less-esteemed sister network." She was fired in April 2001, ostensibly for performing in an unauthorized infomercial on another station.
At the original jury trial, Berman provided evidence that the infomercial was an excuse and that the real reason for firing Cleveland was her disability. The jury sided with Cleveland, but Magistrate McCoun subsequently concluded the jury was in error.
- Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. Scott Barancik can be reached at barancik@sptimes.com or 727 893-8751.
