Fired knife designer sues Camillus Cutlery
Philip Gibbs says he's owed $374,000 in loan payments and severance.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
By Charley Hannagan
Staff writer
A knife designer fired by Camillus Cutlery has sued the company for repayment of $125,000 he lended to it.
Philip W. Gibbs, a 26-year employee with the knife maker, filed a lawsuit Monday in state Supreme Court in Onondaga County seeking $374,000 for repayment of the loans and three years of severance under his employment contract.
Nathaniel G. Lambright, Gibbs' lawyer, said the company fired Gibbs as a "concocted excuse."
"I think you can put two and two together very quickly and see this company was trying to get rid of a financial liability," he said.
Management of the 130-year-old company, where 78 members of United Steelworkers of America Local 4783 have been on strike since May 17, has said it is facing a severe financial crisis.
Beginning in August 2005, Gibbs, of Onondaga, made the company three loans totaling $136,500, the documents said. The company last year repaid $12,383.12.
"He always looked at Camillus Cutlery as a family, and he looked at the people he worked with as credible people and that they'd honor the loans," Lambright said. "He had no notion that the company was under the financial stress that it appears to be in now."
Gibbs designed knives and has at least five patents. He also developed tools and manufacturing methods, sold goods and negotiated for the company, court documents said.
He wants the court to enforce a 1996 employment contract that calls for Camillus Cutlery to pay him severance of 36 months and his health, medical and dental insurance for six months. His salary was $40.08 per hour.
Camillus Cutlery President James Furgal and Vice President J. Gilbert Kaufman were unavailable for comment Wednesday.
The village of Camillus has been rife with rumors that the company was closing or that parties wanted to buy it. Last week, a customer Cold Steel Inc., of California demanded the company return machines used to make Cold Steel products.
Gibbs' lawsuit claims the company broke his employment contract. He was to receive 36 months severance unless he was fired for cause, which was defined as "being fired for dishonesty or failure to substantially perform the duties that are required under the contract," the documents said.
At the heart of Gibbs' dispute is a $5,000 computer he bought in 2004 for his professional and personal use after the company refused his request for a new computer to run computer-aided design programs. The computer was never connected to the company's network, the documents said.
In June, the company demanded Gibbs provide it with a copy of all software and documents he had been using to perform his job. In his rush to comply, the lawsuit states, Gibbs placed a personal directory on one of the two DVDs he gave the company June 9.
That same day, he sent a letter asking the company to repay its debts.
In a meeting June 19, Kaufman told Gibbs that one of the directories on the DVDs contained pictures of a woman's exposed breast and of him holding a knife in front of a company computer, the suit said.
Kaufman asked Gibbs to resign because of this "harassment issue," the documents said, and offered him eight weeks' vacation and four weeks' severance. Gibbs refused.
The company fired Gibbs June 21 and escorted him from the building, according to the court documents.
Codger
Thanks for the update Doug!
