Ex-Merrill broker wins $3-million defamation suit

FWR Staff

2 July 2006

Maine jury sides with prominent local; Merrill vows to appeal the judgment. A jury awarded former Merrill Lynch broker and community-arts supporter Deborah Galarneau $2.95 million in U.S. District Court in Portland, Maine, last week. The jury believed her claim that the wirehouse defamed her in an attempt to justify her dismissal.

The judgment is the largest ever awarded in Maine for defamation.

" in my life."

Unemployable

Brown, of Portland-based Brown & Burke, argued the case along with co-counsel Michael Nelson of Jensen Baird Gardner & Henry, another Portland-based law firm.

The lead attorney for Merrill was Stephen Brown of the Birmingham, Ala.-based law firm Maynard, Cooper & Gale .

Galarneau had been a broker with Merrill for 15 when she was sacked in January 2004. In explaining to securities regulator NASD the reason for her dismissal - something it's required to do by law - Merrill claimed that Galarneau was fired for inappropriate bond trading, and for making decisions on trades that she was not authorized to make.

"Because of that, she was unemployable," says Nelson.

Galarneau meanwhile said that she had done nothing wrong, and had received another explanation for her dismissal. She sued to recover pay that she would have earned through 2012, when she will reach retirement age.

Letters presented in the case, heard by judge George Singal, showed that Merrill in-house attorney's defended Galarneau's handling of an account then under investigation by state authorities. In addition, Merrill's internal review of her conduct in the matter uncovered no wrongdoing on her part.

The seven-member jury's decision was unanimous.

Merrill plans to appeal the judgment on the grounds that "it is inconsistent with the facts and evidence that was presented at the trial," says Merrill spokesman Bill Halldin.

Galarneau is president of the board of the Portland Symphony Orchestra. -FWR