The former executive director of the Jackson/Hinds Library System who filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the system and the chair of its board of trustees is glad to have the litigation behind her.
“It’s a relief,” said Patty Furr, executive director of the Jackson/Hinds Library System from 2013-2020. “I’m glad to have it over. I wanted to get my good name back.”
District Judge Carlton W. Reeves dismissed the lawsuit Furr filed against the library system and Rickey Jones, chair of the system’s board of trustees, on May 12.
The judge dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning it is permanently dismissed and cannot be brought back to court, and ordered each party in the lawsuit to bear its own costs.
Furr, who had sought no less than $1 million in damages, accepted a smaller award. “I settled for $195,000,” she said.
Furr filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on June 25, 2020 and the EEOC issued a Dismissal and Notice of Right to Sue on August 31, 2020.
Furr was hired on July 1, 2013 as the executive director of the system. She received a letter on June 30, 2020 informing her that her employment was terminated due to accusations of “fostering a hostile work environment,” and the “misapplication and/or misappropriation of funds for improvements to facilities and raises for employees.”
Furr said she received only one job performance evaluation by the board of trustees, and it was positive. She asked the board for a hearing to appeal but did not get one. “I think it’s extremely unfair to terminate someone without giving evidence in the case,” she said.
The lawsuit was necessary Furr said, because she wanted to clear her name.
The lawsuit called out several board members in particular, including Jones, who was accused of creating a hostile work environment for Furr, as well as former board member Wayne McDaniels, who “regularly belittled (Furr) in meetings, personally ordering her to cease doing her normal duties, such as ‘acting as library spokesperson,’ as in her job description, despite the fact that the library board has the authority to make such changes in her responsibilities.”
Furr believes she had a positive impact on the library system the seven years she was employed there, naming upgraded computer services as an example.
“There are days when I miss the library, but I do not miss the stress of running the library building and all of the problems,” she said. “I do not miss the stress.”
A Realtor for about a year, Furr is a real estate agent with Century 21 Maselle & Associates. She said she enjoys helping first-time homebuyers as well as having a more flexible schedule.
Wrongful termination cases in Mississippi are tough to win because state law is pro-employer, said Matt Steffey, professor of law at Mississippi College School of Law.
“Mississippi law provides essentially no protection for employees,” he said. “In the private sector, people can be fired for a good reason, a bad reason or no reason at all. The only protection against being fired is based on race, sex and other categories established by federal law.
“State employees enjoy some constitutional protections, mostly procedural. Persons employed under a contract have whatever protections the contract provides. In most circumstances, the contracts are written by the employer.”
Robert Nicholas and Louis H. Watson Jr., both of Watson & Norris, represented Furr. Pieter Teeuwissen represented Jones, and Sarah Elizabeth Budslick and James Scott Rogers, both of Vernis and Bowling, represented the library system.
