Mackenzie alleged that his firing was improper, the coworker was not harassed and the company was looking for an excuse to terminate him. He sued Miller Brewing Co., Patricia Best, the alleged harassed coworker, and Robert Smith, former Vice President of Miller Brewing Co. and Mackenzie's former supervisor.
As a grade level 14, Mackenzie was assigned to corporate headquarters in Milwaukee. His job was to keep the company's distributors happy. Distributors are not employees of Miller; rather, they purchase beer from the company.
There were three additional reorganizations of the sales administration department in 1988, 1989 and 1990. By 1990, Mackenzie continued to manage distributor and field sales services but now reported to Paul Zielinski, director of the new distribution management department. As it turned out, in 1989, Mackenzie's position was downgraded to a grade level 13 but Mackenzie was not told about it at the time.
This also did not bode well for Mackenzie's future at Miller -- it was virtually impossible to jump from a level 13 to a level 15 position. Mackenzie had been striving for a director position at level 15.
When Mackenzie confronted Smith about the change, Smith said he thought he had told Mackenzie years earlier that his position was "grandfathered" in 1989. Mackenzie claims that Smith assured him the position was not affected by the 1987 reorganization.
A New Opportunity
Also, in 1992, as a result of a project Mackenzie worked on, the Boston Consulting Group, hired by Miller, recommended that a new department be established and that Mackenzie be appointed director. On October 16, 1992, the president of Miller and a steering committee agreed to the recommendation.
However, Mackenzie claims that Smith strongly objected to the recommendation. As a result, the president of Miller requested additional time to consider the matter. Eleven days later, Mackenzie was placed on special assignment and relieved of management responsibilities for distributor and field sales services. In January 1993, Mackenzie was assigned to report to David Goulet, the sales administration and analysis director.
The thrust of Mackenzie's conversation with Best was that he was incredulous and outraged that the show had passed the censors. He told Best that Seinfeld's date had a name that rhymed with a part of a woman's anatomy and asked her to guess what rhymed with Delores. Best could not.
Mackenzie apparently did not want to use the term "clitoris," so he copied the page from the dictionary with the definition and showed it to Best. Upon seeing the term, Best said she did not want to discuss it further.
Confrontation
That night, Best got married and was out of work for a long weekend. When she returned to work on Tuesday, March, 23, she reported the conversation she had had with Mackenzie to Goulet. Goulet said that she had three options: confront Mackenzie herself about her discomfort, let Goulet confront Mackenzie, or report it to Personnel. Best opted to confront Mackenzie.
On March 24, 1993, Best told Mackenzie he had stepped over the line with the Seinfeld discussion. Mackenzie apologized but expressed disbelief that someone who uses the vulgar language Best does would be offended. Best reported the conversation to Goulet and Goulet chose to go to Personnel immediately.
The following day, Mackenzie was "invited" to Miller's law library. Goulet was there along with someone from Personnel and two attorneys -- George Whyte (of the firm that represents Miller) and Albert Butler (in-house counsel). Mackenzie claims that he had no idea why he was there. Whyte questioned Mackenzie and asked whether his conversation with Best about the Seinfeld episode was appropriate in the workplace. An hour later, he was escorted by his supervisor, Goulet, out of the building and told never to return.
A Short-Lived Consultant
About a month and a half after he was fired, Mackenzie started to work indirectly for Miller via a corporate organization consultant, Michael J. Mazzoni, who was retained by Miller. Apparently Miller wanted Mackenzie to continue a project that was ongoing at the time of the firing. Miller, however, preferred that Mackenzie have no direct contact with the company. Mackenzie accepted the consulting role for six to seven months.
Meanwhile, Mackenzie contacted an attorney about filing suit against Miller. Once Miller learned that Mackenzie was contemplating a suit, Mackenzie was let go from the consulting contract.
According to Mackenzie's attorney, Mackenzie has applied for work at 71 places throughout the U.S. but has failed to get work and has been labeled a "pervert."
Causes of Action
Mackenzie sued two people and one entity. The defendants were Robert Smith, Patricia Best and the Miller Brewing Co. There were three causes of action to this complaint:
Damages
Mackenzie sought damages for lost salary and benefits as well as for the salary he would have received had he become a director. He asked for $9.2 million in compensatory damages.
