Nearly two years ago, Janet Rodriguez was told by Pfizer that her services as a sales rep - a position she held since 1993 - were no longer needed. And so the ensuing paperwork for termination indicated that she was entitled to receive a lump sum payment of $105,851.75. But instead, Pfizer mistakenly sent a check in March 2010 for $517,140.24.
And so, three months later, the drugmaker sent her a letter asking for repayment of $411,288.49. She ignored the letter. Pfizer sent another letter in August 2010, which Rodriguez ignored. A third letter was sent in September 2010 and - guess what? - she ignored that as well. Then, Pfizer hired a collections agency, which Rodriguez dutifully ignored. But she did hire a lawyer who demanded documentation.
Pfizer provided the requested documentation, and the collection agency allegedly made additional attempts to collect, but the lawyer flatly stated that payment would not be forthcoming. And so, Pfizer last week filed a lawsuit, claiming unjust enrichment (you can read the lawsuit here). The attorney, however, is adamant that the money will not be returned.
“By virtue of the fact that they bring this claim so late in the game, so long after their alleged mistake, (it) is just a cheap bullying tactic that we expect the court to see right through,” her lawyer, Saul Zabell, tells The New York Post. There was no explanation, however, for why Rodriguez did not return the money after receiving the first letter. And so we look forward to reading his reply to the court in order to better understand her reasoning. Meanwhile, finders keepers, losers weepers.
shock pic thx to ogimogi on flickr
6 Comments
If a mistake was made by Pfizer, the money should be returned and within the statute of limitations. The party knows it was a mistake and Pfizer certainly gave that person enough time to pay it back with lots of requests. My guess is, she just spent it all and can't return the money, as it has evaporated.
I am betting the law-suit will be won by Pfizer.
Pfizer may win the suit, but I hope they don't. They should try and collect the $198 million they gave to that arrogant horse's ass Hank McKinnell. And get some of the money they gave to Jeff Kindler to go away quietly.
Pfizer may not get a red cent out of this, but I can guarantee that they will make life very unpleasant for Ms Rodriguez until this is resolved.
I was let go by Pfizer(former Wyeth) and my severance was not as high as hers. Nonethe less she should giv e it back its not her money. A $105,000.00 dollar severace is more then most people would get from their company.
Free advice to all still working for the bigpharmafia cos: I've been advicing those still suffering the nasty bigpharma environs, many waiting to get lucky and get the package like this rep. even if it is just the normal amount. This mainly on caferpharma and many have benefited. When you start in this once noble biz (the reason you'll need to do as adviced is that it ain't noble any longer) the co opens a file on you and everything good, bad and ugly about you goes in there. If and when they need to use this file to send you on your merry way, they do and you have nothing to defend yourself especially if the bad and ugly is plentiful. Ms.R was pretty "clean" so they had to pay her something and more by mistake. So to counteract this you too open a file on them. Don't bother with good only bad and ugly is needed in this file, like the "stuff" they do, meaning unethical and illegal. The evidence is all over the place all you need to take it and file it. Often you are asked to do illegal stuff (offlable, bribes,lies etc) and rovided with tools that are perfect evidence to collect and file. Plus you keep looking and filing all the time. Remember today's pharma ain't your friend and you owe then nothing. Once you have plenty and/or enough you are prety safe. If they come after you, you know what to do with the incriminating evidence. They will pay almost anything to prevent you from going to DOJ for instance. Of course that maybe your best bet for if they get them you don't need their lousy job or package. Just ask that rep who blew the whistle on Neurontin and there are many more and will be. Now back to Ms, R. She was a good girl, had no file and collected nothing on Pfizer and as such got paid off, somewhat more and may have to give it back with interest plus legal fees. Had she known and cllected some bad and ugly dirt her options would be much wider. In fact I am sure this story would never show up anywhere. With enough on her bad and ugly file, Pfizer would have bee very happy to just cover thing up as they do in such cases, but we do not know about them. Do we? By the way, no charge for this advice. It worked in my case against one as big if not bigger then Pfizer. The only thing was where I am we have no FCA so I could not go to our equal to DOJ and get them real good. So remember the golden evidence is all around you, file it.
Rodriguez would have many sympathizers in the ows.org movement since she is managing to give grief to "The Man", and that in the words of Andy Dufresne in Shawshank Redemption the $517K represents "severance pay for 19 years".