Norwood car dealership wins $1.5-million victory in legal battle against brothers of worker fired after cancer diagnosis

Jalopnik reports on some vindication this week for Clay Nissan: A Norfolk Superior Court judge this week ordered the assets of two brothers seized because the judge agreed they sure seemed to have libeled the car dealership over the way it fired their sister.

Far from firing Jill Colter because she had cancer, her manager at Clay Nissan agonized over dumping her because of poor job performance that had nothing to do with her treatment, Judge Renee Dupuis wrote in an order. In fact, Clay knew when it hired Colter she had cancer and even as it was firing her, it continued to employ two other people with cancer in the same department, Dupuis wrote.

An extensive blog and Facebook campaign by the brothers cost the dealership large amounts of money in lost sales when they had no evidence to back their claims the dealership regularly fired people diagnosed with cancer, she added in ordering the brothers' assets attached in what she said was the likely case the company would win its defamation suit.