Ex-Employee Wins $51.5 Million In Age Discrimination Lawsuit Against Lockheed Martin

MOORESTOWN, NJ — A former employee at Moorestown-based defense contractor Lockheed Martin has been awarded $$51,560,000 after he claimed he was laid off due to his age.

Robert Braden was 66 when he was laid off in 2012, a round of layoffs he claimed targeted older workers, the law firm of Console and Mattiacci said. Console and Mattiacci represented Braden in the case.

Lockheed Martin countered by saying Braden was laid off because of his “below average performance," according to the Courier Post.

An eight-person jury awarded Braden what the law firm called "one of the largest ever obtained by an individual plaintiff in an age discrimination case” following a four-day trial last week.

“The jury sent a loud and clear message to corporate America: no company is too big to follow the civil rights laws of this amazing country of ours," Stephen G. Console, a founding partner of the law firm, said in a statement. "This is a verdict that should make every employee in this country proud and happy.”

Braden was awarded $520,000 in economic losses, $520,000 for the company’s “willful action against the Age Discrimination and Employment Act,” $520,000 for pain and suffering and $50 million in punitive damages.

Braden began working at the Moorestown facility in 1984, when it was owned by RCA, according to law.com. He became an employee of Lockheed Martin in 1995.

He was the only member of the Electronic Systems-Mission Systems and Sensors unit who was laid off, according to nj.com. He claimed Lockheed Martin was targeting all the older workers for layoffs, in an attempt to replace them with younger people.