A former Cleveland, Tenn., firefighter who was unlawfully fired can't collect on lost pay because he didn't try hard enough to find another job, a Bradley County chancellor says.
"This court is left with this case in a strange posture," Chancellor Jerri Bryant wrote in her Oct. 11 ruling against Joshua Keller.
Though she previously ruled Keller's 2012 firing "inappropriate" because it violated Cleveland's personnel policy, Bryant wrote, "it is the law in Tennessee [that] when a plaintiff fails to exercise reasonable effort to mitigate damages, plaintiff cannot recover." Keller, a Cleveland firefighter since 2008, was terminated by then-City Manager Janice Casteel in January 2012 after pleading guilty to misdemeanor assault. Court records state that Casteel also cited "'disgraceful personal conduct apparently stemming from alcohol abuse" as a factor in his firing.