WINNSBORO – Attorneys for Fairfield County and Councilman Douglas Pauley have asked the Court of Common Pleas in Fairfield County to dismiss a lawsuit filed Feb. 12 by former Fairfield County Recreation Director Lori Schaeffer.
Schaeffer’s suit alleged that Pauley illegally interfered with Schaeffer’s employment and was the source of the complaint used to justify her termination by the County.
In documents filed with the Fairfield County Clerk of Court, Attorneys J. Paul Porter and Elizabeth M. Bowen, of Cromer Babb Porter & Hicks in Columbia, countered that Pauley, as a member of Fairfield County Council, was not a ‘third party’ capable of interfering with any alleged contract between Schaeffer and the County.
Schaeffer’s suit alleges that she had not received any employment discipline from her hire through 2016, except for one disciplinary action directed to her entire department in the summer of 2017. The County and Pauley answered that “…disciplinary notices contained in Plaintiff’s personnel file speak for themselves.”
The County and Pauley also stated in their answer to Schaeffer’s allegations that her “employment was terminated effective Sept. 28, 2017, based on a blatant lack of application and inefficiency.”
The answer also stated that Schaeffer later characterized her termination as a resignation by e-mail correspondence dated Oct. 11, 2017.
In addition to dismissing the lawsuit, the County and Pauley requested that the Court award them costs, attorneys’ fees and such other and further relief as the Court may grant.
