USAA Defeats Severance Suit by Former VP Fired After 7 Weeks

A high-level United Services Automobile Association employee who was fired after seven weeks on the job lost her lawsuit seeking benefits under the company’s severance plan.

Judge Max O. Cogburn Jr. upheld USAA’s decision denying benefits, saying the record contained “more than a scintilla” of evidence supporting the company’s determination that she was fired for failure to meet the standards of her job. It was enough evidence because the USAA plan gives the company discretion to make benefit determinations and a “highly deferential” standard of judicial review applies in this case, Cogburn said in an opinion docketed Wednesday in the ...