Appeals court upholds Trader Joe’s win in age discrimination suit

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Friday that the manager of a Trader Joe’s store in Brookline, Massachusetts,  did not commit age discrimination when firing an 80-year-old employee for purchasing alcohol for her 19-year-old grandson.

The three-judge panel in Gloria Cocuzzo v. Trader Joe’s East Inc. et al. agreed with a federal judge in Boston that the decision to fire the employee was based on her admission of purchasing beer for her underage grandson and not on her age in violation of the company’s policy on selling alcohol.

The appellate panel was not persuaded by Ms. Cocuzzo’s argument that six employees under the age of 40 were not fired by the specialty grocery chain for violating the same policy and pointed out that five of those employees were written up for not checking the individual’s identification.

Ms. Cocuzzo also failed to show the employees knew the customers purchasing alcohol were underage, the panel said.

Ms. Cocuzzo began working for Trader Joe’s Brookline store in 2003 at the age of 66 and was an exemplary employee.

In February 2021, while both she and her grandson were working, they went to the alcohol section of the store, where he selected beer from the shelf and handed it to her to purchase. After Ms. Cocuzzo purchased the beer, another employee alerted the store manager, Jennifer Gillum, court records show.

Ms. Gillum gave Ms. Cocuzzo the option of retirement or termination for violating the store’s policy on the sale of alcohol.

Ms. Cocuzzo sued Trader Joe’s and Ms. Gillum for allegedly violating the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and Massachusetts law. The trial judge awarded summary judgment to the grocery chain and Ms. Gillum, ruling that Ms. Cocuzzo’s firing was not based solely on her age.

Representatives for the parties did not respond to requests for comment.