Jury Finds Boeing Did Not Retaliate

A jury Wednesday rejected claims by a former Boeing Co. scientist that he was laid off in retaliation for blowing the whistle on another Boeing executive who had possessed documents belonging to rival Lockheed Martin Corp.

The Los Angeles County Superior Court jury found that Boeing did not retaliate against Krishnan Raghavan, a former chief scientist at Boeing’s satellite-making business in El Segundo. Boeing contended during the four-week trial that Raghavan was laid off as part of a corporate cost-cutting measure.

Raghavan was laid off about a year after he reported that a colleague, Dean Farmer, who previously worked at Lockheed’s satellite unit, had nearly 9,000 pages of Lockheed documents, some labeled “Lockheed Martin proprietary.” Boeing eventually fired Farmer.

The Raghavan suit drew attention last summer because the allegations of document stealing appeared to be similar to a rocket case involving two former Boeing employees who were charged by federal prosecutors with pilfering Lockheed trade secrets.

The earlier case led to the federal government penalizing Boeing by taking away several rocket contracts worth about $1 billion and giving them to Lockheed.