Wistar age bias lawsuit is resolved

The Wistar Institute and former Wistar Director Hilary Koprowski have settled an age discrimination suit Koprowski filed last year, current Wistar Director Giovanni Rovera said last night. Rovera declined to disclose the terms of the settlement, but said, "Everybody is satisfied. I think it is a fair settlement." Koprowski also said the settlement was "satisfactory to both parties," although he also declined to discuss the settlement's terms. Wistar President Robert Fox and Koprowski both said last night that Koprowski will continue to work with Wistar, but they declined to discuss specifics. The lawsuit, originally filed in February 1992, maintained that Koprowski -- who served as Wistar's director from 1957 to 1991 -- was removed from that position and relieved of many of his research responsibilities solely because of his age. Koprowski was 74 years old at the time. The suit also claimed that Rovera and Fox had subjected Koprowski to "continuing discrimination, harassment and retaliation" after Koprowski filed complaints with a state civil rights board and the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in September 1991. According to the suit, Wistar responded to Koprowski's complaints by firing members of his staff, preventing him from ordering office supplies and mischaracterizing a routine federal audit of government grants as focusing on Koprowski's expenditures. In the suit, Koprowski asked the court to restore him to his former position as Wistar director, as well as to his other research responsibilities at Wistar, and asked for damages. Wistar's response said Koprowski was not entitled to make an age discrimination claim because he was an executive over the age of 65. Wistar also claimed that even though the suit against Wistar claimed the institute caused Koprowski to suffer "humiliation, mental anguish, and harm to his career," other factors may have contributed to damaging Koprowski's reputation. Koprowski is currently suing Rolling Stone magazine and the Associated Press for printing a story which suggested that Koprowski's research in developing a polio vaccine may have accidentally introduced AIDS into the human population. Wistar claims that this suit -- in which Koprowski alleges that the magazine and the AP harmed his career and reputation -- must have been at least partially the cause of "any humilation, mental anguish, and harm to career" Koprowski suffered. Despite the suit, Rovera said last night that Wistar was "looking forward to cooperating [with Koprowski] in the future."

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