Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 6, 1995 TAG: 9507060080
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. LENGTH: Medium
In 1991, one top lieutenant began missing those and other meetings. Fred L. Tepperman had to bathe and dress his Alzheimer's-stricken wife, Joan.
By the end of the year, Tepperman had been fired.
Now he is suing for more than $30 million in a case that illustrates the tension between family and job at the very highest levels of corporate America, where executives are expected to be available around the clock.
In his opening statement Wednesday, Tepperman attorney Barry Slotnick described the morning meetings as informal get-togethers where attendance was not mandatory. He portrayed Perelman as a cold-blooded businessman, unmoved by Tepperman's predicament.
``Petulant child Ronald Perelman ... wasn't going to honor his commitments because Fred valued Joan above him,'' Slotnick told the state Supreme Court jury. ``They knew Fred's highest priority was Joan.''
Tepperman ``worked well. He worked properly. But he angered and annoyed Mr. Perelman,'' Slotnick said.
Perelman's holding company, MacAndrews & Forbes Group Inc., is countersuing, alleging Tepperman repeatedly and increasingly neglected his responsibilities in violation of his contract.
``He didn't want to continue his job, but he wanted to be paid as if he was,'' the company's attorney, Stanley Arkin, said in his opening statement. ``He wanted his compensation without responsibility. He wanted benefits without obligation.''
He said Tepperman cost the company ``tens of millions of dollars'' by mishandling a Revlon subsidiary sale, took 10 weeks' vacation when he was entitled to four and walked out of an important meeting at the stroke of 5 p.m.
``This is not a man who missed a few breakfast meetings,'' Arkin said.
But Tepperman contends he was wrongly dismissed, and was able to balance his work with tending to his wife's needs.
Tepperman, 60, joined MacAndrews & Forbes as chief financial officer in 1984. Before that, he was chief financial officer at Warner Communications and a partner in the accounting firm Arthur Young & Co.
Joan Tepperman became ill in early 1991. When Perelman learned of her failing health, he advised Tepperman to place her in an institution, Slotnick said. Later, Perelman told Tepperman, ```Don't look so sad. The bankers will be concerned,''' the lawyer said.
A few years after Tepperman was hired, it became apparent that Tepperman's services would be needed on evenings and weekends, and MacAndrews gave him $30,000 a year to keep an apartment within walking distance of the company's Manhattan headquarters, the company said in court papers.
In early 1991, Tepperman began missing the morning get-togethers and other important meetings, Howard Gittis, a MacAndrews vice chairman, said in an affidavit.
Tepperman's bosses warned him that he was expected to devote ``complete attention'' to business.
Tepperman said he had to care for his ill wife at their Scarsdale home. He contended that with a car phone and other technology, he could conduct business away from the office while caring for his wife.
Gittis said Tepperman admitted he wasn't able to live up to his contract but refused to discuss reducing his responsibilities and salary.
Finally, after he twice refused to postpone vacations in November and December 1991, he was fired.
Joan Tepperman, 57, now is in a nursing home in Boca Raton, Fla., and her husband lives close by.
by CNB