A federal appeals court ruled in favor of Fujifilm Medical Systems in a case filed by a former senior executive alleging he was fired because he was not Japanese.

In a ruling issued today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit reversed a lower court judgment that executives at Fujifilm’s parent company, Japan’s Fujifilm Holdings (TSE:4901), had tortiously interfered with John Weber’s employment contract in order to avoid paying him severance. Because of the alleged interference, Weber asserted he was entitled to additional compensation.
Weber is a former executive vice president for Fujifilm Medical.

Weber had argued that Fujifilm executives conspired to terminate him largely because he was Caucasian-American. Fujifilm has countered that Weber was fired because of financial mismanagement in his division.

The appeals court also affirmed a lower court ruling that allowed Fujifilm to introduce evidence discovered after Weber’s departure to support its claim that Weber was fired for due cause.

While a lower court jury rejected Weber’s claims of race discrimination, it did find that Fujifilm breached Weber’s employment contract and awarded him one year of severance pay.