A jury has ordered Costco to pay a longtime former employee more than $2 million for illegally terminating his employment due to his age.

Stuart Nover, 77, sued the membership-only warehouse club two years ago, claiming he was wrongly terminated from the Bridgewater store following 22 years of employment after taking a company approved COVID leave program.

On July 2, a jury voted 7-1 that Costco intentionally discriminated against Nover due to his age. They awarded him $2 million in punitive damages, along with back pay and monetary damages for emotional distress, court records show.

Paul Galligan, one of the attorneys representing Costco, said Tuesday the company has no comment on the case or the jury verdict.

Nover was hired as a pharmacist for the Bridgewater Costco on May 26, 1999, and dismissed in the summer of 2021, according to the lawsuit, filed Oct. 19, 2021, in New Jersey Superior Court.

The lawsuit claimed Costco was engaged in a special COVID leave program, and that Nover was eligible to take time off while remaining employed and receiving full pay, along with health insurance and other benefits.

Nover took leave in May 2021 and advised his supervisors he would return on June 1, 2021, the day after the special leave program ended, the suit states.

But when Nover tried to return, he could not get back on the work schedule, according to the lawsuit.

“Throughout the months of June and July of 2021, the plaintiff advised the defendants … that he was ready, willing, able and desirous of returning to work as a pharmacist for the defendants, Costco,” the suit says.

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