The Chronicle: Family of Journal Editor Who Committed Suicide Sues U. of Virginia
Two years after Kevin Morrissey, a former managing editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review, killed himself following complaints he made about workplace bullying by his boss, the former VQR editor Ted Genoways, Mr. Morrissey’s family has filed a $10-million wrongful-death lawsuit against the University of Virginia, which publishes the award-winning journal.
The suit also names as defendants several current and former university employees, including Mr. Genoways and John T. Casteen III, who is president emeritus and continues as a faculty member at the university.
The lawsuit, filed last Wednesday in Virginia circuit court on behalf of Mr. Morrissey’s siblings and his father by Douglas R. Morrissey, one of Mr. Morrissey’s brothers, says the university failed to adequately respond to numerous complaints Mr. Morrissey made about Mr. Genoways in the weeks before his death. Mr. Morrissey complained at least 25 times, the suit says, to the offices of the president, human resources, and employee relations, saying Mr. Genoways had banned him from the journal’s office for unspecified “unacceptable workplace behavior.”