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A judge has vacated a jury's verdict in a former Utah Department of Commerce employee's wrongful-termination case, ruling that the agency and its top executive are protected from lawsuits under governmental-immunity laws.

A jury in August found that Rebekah Conner had been unfairly fired by commerce chief Francine Giani and that politics had played a role in that decision.

But 3rd District Judge Matthew Bates overturned that finding Monday and dismissed the case on the basis of an eleventh-hour motion for a "judgment on the pleadings" brought by Giani's attorneys.

Such motions ask a court to decide an issue based on previous case law, not on evidence presented to a jury. Giani's lawyers filed the motion three days before the trial.

In response, Conner's attorneys argued it was far too late — her case was filed in 2013 — to raise the immunity argument.

"This should have been raised early," Bates agreed, in a recording of the hearing. "But when you sue the government, you know governmental immunity is always something you have to deal with … you are suing an entity that has the power to immunize itself from lawsuits."

Bates said he was reluctant to grant Giani's motion, but added he didn't believe the timing of it was prejudicial to Conner.

The ruling also vacates a jury award of $250,000 in personal and economic damages. However, Conner will still get severance pay of more than $10,000, Giani's attorney, Kristin VanOrman, said.

At the hearing, VanOrman said she didn't purposely wait to raise the governmental-immunity issue to vex the court or Conner, acknowledging she had "missed" the issue until a new attorney with more experience with immunity law was hired by her law firm.

"There was no ulterior motive," she said.

On Wednesday, Conner's attorneys asked Bates to reconsider his decision and amend it to reflect the issues litigated during the trial. That would include "that Conner was wrongfully terminated" in violation of state law and "in violation of an implied contract," and exclude the issue of governmental immunity. Their motion also asks Bates to reinstate the jury award

"So nothing is final just yet," Conner's attorney, C. Reed Brown, said in a voice-mail message to The Salt Lake Tribune.

Conner left the Commerce Department in January 2013 and then sued the department and Giani in October 2013 after an unemployment-payment dispute and an administrative court action both found she had been unfairly terminated.

Conner maintains her firing was politically motivated and stemmed from Giani's ongoing feud with the Utah attorney general's office, where Conner's husband was employed.

Giani disputes that characterization and contends Conner voluntarily resigned amid what court papers say was a "serious issue of trust."

Court papers show Giani's trust issue with Conner arose after Conner told her husband, an assistant attorney general, that the Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing (DOPL) was investigating reiki massage parlors. Alan Conner said his office was planning a sting on reiki parlors and, based on his wife's disclosure, sought information from DOPL investigators.

DOPL then proceeded to bring administrative citations against one reiki business, which also was being investigated by the attorney general's office. Court papers say DOPL's actions put reiki parlor operators on notice and blew up plans by the attorney general's office for a raid.

That led the attorney general's office to file a complaint about Giani and DOPL with the governor's office.

The issue came to a head Jan. 9, 2013, when Conner said Giani told her that working together was "just too uncomfortable" and that she feared she would "never be able to speak freely."

In Conner's account, Giani slapped her desk and said, "That's it," indicating that she was letting Conner go. Giani doesn't deny raising the trust issue, but she denies Conner's characterization of events, saying in an affidavit that she was undecided about continuing the working relationship.

Conner, Giani contends, was agitated and defensive about her husband and quit by placing her employee badge on Giani's desk and stating, "Here's my badge and my loyalty."