• June 18, 2007

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has filed a motion seeking dismissal of a lawsuit filed in Michigan by former marketing executive Julie Roehm over her firing. The company argues that Roehm should have filed the case in Arkansas where she lives and where Wal-Mart is headquartered, according to the Associated Press.

Wal-Mart spokesman John Simley said Friday that Wal-Mart filed the motion after a federal judge in Michigan declined to take over the civil lawsuit and sent it back to a state trial court there.

Roehm was fired last December less than a year after moving to Wal-Mart from Chrysler Group. Roehm filed a breach of contract and fraud claim against Wal-Mart in January in her former home state of Michigan, alleging that Wal-Mart owes her severance pay that could total $1.5 million.

In March, Wal-Mart filed a counterclaim accusing Roehm of having an affair with her subordinate Sean Womack and of accepting gifts and otherwise showing favoritism toward an agency that was lobbying for Wal-Mart's account. It also accused them of trying to find a job with the ad agency.