$5.27 million awarded to former model agency exec

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A State Supreme Court jury has ruled that Elite Model Management pay $5.27 million to a former executive who said she was fired after complaining about secondhand cigarette smoke at the company's offices.

Victoria Gallegos, an asthmatic, was fired from her $100,000-a-year job in 1999 after being hired seven weeks before to run Elite's New York office.

The jury ruled in April that Elite violated New York City's Human Rights Law when it fired Gallegos. The law requires employers to accommodate employees' disabilities, including asthma.

Elite attorney Robert Goodman told the judge that he would file a motion to vacate the award, which the jury ordered Wednesday. The Supreme Court is a trial court in New York.

Elite's models include Claudia Schiffer and Laura Cisneros.

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