A New York woman laid off from Pfizer, the maker of Viagra, is taking advantage of a more than $400,000 overage in her severance pay after her former employer made a clerical error.

Janet Rodriguez, a company VP, was laid off from Pfizer in December of 2009 after 16 years on the job. The following March, the maker of “the little blue pill” sent Rodriguez a severance check of more than half a million dollars. An amount the company claims was an overpayment of well over $400k.

Almost four months later, Pfizer realized its mistake and sent Rodriguez several letters asking that she return the money, and then went so far as to hire a collection agency to collect the difference. Rodriguez ignored the requests, so the company has just now, more than a year-and-a-half later, filed suit in the Manhattan Supreme Court, claiming the former employee should return what is not hers.

According to Rodriguez’ lawyer, Saul Zabell, “By virtue of the fact that they bring this claim so late in the game, so long after their alleged mistake, [it] is just a cheap bullying tactic that we expect the court to see right through.”

Pfizer’s projected revenues for this year are reported to be near $66 billion.

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