A three-judge panel of the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston has upheld a federal judge’s decision to set aside a $3 million damage award to a Bucksport man.

U.S. District Judge George Singal last year reversed a jury’s verdict that International Paper Co. discriminated on the basis of disability against Gary Webber, 51, of Trenton.

Webber claimed that he was laid off in June 2001 as part of a companywide work force reduction due to a work-related injury.

“I’m disappointed for both my client and the jury,” Webber’s attorney, A.J. Greif of Bangor, said Wednesday. “I think the jury system is the essence of democracy and it’s difficult for three judges in Boston to understand how much that jury collectively disbelieved IP’s witnesses.”

In affirming Singal’s ruling, the appellate panel concluded that a reasonable jury given the same set of facts could have reached a different verdict

A jury of six men and two women found in October 2003 after a three-day trial in U.S. District Court in Bangor that IP discriminated against Webber when he was laid off in 2001 as part of a companywide work force reduction.

Before setting aside the verdict, Singal reduced the jury’s award to $300,000 as required by the federal damage cap law and granted Webber back pay of more than $27,000 plus prejudgment interest.

Greif appealed the decision and three judges appointed to the appellate court from Maine heard arguments in October in a historic session at the Cumberland County Courthouse.

Judge Kermit Lipez, 63, of Portland, and senior Judges Frank Coffin, 85, of Portland and Conrad Cyr, 73, of Bangor on Tuesday issued the unanimous opinion.

“Webber admittedly failed either to [present] evidence the eight retained engineers were not disabled, or that IP had terminated any other disabled employee,” Cyr wrote for the panel. “Indeed, the undisputed evidence discloses that IP … had an exemplary record of granting accommodations to Webber and to other disabled employees. …”

IP employees testified at Webber’s trial that he was fired because he was the only person in the engineering department who did not have a college degree in the field.

“Under the business judgement rule,” wrote Cyr, “the possession of a degree can be a reasonable criterion for retaining one employee over another.”

Greif said Wednesday that he would ask for an “en banc” hearing in which all six active 1st Circuit Court judges except Lipez would review the decision of the three-judge panel. Lipez is on active status, Cyr and Coffin are two of four senior or semiretired judges on the court.

It could take up to a year for an “en banc” hearing to be held, if it is granted.

“I always stay in the fight till the last dog dies and there are two dogs still living,” Greif said referring to a possible “en banc” review and, if that were lost, an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.