The Baltimore City Board of Estimates approved $725,578 yesterday to pay back wages, benefits and legal fees to a former assistant comptroller found by a jury to have been fired illegally because of his gender and race.

But the city will have to pay an estimated $77,000 more before the matter is finally closed, the plaintiff's attorney said.

Erwin A. Burtnick was a city employee for 26 years before his civil service job was eliminated in 1992 by then-Comptroller Jacqueline F. McLean. Burtnick filed a federal discrimination suit against the city and McLean in late 1994, claiming that his ouster was part of "a purge and wholesale dismissal" of Jewish and other white male executives in her office.

In August last year, U.S. District Judge David A. Faber awarded $438,025 to Burtnick, plus legal fees and expenses for his lawyer, Howard J. Schulman. The fees and expenses were later calculated to be $287,553.

The city appealed to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., which in October sided with Burtnick, 59, who works as a private consultant.

"This case ought to send a message to the city that there are certain cases they should settle because they're indefensible, and this is one of them," Schulman said. "They kept fighting and it ended up costing the taxpayers about $500,000 more than it needed to."

On top of the original legal fees, the city will have to pay costs associated with the appeal, expected to reach $50,000, plus an estimated $27,000 in interest, Schulman said.

"We litigated it to the best of our ability," said City Solicitor Thurman W. Zollicoffer Jr. "We tried it in the federal District Court. Now we just have to pay the piper."