Last month we told you about Mary Richter, a middle school science teacher who sustained injuries at work after requesting, but not receiving, an accommodation for her type 1 diabetes. Mary filed a lawsuit against both the school board and the principal claiming disability discrimination, based on denial of a reasonable accommodation for her diabetes. Although the school board and principal tried to dismiss her case since she had not suffered an adverse employment action, the New Jersey state supreme court determined that she could pursue her claims based on a failure to accommodate her disability.
Failure to accommodate actions can be costly, as retail giant Wal-Mart recently learned. In July 2021, a jury returned a verdict of $125,150,000 against Wal-Mart on three claims of disability discrimination.
Marlo Spaeth had worked for Walmart for approximately 16 years and consistently received positive performance evaluations. Marlo had Down syndrome, and when Wal-Mart made a change to her long-standing work schedule, it caused her significant difficulty. Marlo asked that her start and end times be adjusted by 60 – 90 minutes and that she be returned to her prior schedule. Wal-Mmart did not make the changes, disciplined her for tardiness and absenteeism, and ultimately terminated her. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) filed a lawsuit (EEOC v. Wal-Mart Stores East LP, E.D. Wis., No. 1:17-cv-00070) after first attempting to reach a settlement through its voluntary conciliation process.
The jury found that accommodating Marlo would not have caused Wal-Mart undue hardship, and that Wal-Mart failed to accommodate Marlo, fired her because of her disability, and refused to rehire Marlo because of her disability.
The jury awarded Marlo $150,000 in compensatory damages for emotional pain and mental anguish, and a whopping $125,000,000 in punitive damages, well in excess of the statutory compensatory and punitive damages cap of $300,000 for employers with over 500 employees. The award will therefore likely be reduced to the cap. However, the $300,000 cap does not apply to Wal-Mart’s liability for back pay, front pay, litigation costs, attorneys’ fees, or interest, which will be determined by the judge at a later date.
What this means to you:
Disability discrimination is taken seriously and has no place in a respectful workplace, whether in the form of failing to hire, failing to accommodate, discipline, or termination.
Ensure your managers know how to properly handle accommodation requests and make personnel decisions such as hiring, discipline, and termination. To learn about our Managing Within the Law program or to book a workshop, please call 800-458-2778 or email us.
Updated 08-10-2021
Information here is correct at the time it is posted. Case decisions cited here may be reversed. Please do not rely on this information without consulting an attorney first.
