Jury Awards 6.5 Million to Employee With Panic Disorder
This just in: An employee with panic disorder who was denied a job promotion won a big multi-million dollar disability discrimination verdict.
He successfully did his job as a county Human Services Department health care case worker for almost 14 years.
His panic disorder involved a fear of public places and his suit claimed the county failed to accommodate his disability.
He had always interviewed clients over the telephone, but the promotion he applied for in 2001 required meeting clients in person.
The award was for $1.5 million in lost wages and $5 million for pain and suffering and other damages. Attorney fees are yet to be awarded, but apparently could add another six figures to his award.
See more in the article on how an employee with a disability was awarded 6.5 million dollars.
Photo credit: U2Mel via flickr
Of course, this is another one that will seem outrageous to many, if not most, who hear of it.
See this blog post, reproducing the AP story, subtitled “Is our court system insane?”
http://billmillan.blogspot.com/2006/03/jury-awards-65m-to-panic-disorder.html
No analysis by AP or by the blogger.
Let me emphasize this. ADA cases are very fact-specific and fact-intensive. Don’t jump to any conclusions if you weren’t on the jury or didn’t at least read a court opinion.
It is likely that one key issue was whether the in-person meetings were really an essential job function.
It’s a tad fishy that they weren’t necessary before the promotion and all of a sudden afterwards they were.
Just because others in the position to which he sought promotion met people in person didn’t mean it was not a reasonable accommodation to allow him to continue to use the phone, which apparently had been quite effective before (for 14 years!).
Of course, the employer may have had a great position, and just bad luck with the jury. But if so, I wonder why the employer didn’t win summary judgment. More bad luck, I suppose?