Jury Awards $125 Million After Walmart Fires Woman With Down Syndrome

On Thursday, a jury in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, in Green Bay, found that Walmart had violated the Americans With Disabilities Act, which bans discrimination based on an employee’s disability, and awarded Ms. Spaeth $125 million in punitive damages and $150,000 in compensatory damages.

The jury, which deliberated for three hours after a four-day trial, found that Walmart had failed to provide Ms. Spaeth with a reasonable accommodation, even though she needed one because she has Down syndrome and it would not have posed a hardship to the company.

The jury also found that Walmart had fired Ms. Spaeth and then failed to rehire her because she has a disability.

“The jury here recognized, and apparently was quite offended, that Ms. Spaeth lost her job because of needless — and unlawful — inflexibility on the part of Walmart,” said Gregory Gochanour, a lawyer with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which had sued Walmart on behalf of Ms. Spaeth.

Walmart said in a statement that the verdict would be reduced to $300,000, which is the maximum amount allowed under federal law for compensatory and punitive damages.

“We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind, and we routinely accommodate thousands of associates every year,” Walmart said. “We often adjust associate schedules to meet our customers’ expectations and while Ms. Spaeth’s schedule was adjusted, it remained within the times she indicated she was available.”

The company said that it was “sensitive to this situation and believe we could have resolved this issue with Ms. Spaeth.” It added, “However, the E.E.O.C.’s demands were unreasonable.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/18/business/walmart-down-syndrome-lawsuit.html