Walmart Wants ADA Case Retried

[BeckyDem]

by Shaun Heasley | April 26, 2022



Eight months after a jury ordered Walmart to pay a former employee with a disability over $125 million for failing to provide appropriate accommodations, the retailer is seeking a new trial.

Marlo Spaeth, who has Down syndrome, worked at a Manitowoc, Wis. Walmart for more than 15 years, always garnering positive evaluations, but she was fired in July 2015 after she struggled to adjust to changes in her longtime work schedule, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which sued Walmart on behalf of Spaeth.

In July 2021, a jury found that Walmart violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and awarded Spaeth $150,000 in compensatory damages and $125 million in punitive damages. The award was subsequently reduced to $300,000, the maximum allowed under the law.

Now, however, Walmart claims that it was unaware that Spaeth’s difficulty adjusting to her new schedule was related to her Down syndrome diagnosis. In a court filing last week, the company said that Spaeth never provided a doctor’s note and cited an EEOC medical expert who testified that most people — including most medical professionals — “have no idea” that people with Down syndrome have trouble adjusting to new schedules.


https://www.disabilityscoop.com/2022/04/26/walmart-wants-ada-case-retried/29820/


( Fuck Walmart...aka corporate sociopaths. )

[catrose]

1. Good grief. They could pay her out of petty cash.

[BeckyDem]

2. Exactly.

It wasn't enough the terms were reduced from 150 million, which speaks to the contempt the jury must have picked up on to decide on that level of damages. No, they have to go back in and crush what she has now, based on the absurd idea that a person with a significant disability is a big mystery! Changing her schedule is unsettling? We had no idea! NOBODY does!

They disgust me.