EEOC Wins Impairment Discrimination Suit Against Payday Lender ‘The Money Store’

Federal Court Awards $56,500 to worker Terminated for Bipolar Disorder

SEATTLE – Today the U.S. Equal Employment chance Commission (EEOC) announced a victory in just one of its very first disability discrimination lawsuits taken fully to trial concerning bipolar disorder. Carrying out a four-day workbench test, a federal district court joined judgment for $56,500 against Irving, Tex.-based best cash advance in Wyoming Cottonwood Financial. The court discovered that the company violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) together with Washington Law Against Discrimination (WLAD) when it fired a member of staff from the Walla Walla, Wash., shop.

After hearing the proof offered at trial in EEOC v. Cottonwood Financial, Ltd. (No. CV-09-5073-EFS, E. D. Wash.), U.S. District Judge Edward F. Shea noted “Cottonwood’s lacking ADA policies and techniques” and discovered that the business’s half-dozen various rationales for terminating shop manager Sean Reilly were a pretext for discrimination and therefore the business had in fact fired Reilly as it regarded him as too disabled to the office because of their manic depression.

The court also commended Reilly’s efforts to handle their disability, attain scholastic success and get a work. Reilly ended up being an honor student in senior high school whom attended university in Portland, Ore. on a scholarship that is academic. Whilst in university, he had been clinically determined to have manic depression. Whenever their symptoms forced him to go out of college, he came back home to Walla Walla and discovered work at Cottonwood, which does business due to the fact money Store.

Employed as an associate supervisor in June 2006, Reilly was swiftly promoted to keep supervisor in October and received a honor when it comes to success of their store in November 2006. Nonetheless, in late January 2007, Reilly, through a wellness care representative, requested a leave that is short adapt to brand new medicine recommended by his physician to deal with their condition. Reilly alleged that the business denied this demand, forcing him to go back to exert effort too early. The money Store fired Reilly in February 2007 – just times after his importance of unwell leave first arose.

The ADA and WLAD outlaw firing a member of staff as a result of disability and prohibit undesirable work choices motivated, even yet in component, by sick will toward a member of staff’s real or identified impairment or ask for an accommodation. After first attempting to achieve a voluntary settlement with Cottonwood through the EEOC’s conciliation process, the agency filed suit and had been accompanied by Reilly, through their personal counsel, Keller W. Allen of Spokane.

Judge Shea discovered that the money Store broke the statutory law by firing Reilly and awarded him $6,500 in right right back wages and $50,000 for psychological discomfort and suffering. The court also issued a three-year injunction, requiring the money Store to coach its supervisors and hr workers on anti-discrimination and anti-retaliation rules.

Following the order that is final established, Reilly stated, “It felt as though a long period of psychological harm had suddenly been healed. After my diagnosis, i truly challenged myself to conquer the odds and excel in the office. To own my impairment outweigh my performance in my own boss’s eyes was crushing.”

Reilly proceeded, “This instance had been never ever about cash or any type of payback — it was constantly about doing the thing that is right assist protect the liberties of individuals with disabilities. I really hope this verdict allows other folks with bipolar disorder to possess the same possibility at getting and maintaining effective and satisfying jobs and also to prevent discrimination that is future. It will make me happy and proud to understand that justice prevailed in this full case.”

William Tamayo, the EEOC’s local lawyer in san francisco bay area, stated, “The court delivered a crucial message today that companies can not replace fiction for facts when coming up with work choices about disabled employees.

Companies functioning on outdated fables and fears about disabilities need to find out that the EEOC will likely not shy far from using ADA instances to test to carry them in to the 21st century.”

Tamayo respected EEOC Supervisory test Attorney John Stanley for overseeing the litigation, Senior Trial Attorneys Damien Lee and Jamal Whitehead for representing the EEOC at trial, and Investigator Annalie Greer for investigating the outcome allegations.

Reilly’s personal counsel Keller Allen included, “The court saw through the numerous and changing excuses provided by Cottonwood for firing Sean Reilly. This might be a well-deserved success for the hard-working individual that declined allowing their impairment to be utilized to create a limitation on his achievements.”