Wisconsin woman with Down syndrome wins $125M discrimination settlement against Walmart

MANITOWOC, Wis. — A Wisconsin woman with Down syndrome who worked for Walmart for roughly 16 years has been awarded $125 million in punitive damages after a Green Bay grand jury determined her 2015 firing by the retail giant violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Marlo Spaeth of Manitowoc was also awarded $150,000 in compensatory damages, according to a news release issued Friday by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

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The lawsuit, filed in 2017, claimed Walmart violated the ADA, which prohibits discrimination based on an employee’s disability, when it fired Spaeth rather than accommodate her disability-related request for a change in hours, The Herald Times Reporter reported.

Specifically, the EEOC argued that Walmart caused Spaeth “significant difficulty” when it altered her long-standing work schedule and refused to either return her to her prior schedule or adjust her start and end times by 60 to 90 minutes.

The lawsuit stated that Spaeth’s condition requires that she maintain a rigid daily schedule, including eating dinner at the same time every night to avoid falling ill. Spaeth argued in the suit that Walmart’s actions and refusal to accommodate her request to alter the new schedule forced her to miss meals and made her sick on multiple occasions, The Herald Times Reporter reported.

According to evidence presented at trial, Spaeth’s managers consistently awarded her positive performance evaluations throughout her employment, the EEOC stated.

A Walmart spokesman told The Herald Times Reporter on Friday that, under federal law, the damages Spaeth was awarded will be reduced to the maximum allowed of $300,000.

Meanwhile, Walmart spokesman Randy Hargrove told the newspaper that the retailer is reviewing its legal options and does not tolerate discrimination in any form.

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