A Southern California truck driver who Walmart fired after falsely accusing him of workers comp fraud has been awarded millions by a jury.
The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin reports that Jesus Fonseca was a commercial truck driver out of Walmart’s Apple Valley Distribution Center for over 14 years until he was hurt when a vehicle rear ended his truck. He filed a workers comp claim and asked for Walmart to place him on restricted duty. Walmart didn’t listen.
After Fonseca was treated at a hospital for his injuries, he filed a workers’ compensation claim and was evaluated by a doctor every few weeks beginning in June 2017 to modify his work restrictions, the lawsuit said.
Fonseca’s work restrictions changed at times, but generally included that he couldn’t push, pull or lift more than five to 10 pounds or drive commercial vehicles. While the restrictions were communicated to Walmart leadership, they failed to accommodate Fonseca’s needs, his lawyers argued.
The day after the accident, Fonseca was placed on medical leave, and Walmart didn’t explore alternative tasks he could perform, the lawsuit said. Even though Fonseca requested he be allowed to do modified duties and asked if he could perform desk duty at an office position, but he wasn’t allowed to, the lawsuit said.
Right before the accident, Fonseca had planned two family trips, something his lawyers say he informed Walmart of. He had a doctor’s note with restrictions that included things like no driving, bending or stooping, which Fonseca says meant no driving of commercial vehicles, not for his personal use. His lawyers claim that Walmart interpreted the restrictions differently and hired a private investigator who found him on his trip and witnessed him driving an RV and bending and stooping.
In early 2018, Walmart management called in Fonseca for questioning, essentially interrogating him over a “report” they had received that said that he had been doing things that were doctor restricted while on vacation. He was eventually told that he had committed fraud and would be fired.
Fonseca told them he didn’t believe he did anything wrong as the restrictions prevented him from driving commercial vehicles, and he believed he could drive for personal reasons, the lawsuit said.
He hadn’t talked to anyone at Walmart about the reported fraud again, until an official called him in March 2018 and said Fonseca was accused of fraud and would be fired for “gross misconduct and integrity,” according to the lawsuit.
Fonseca says he tried to speak with Walmart’s vice president of transportation over his firing, but the VP refused because he was “being represented by workers’ compensation counsel.” After he was fired, Fonseca couldn’t land another job because he had to disclose that he had been accused of workers comp fraud. So Fonseca sued Walmart for “for disability discrimination, failure to accommodate his disability, failure to engage in an interactive process, retaliation and failure to prevent discrimination, all in violation of the Fair Employment and Housing Act.”
He also accused the company of maintaining a hostile work environment, wrongful termination and emotional stress. A jury agreed and he was awarded $25 million in punitive damages and another $9.7 million for “future and past losses.” Fonseca’s lawyer David deRubertis said he hopes the verdict is the beginning of change at Walmart but also that he thinks what was done to Fonseca was part of something bigger against all of the company’s truck drivers.
“We believe the evidence at trial showed that Walmart’s defamation of Jesse was part of a broader scheme to use false accusations to force injured truckers back to work prematurely or, if not, terminate them so that Walmart can cut down workers’ compensation costs.”
Walmart is pissed of course. Calling the verdict outrageous, the company said it’s going to take “further action” with the case. “Accordingly, we will pursue all available remedies.”
