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

Federal Court Awards $56,500 to worker Terminated for manic depression

SEATTLE – Today the U.S. Equal Employment chance Commission (EEOC) announced a triumph in another of its disability that is first discrimination taken fully to trial concerning bipolar disorder. Carrying out a bench that is four-day, a federal payday loans ID region court joined judgment for $56,500 against Irving, Tex.-based Cottonwood Financial. The court unearthed that the company violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and also the Washington Law Against Discrimination (WLAD) whenever it fired a member of staff from the Walla Walla, Wash., store.

After hearing the proof delivered 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 methods” and discovered that the business’s half-dozen various rationales for terminating shop manager Sean Reilly had been a pretext for discrimination and therefore the business had in fact fired Reilly as it regarded him as too disabled to get results because of their manic depression.

The court also commended Reilly’s efforts to cope with their disability, attain success that is academic obtain a task. Reilly had been an honor pupil in senior high school who attended college in Portland, Ore. on a scholastic scholarship. Whilst in college, he had been identified as having manic depression. Whenever their signs forced him to go out of college, he came back house to Walla Walla and discovered work at Cottonwood, which does company because the money Store.

Employed as an associate supervisor in June 2006, Reilly ended up being swiftly promoted to keep supervisor in October and received a honor for the popularity of his shop in November 2006. But, in belated January 2007, Reilly, by way of a wellness care representative, requested a leave that is short adapt to brand brand new medication recommended by their medical practitioner to deal with their condition. Reilly alleged that the business denied this demand, forcing him to come back to get results too early. The bucks Store fired Reilly in 2007 – just days after his need for sick leave first arose february.

The ADA and WLAD outlaw firing a worker as a result of disability and prohibit negative work choices inspired, even yet in component, by ill might toward a member of staff’s real or identified disability or request an accommodation. After first attempting to reach a voluntary settlement with Cottonwood through the EEOC’s conciliation procedure, the agency filed suit and had been joined by Reilly, through their private counsel, Keller W. Allen of Spokane.

Judge Shea discovered that the money Store broke the statutory legislation by firing Reilly and awarded him $6,500 in straight back wages and $50,000 for psychological discomfort and suffering. The court additionally issued an injunction that is three-year needing the bucks shop to teach its managers and hr workers on anti-discrimination and anti-retaliation rules.

Following the order that is final announced, Reilly stated, “It felt as though many years of psychological damage had instantly been healed. After my diagnosis, i must say i challenged myself to conquer the odds and excel at the office. To possess my impairment outweigh my performance within my boss’s eyes had been crushing.”

Reilly proceeded, “This instance had been never about money or any kind of payback — it had been constantly about doing the thing that is right assist protect the liberties of men and women with disabilities. I really hope this verdict allows others with manic depression to own the same opportunity at acquiring and keeping effective and satisfying professions also to avoid future discrimination. It creates me happy and proud to understand that justice prevailed in this full situation.”

William Tamayo, the EEOC’s local lawyer in San Francisco, stated, “The court sent an essential message today that companies can not substitute fiction for facts when creating work choices about disabled employees.

Companies performing on outdated urban myths and worries about disabilities have to know that the EEOC will not shy away from using ADA cases to test to bring them to the twenty-first century.”

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

Reilly’s private counsel Keller Allen included, “The court saw through the numerous and excuses that are changing by Cottonwood for firing Sean Reilly. It is a well-deserved triumph for a hard-working individual that declined to permit their disability to be utilized to set a restriction on their achievements.”