Daniel Millar v. San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District
Published: Dec. 16, 2003 | Result Date: Oct. 16, 2003 | Filing Date: Jan. 1, 1900 |Case number: 8300139 Verdict – $375,000
Judge
Court
Alameda Superior
Attorneys
Plaintiff
William J. Trinkle
(Young, Minney & Corr LLP)
Defendant
Facts
The plaintiff had been a mechanical worker at San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District for 10 years. He had a hearing impairment when he was hired and for which he wore a hearing aid. In June 1998, the plaintiff went on sick leave for stress. While on sick leave, he was informed that he would not be permitted to return to work until he passed a fitness-for-duty evaluation, including testing of his hearing. According to the defendant, BART relied on the opinions of a medical doctor and concluded that the plaintiff could not return to work. BART offered no accommodation to the plaintiff to permit him to keep his mechanic job, claiming that there was no accommodation it could make. The plaintiff was never offered any alternate position in an effort to accommodate his disability.
Result
The jury found that BART had committed unlawful disability discrimination and that it had failed to reasonably accommodate the plaintiff's hearing disability and awarded the plaintiff $375,000 loss of compensation, benefits and prejudgment interest. The jury awarded plaintiff no emotional distress damages. Defense on age discrimination and workplace harassment claims. The plaintiff entitled to costs ($86,000 costs memo) and attorney fees per statute.
Deliberation
seven hours
Poll
12-0 (age discrimination), 11-1 (disability discrimination), 9-3 (failure to accommodate), 12-0 (harassment)
Length
18 days
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