LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky jury has awarded a person $450,000 who sued his employer after he requested them to not have fun his birthday at work — they usually did it anyway.
Kevin Berling advised his supervisor at Gravity Diagnostics in Covington in 2019 {that a} birthday celebration would trigger him immense stress.
However the firm didn’t heed his request, and Berling suffered a panic assault, the Courier Journal reported. The subsequent day Berling had one other panic assault when his supervisor chastised him for “stealing his co-workers’” pleasure and “being slightly woman,” based on a lawsuit. Berling was fired after the second assault.
Berling alleged in his lawsuit the corporate discriminated in opposition to him primarily based on a incapacity and retaliated in opposition to him for demanding an affordable lodging to it.
The jury returned the decision after a two-day trial in Kenton County that led to late March. The jury awarded him $300,000 for emotional misery and $150,000 in misplaced wages.
An lawyer for the corporate, Katherine Kennedy, stated it continues to disclaim legal responsibility and is pursuing its post-trial choices.
Julie Brazil, the corporate’s founder and chief working officer, stated in an electronic mail assertion to the newspaper that “with ever-increasing incidents of office violence, this verdict units a really harmful precedent for employers and most significantly staff that until bodily violence truly happens, office violence is appropriate.”
Brazil stated that her staff, reasonably than the plaintiff, had been the victims within the case.
Berling’s lawyer, Tony Bucher, stated as soon as the jury bought to fulfill his shopper, they realized the corporate’s declare that he posed a risk was far-fetched.
Berling had advised his supervisor {that a} birthday celebration would convey again dangerous childhood reminiscences surrounding his dad and mom’ divorce. The supervisor forgot to go alongside his request, the corporate stated.
