A recent $20 million award reflects a jury’s clear displeasure with an employer’s refusal to allow a disabled employee a simple accommodation: to sit during his work shift to alleviate pain stemming from a spinal injury.
After the hotel he worked at underwent a major renovation in 2019, Daniel Callahan found that his concierge station would no longer allow space for him to sit down. Mr. Callahan had worked for almost 30 years at the downtown San Francisco hotel. Due to a spinal injury that required use of a cane and prosthetic device for him to move around, Mr. Callahan needed to alternate between sitting and standing throughout his work shift. Prior to the renovation, he was allowed to do so.
Over the course of 8 months, Mr. Callahan suffered through debilitating pain from his inability to sit while at work. He repeatedly asked his employee to modify the concierge workstation to allow him to alternate between sitting and standing. His doctors sent multiple medical certifications detailing Mr. Callahan’s physical limitations and why the accommodation was needed. No change was made by the hotel. In September 2019, Mr. Callahan’s pain had gotten so bad that his doctors determined that he was no longer medically cleared to work at the hotel.
In a verdict rendered on September 21, 2023, a jury awarded Mr. Callahan $5 million in non economic damages for his pain and suffering. The jury also additionally awarded $15 million in punitive damages for the employer’s violation of disability discrimination laws requiring employers to provide reasonable accommodation for employee’s disabilities. (Punitive damages are amounts meant to punish the employer for its egregious conduct, and deter it and other employers from such conduct in the future.)
California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”) makes it an unlawful employment practice for an employer to “fail to make reasonable accommodation for the known physical or mental disability of an…employee.” Under FEHA, employers have an affirmative duty to make reasonable accommodation for known disabilities.
For choosing renovations that essentially forced out Mr. Callahan from a concierge job he had performed admirably for decades, and ignoring their disabled employee’s repeated pleas for an accommodation that would allow him to remain gainfully employed and a productive member of society, a jury found Marriott International, Inc. liable for failure to accommodate their employee’s disability. The $20 million verdict awarded to Mr. Callahan warns other employers to avoid the same mistake.
The Law Offices of C. Joe Sayas, Jr. welcomes inquiries about this topic. All inquiries are confidential and at no-cost. You can contact the office at (818) 291-0088 or visit www.joesayaslaw.com.
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The Law Offices of C. Joe Sayas, Jr. welcomes inquiries about this topic. All inquiries are confidential and at no cost. You can contact the office at (818) 291-0088 or visit www.joesayaslaw.com. For more than 25 years, C. Joe Sayas, Jr., Esq. successfully recovered wages and other monetary damages for thousands of employees and consumers. He was named Top Labor & Employment Attorney in California by the Daily Journal, selected as Super Lawyer by the Los Angeles Magazine for 11 years, and is a past Presidential Awardee for Outstanding Filipino Overseas.
(Advertising Supplement)