A California jury has found Walmart guilty in a lawsuit filed by a former truck driver employee. Jesus “Jesse” Fonseca will be rewarded $35 million in damages while Walmart maintains that the lawsuit is “outrageous”. Walmart had accused the former employee of committing compensation fraud but a jury verdict found Walmart guilty and liable.
Truck Driver vs. Walmart Lawsuit
Jesus Fonseca worked at the Apple Valley Walmart distribution center in San Bernadino County, California for 14 years. During a shift in June 2017, he suffered an injury when a semi-truck slammed into his Walmart semi-truck from behind. His attorneys filed the lawsuit against Walmart on behalf of Fonseca in 2019.
When the injury happened in 2017, Fonseca filed a workers’ compensation claim. His doctors insisted he not perform any lifting of objects more than 10 lbs and to stop driving his commercial vehicle until the injury healed. The lawsuit claims that Walmart did not accommodate Fonseca’s work restrictions.
Walmart Wrongfully Terminates Employee
Fonseca was first placed on medical leave and was later terminated by the retailer. Walmart claims that they terminated his employment because they observed him driving his own personal vehicle. However, Fonseca was well within his medical recommendations to do so seeing as his doctors only advised him not to drive commercial vehicles.
David M. deRubertis, one of Fonseca’s attorneys stated in the trial that the evidence “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”.
Another one of his attorneys, Mohamed Eldessouky, explained that he hopes the trial and verdict send a clear message to any corporation that attempts to take advantage of workers: “If a company decides to question someone’s character and integrity, it must do so carefully and honestly. Walmart should rethink how it treats the hardworking drivers who are the backbone of its business”.
Walmart Lawsuit Verdict
A California jury found Walmart guilty of wrongfully terminating Fonseca, awarding him $25 million in punitive damages as well as $9.7 million for mental suffering as a result of the termination. The jury concluded that Walmart had “falsely accused him of violating its integrity policy under its statement of ethics”, according to CBS.
The lawsuit comes during a difficult time for Walmart, as well as many other retailers. Increased inflation, a challenging economy, a rise in retail theft, and consumer behavior changes have all created new challenges for retailers like Walmart.
