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A former administrative law judge who claimed he was retaliated against after filing a discrimination complaint won a $7 million verdict against the state.
A St. Louis jury on Friday awarded $4 million in actual damages; $2.5 million in punitive damages against the Division of Workers’ Compensation; and $500,000 in punitive damages against Brian May, the former director of the division.
Vacca was an administrative law judge since 1992 who has chronic illness, including muscular dystrophy, said plaintiffs’ attorney Joan Swartz. He had gotten accommodations, including work-at-home days. But after a change in management, questions started about his accommodations. After a bad evaluation and changes in his trial assignments, Vacca filed discrimination complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Missouri Commission on Human Rights.
In January 2011, the Administrative Law Judge Review Committee gave Vacca a no-confidence vote, and Vacca felt compelled to file for long-term disability, Swartz said.
May “orchestrated” the no-confidence vote, Swartz said, by soliciting information about Vacca and another administrative law judge who also suffered from a chronic illness that wasn’t sought for other judges.
May then sent a letter saying that the granting of the long-term disability benefits meant he could no longer meet the requirements of a full-time administrative law judge.
Defense attorneys with the Missouri Attorney General’s Office said in court documents that Vacca was “deemed to have resigned.”
The defendants denied retaliating against Vacca and said in court documents he wasn’t able to do his job with or without a “reasonable accommodation.”
A spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s office referred a reporter to the workers’ compensation division, which didn’t have an immediate comment.
The verdict was unanimous, Swartz said.
“I think the jury, their message was, ‘We’re going to hold our state government to the same standards everyone else is held to,’” Swartz said.
Chris McDonough and Ryan Shaughnessy, who, like Swartz, are solo attorneys, also represented Vacca. Swartz also credited Midwest Trial Services for helping put together the case for the two-week trial.
The case is Matthew D. Vacca v. Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Division of Workers’ Compensation, and Brian May, 1222-CC09851.
