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- Walmart fired Marlo Spaeth, an employee with Down syndrome who worked at the store for 16 years, in 2015.
- Six years later, a jury found Walmart guilty of discrimination and awarded Spaeth $125 million, which a judge later reduced to $300,000.
- On Tuesday, Walmart filed for a new trial and asked for punitive damages to be dropped.
Walmart is seeking a new trial in an employee disability-discrimination case that concluded in July after a six-year legal battle, according to court documents filed Tuesday night.
The lawsuit is centered around the firing of Marlo Spaeth, an employee with Down syndrome who worked at a Walmart store in Wisconsin for 16 years.
A federal jury determined in July that Walmart’s treatment of Spaeth violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and awarded her $125 million in damages. The award was later reduced to $300,000, which is the maximum amount allowed under federal law.
Spaeth was fired for excessive absenteeism in 2015 after Walmart transitioned to a digital timetable system, which altered her longtime work schedule. Spaeth and her sister repeatedly requested for her old shifts to be reinstated, according to the lawsuit. Instead, she was fired.
Walmart is now requesting a new trial, claiming that management was unaware Spaeth’s “difficulty adjusting to her new schedule was linked to her Down syndrome.” In Tuesday’s court filing, Walmart said this lack of knowledge means Spaeth’s termination was not an act “malice or reckless indifference” toward her disability.
“This means that Walmart is entitled to a new trial. And the jury’s $150,000 compensatory damages award is grossly excessive,” the court document says.
In March, a federal judge ordered Walmart to rehire Spaeth, which the Wisconsin store has agreed to. Amy Jo Stevenson, Spaeth’s sister, told CNBC that they are in the process of determining her official start date.
Walmart spokesperson Randy Hargrove declined to comment beyond the court filing. The EEOC did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Stevenson told CNBC on Wednesday that she believes “the jury got it right the first time” and that Spaeth was eager to return to work as a Walmart associate.
“She’s going to walk in there proud as a peacock,” Stevenson told CNBC’s reporters last week. “That’s who she is. She is a Walmart associate. To be that again will make her whole in some sense.”
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