Posted on 05/24/2005 12:50:52 PM PDT by SmithL
DETROIT -- A jury awarded $10.6 million to one-time radio host who was fired after complaining a co-worker's perfume made her sick.
Erin Weber said WYCD-FM fired her in 2001 after she complained she was allergic to another host's perfume. She said the station owner, Infinity Broadcasting Inc., discriminated against her for a disability — allergies — and retaliated after she filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
$10MM is nothinbg to sneeze at.
Judgments are being determined by the defendants's ability to pay rather than the merits and sensibilities of the case.
The chili-finger needs to relocate to that community.
I hereby suggest that LIVING should be a disabilty, and gosh darnit, I want compensated for it accordingly.
"This stinks"
Yes, it's another outrageous monetary decision awarded in a lawsuit. She should be real happy I wasn't on the jury.
I can't type. I must be disabled. : )
I'm allergic to nitwits. Once all the lawsuits are settled, I should be in high cotton, indeed.
Can see more of these types of litigation cropping up. Wonder what was the name of the perfume.
Poor baby!
A hundred years ago you would have had to slop the pigs, milked the cows, and shoveled shite with rags shoved up your sensitive little nose.
I don't know that an allergy in and of itself is a disability, but I do know that before I got allergy-immunology treatment, my chronic sinusitis was pretty debilitating. A chronic illness can sap you. But I must say, that I never claimed to be allergic to perfume. Grass and tree pollen, dust mites, weeds, cats, dogs. Nobody to sue for my illness. Maybe I just wasn't being creative enough?
I have a typing disablty, too. It still takes me two hands to type with one finger.
; )
Hmmm...I'm allergic to a lot of perfume too...It's no fun. But an award that big?
Or you could sue whatever wordprocessing program made you look so inept. Doesn't that cause you tremndous mental distress, suffering and anguish for the rest of the world to know you're not perfect?
The company "said" they took corrective action. The jury didn't believe them.
Also, FWIW, punitives damages, the bulk of the award, are tied to the size of the defendant. They are intended to punish the defendant, not compensate the victim.
However, when the award gets reduced to $100,000 on appeal there will be no AP article reporting that...
Two thoughts: (1) this award is horrendous. 10 mil?! People losing limbs don't get awards like this.
(2) I worked with a foreign woman in a very small enclosed space and she used perfume to mask b.o., rather than bathe. She also did not launder clothes the way many Americans do - wearing clothing umteen before laundering. I was ill constantly and asked her to not wear perfume and apologized for my allergies. Anyway, I went to boss and asked to move and he kindly obliged. I was very fortunate. However, 10 million is ridiculous even if the lady was very ill.
After public smoking bans, public perfume bans are the logical next step. After that, scented beauty products, aftershave....
Smoking ban slippery slope ping.
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