Illinois Appellate Court Affirms Enormous Award For Retaliatory Discharge

Holland v. SCHWAN'S HOME SERVICE INC., Ill: Appellate Court, 5th Dist. 2013 - Google Scholar:

This is a retaliatory discharge case in which the plaintiff claimed that he was fired for exercising his rights under the workers compensation act. After a trial, the jury awarded plaintiff about $600,000 in compensatory damages and $3.6 million in punitive damages.

The majority affirmed the jury verdict, concluding that the defendant worked an injured employee until he sustained further injuries. The court comments:

The evidence presented at the trial introduced the jury to an employer that intentionally worked an injured employee beyond his medical restrictions to the point that he suffered from severe pain from a work-related injury. When the employee's treating physician took him off work for recovery and treatment, it retaliated against the injured employee by terminating his employment. The need to deter employers from engaging in this type of reprehensible conduct is obvious and substantial. In light of the evidence considered and weighed by the jury, we will not overturn its assessment of punitive damages as being excessive or unconstitutional. 

There is also a strong dissent, filed by Justice Spomer, which argued that the employee was never fired at all, merely demoted. Thus, there was no retaliatory discharge.

In recent years, there has been much fuss over the Illinois Workers Compensation Act and some have argued that the Act is unfair to employers. This case is also controversial and, in my view, is a strong candidate to be reviewed by the Illinois Supreme Court.

Edward X. Clinton, Jr.

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