Maureen McPadden
& Cynthia Haddad
A Tale of Two Cases
Some states do not have damage caps, others default to federal law. Some workers can sue under state law and receive the full amount of a fair and just jury award. Not all are that lucky. Maureen McPadden and Cynthia Haddad worked in New England as Walmart Pharmacists. While they have remarkably similar stories, they have completely different experiences with justice, simply because they live in different states and federal law limits damage awards in employment cases – thereby protecting employers with unfair employment practices.
New Hampshire pharmacist Maureen McPadden was a long-term employee of Walmart. She had extensive experience as a retail pharmacist and her case proved she was extremely competent, professional, and well-liked by customers. Walmart hired a recently graduated pharmacist to be the pharmacy manager of Maureen’s pharmacy and he was not running the pharmacy well. Staff was quitting, training was not happening, and Maureen had genuine concerns about prescription errors and “near misses”. She reported in an email that she was worried for customer safety – she was concerned she may make a mistake because of the understaffing and untrained support staff. Things came to a head when she experienced physical symptoms and loss of sleep due to the circumstances. Her physician prescribed a medical leave of absence. When she returned to work things had not improved and she reported the same to her superiors.
Shortly thereafter, she accidentally lost her pharmacy key. She reported the loss immediately, had the pharmacy lock rekeyed the same morning, and there was no drug loss related to the event. Nevertheless, Maureen was fired, and the reason given was that she lost her pharmacy key. She eventually found an attorney who knew there was no way a pharmacist with Maureen’s experience, skill and customer following would be fired for such a reason. The attorney also believed there were other instances where pharmacists lost their key and did not get fired. Turns out he was right! A male Walmart pharmacist about 30 miles down the road lost his key within months of Maureen losing hers and he was not fired. After viewing all the evidence in a five-day trial an 8-person jury awarded Maureen a verdict that included $15M in punitive damages to encourage Walmart to enforce the law prohibiting discrimination and retaliation.
New Hampshire law does not allow punitive damages, so a Title VII federal claim had been included in the lawsuit. Although the jury returned a verdict that included $15M in punitive damages, the judge reduced that amount to $300,000 because of the federal law limiting damages. The jury verdict was nullified, and Walmart realized a savings of $14,700,000 in this single case. The case ended up being settled under mutually acceptable confidential terms.
On the other hand, pharmacist Cynthia Haddad lived in Massachusetts. She too was a long-term employee of Walmart when fired. Cynthia was fired without warning after she demanded equal pay to that of her male pharmacist colleagues. Walmart claimed she was fired for leaving the pharmacy area to get a snack from the front store. Cynthia struggled to find an attorney who would take her case - she only had $1,767 in actual lost wages as compared to her male colleagues and the lawyers did not see the value in making a claim. Cynthia finally found an attorney who is also a pharmacist, and he immediately knew that no pharmacist would be fired for leaving the pharmacy area and getting a snack from the front store. Male pharmacists did the exact same thing all the time and were not fired or otherwise disciplined.
The suit was filed under state law. Four years later, Cynthia had her moment in court and when, after the jury heard the facts, they made a just award that included $1M in punitive damages. Because she pleaded the case under state law only, and Massachusetts allows punitive damages, the arbitrary and de-minimis federal limit on damages did not apply. The jury award that included $1M in punitive damages was enforced!
After an appeal to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, including the punitive award, lost back pay, lost front pay, compensatory damages, interest, and attorney fees, Cynthia was awarded over $3M.
These cases show that companies like Walmart will continue to engage in discriminatory, retaliatory, and unlawful employment practices because there is no economic reason not to. Where you live should not determine how justice is served. The federal cap on economic damages in employment cases is arbitrary and de-minimis to employers like Walmart. In the Massachusetts case, the jury awarded $1M in punitive damages and the SJC upheld the award. In New Hampshire, the jury awarded $15M in punitive damages and the court reduced that amount to $300,000 – essentially nullifying the jury’s judgment and its goal of modifying Walmart’s unlawful behavior. Genuine improvement in employment practices and adherence to federal laws protecting employees will not be realized so long as employers do not have to pay just and fair amounts for violating the law!