{"id":1440821,"date":"2022-04-15T16:44:40","date_gmt":"2022-04-15T20:44:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1440821"},"modified":"2022-04-15T16:44:53","modified_gmt":"2022-04-15T20:44:53","slug":"employee-wins-450k-after-suing-company-for-firing-him-right-after-throwing-birthday-party-against-his-wishes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/employee-wins-450k-after-suing-company-for-firing-him-right-after-throwing-birthday-party-against-his-wishes\/","title":{"rendered":"Employee Wins $450K After Suing Company For Firing Him Right after Throwing Birthday Party Against His Wishes"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Femployee-wins-450k-after-suing-company-for-firing-him-right-after-throwing-birthday-party-against-his-wishes%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1440821&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2022\/04\/BCF35B69-9DE3-414F-8086-6F369F12FB0C_1_201_a.jpeg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\">A man in Kentucky recently won a court battle against his employer after he was fired following a birthday party they threw for him against his wishes, due to his anxiety.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Kevin Berling worked for Gravity Diagnostics, and, according to him, he asked the office manager in August of 2019 not to throw a birthday party for him. \u201cBeing the center of attention causes him immense stress, Berling said, according to court documents,\u201d KIRO 7 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kiro7.com\/news\/trending\/kentucky-man-who-did-not-want-employer-throw-birthday-party-awarded-450k\/CSH56AQCRNGN5NFRP5A7VRZDEY\/\"><span class=\"s1\">reported<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">When his birthday came around on August 7, 2021, the office organized a lunchtime celebration, according to the lawsuit, as WLKY <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wlky.com\/article\/kentucky-man-lawsuit-office-birthday-party-awarded-money\/39728420#\"><span class=\"s1\">reported<\/span><\/a>. Berling reportedly heard about the celebration as he was going into his break for lunch, which sparked a panic attack.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">His attorney, Tony Bucher, said, \u201cThe person who was responsible for the birthday parties who he talked to flat out forgot about his request. She didn\u2019t do it to be mean. She said she would accommodate it and she just forgot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The situation caused him to \u201cleave the office suddenly and spend his lunch break in his car.\u201d According to <a href=\"https:\/\/linknky.com\/news\/2022\/04\/14\/man-awarded-450k-after-firing-over-birthday-party-at-gravity-diagnostics\/\"><span class=\"s1\">Link NKY<\/span><\/a>, Berling did some breathing strategies and then went back to the office and continued his work.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Bucher said Berling was brought into the conference room the next day to talk about the celebration.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cAccording to my client, she started reading him the riot act and accused him of stealing other coworkers\u2019 joy,\u201d Bucher said, adding that he then began to have another panic attack episode.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cAt this point he starts employing other coping techniques that he\u2019s worked on for years with his therapist,\u201d Bucher said. \u201cThe way he described it is he started hugging himself and asked them to please stop.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Bucher said the two workers in the conference room requested that Berling stop, and then proceeded to leave when he didn\u2019t. \u201cOnce the panic attack had subsided, Bucher said, Berling walked out of the conference room and was asked to leave the building,\u201d Link NKY noted.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">WLKY added that he was sent home for the following couple of days and was fired that weekend, being told that his firing was \u201cbecause of the events of the previous week.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">He sued the company over disability discrimination and retaliation.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Per the lawsuit, according to WLKY, he said because his employer didn\u2019t make accommodations for his anxiety disorder, the birthday celebration and the following incidences caused him \u201cto suffer from a loss of income and benefits and emotional distress and mental anxiety.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The jury agreed with him, namely due to a Kentucky law that safeguards employees with a disability from \u201cadverse employment actions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The jury awarded Berling $450,000 in damages, with $300,000 for the emotional turmoil, while \u201c$120,000 was for back wages and benefits, and $30,000 was for front pay,\u201d Link NKY reported.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">According to Gravity Diagnostics workers\u2019 accounts, \u201cthey believed he was enraged and possibly about to get violent,\u201d attorney Bucher said, but Bucher added that Berling has never showed any violent actions and when someone is typically going through a panic attack, they can\u2019t move due to fear.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cBasically what the argument was is he was fired for having a panic attack,\u201d Bucher said. \u201cThey made assumptions that he was dangerous based off of his disability and not off of any evidence that he was violent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The attorney noted that if Berling had moved in a violent way, the company would be allowed to terminate him as an employee, but he didn\u2019t do so.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cI think another compelling piece is my client\u2019s therapist testified at trial and talked about how anytime he sees the name of the company it gives him another panic attack,\u201d Bucher said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Gravity Diagnostics COO and founder Julie Brazil said the company is bringing a challenge against the verdict due to \u201cdiscovery of juror misconduct violating trial judge\u2019s orders, and then an appeal if necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cMy employees deescalated the situation to get the plaintiff out of the building as quickly as possible while removing his access to the building, alerting me and sending out security reminders to ensure he could not access the building, which is exactly what they were supposed to do,\u201d Brazil said.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>\u201cAs an employer who puts our employee safety first, we have a zero-tolerance policy and we stand by our decision to terminate the plaintiff for his violation of our workplace violence policy,\u201d Brazil said. \u201cMy employees were the victims in this case, not the plaintiff.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest growing conservative media companies for breaking news, investigative reporting, sports, podcasts, in-depth analysis, books, and entertainment for a reason: because we believe in what we do. We believe in our country, in the value of truth and the freedom to speak it, and in the right to challenge tyranny wherever we see it. Believe the same? <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><span class=\"s2\"><i>Become a member now and join our mission.<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A man in Kentucky recently won a court battle against his employer after he was fired following a birthday party they threw for him against his wishes, due to his<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1440821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1440821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1440821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1440821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1440821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1440821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1440821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}