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An Ohio freight-brokerage firm must pay $22.5m in damages to a woman whom the company denied permission to work from home as she tried managing pregnancy complications – and then endured her newborn’s death after prematurely giving birth, a state court jury has decided.
The case centering on Chelsea Walsh, her late daughter Magnolia, and Total Quality Logistics (TQL) unfolded as many employers increasingly allowed remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic – but then pushed to get workers physically back into the office.
Matthew C Metzger, an attorney for Walsh’s family, said in a statement that the sizable verdict handed up on Wednesday in favor of his client came only after TQL passed up “multiple opportunities to resolve this … for far, far less”. Metzger’s statement added: “We wish those opportunities had been taken seriously.”
Ohio’s Cincinnati Enquirer, meanwhile, reported a statement from TQL spokesperson Julia Daugherty that expressed “condolences to the Walsh family” while expressing disagreement “with the verdict and the way the facts were characterized” when the case was tried over seven days. “We are evaluating legal options and remain committed to supporting the health and wellbeing of our employees,” Daugherty’s statement also said.
As it was put to a jury of five women and three men in the Hamilton county court of common pleas, Walsh’s pregnancy had been classified as high-risk in early February 2021 after she underwent a cervical surgery aimed at preventing her from going into labor early. Her medical providers instructed her to work from home, observe partial bed rest and otherwise limit her activities.
But Walsh’s bosses at TQL subsequently denied her permission to work remotely, according to what jurors heard. They instead required her to return to the office and later – over her objections – placed her on leave without pay.
Walsh’s husband, Jacob, eventually spoke to a human resources official at his workplace about his wife’s treatment by TQL. That HR official then contacted a friend who happened to be a TQL vice-president, warning that the company had erred in denying Walsh’s request to work from home, the Enquirer and NBC News reported.
The lawsuit that Walsh’s family later filed alleged that the TQL executive extended his gratitude to the HR official at Jacob’s employer. “You just saved us a lawsuit,” he was alleged to have said.
TQL ultimately told Walsh that she could work from home after all on 24 February 2021. But by then it was “too late”, wrote the Wolterman law office where Metzger works in a statement. Walsh that same day experienced complications pertaining to her pregnancy, was admitted to a local hospital and gave birth to Magnolia at 20 weeks and six days.
Magnolia, who was more than 18 weeks away from being full term, died within hours.
“This was ... heartbreaking … for a young family,” Metzger said in his statement. “The evidence showed that Chelsea Walsh was following her doctors’ instructions for a high-risk pregnancy and simply asked to work from home.”
He said that the jurors who heard the wrongful death case brought by Magnolia’s estate determined that “TQL’s denial of that reasonable request led to the death of her daughter,” setting the stage for Wednesday’s verdict.
Based just outside Cincinnati, TQL is reputed to be one of the US’s largest freight-brokerage firms, the Enquirer reported. It is reportedly the Cincinnati area’s largest private company, with 9,000 employees and more than $6bn in revenue.
The firm furthermore is the namesake of TQL Stadium, where the professional soccer team FC Cincinnati plays its home matches.
