Walmart must pay one of its former truck drivers $35 million after a jury found the retailer had falsely accused him of workers’ compensation fraud.
A San Bernardino County jury said in a two-part verdict filed last week that former Walmart driver Jesus “Jesse” Fonseca is owed $25 million in punitive damages and $9.7 million in actual damageswhich includes losses from lost wages and benefits and non-economic harm, such as emotional distress.
The semi-truck Fonseca was driving for the company was rear-ended by another semi-truck in 2017, forcing him to file a workers’ compensation claim with a doctor’s order to restrict commercial driving and minimize lifting objects. According to the lawsuit filed in 2019, Walmart denied Fonseca’s requests to accommodate his injuries with different work tasks. The company later accused him of fraud, saying there was surveillance of him driving a personal vehicle while injured. The company fired Fonseca while he was on work-related injury leave for a breach of integrity in being “intentionally dishonest” and made him ineligible for being rehired.
“The notion that someone possibly performing daily activities outside of their work restrictions amounts to fraud is preposterous,” Fonseca’s complaint said. “Yet, even if an employee with work restrictions inadvertently violates them, this does not amount to fraud in the workplace.”
Walmart, however, pushed back against the jury’s verdict, arguing its actions were rightful. The retail giant said it will pursue remedies, possibly in the form of damages.
“This outrageous verdict simply does not reflect the straightforward and uncontested facts of this case,” a Walmart spokesperson told Fortune in a statement.
Fonseca, who worked for the company for 14 years as a truck driver and mentored other drivers for over a decade, “lived and breathed Walmart,” according to an X post from David deRubertis, one of Fonseca’s lawyers.
But after leaving his post at Walmart, Fonseca had little luck finding a new job. Six months after being terminated and while he was applying to new jobs, Fonseca was forced to tell prospective employers Walmart had fired him for “gross misconduct and integrity” because he was suspended for fraud, according to the lawsuit. He was not given job offers by those prospective employers.
The $35 million in damages is a hefty payday for Fonseca. According to job listings on Walmart’s website, regional truck drivers make up to $110,000 in their first year. The retailer boosted its salary for the position in 2022 as the industry faced a shortage of nearly 80,000 drivers due to increased freight demands and pandemic-induced challenges like closed driving schools and DMVs, according to the American Trucking Associations. According to Walmart, the average pay of a long-haul freight driver in 2022 was about $56,000.
Fonseca’s other lawyer, Mohamed Eldessouky, said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch the verdict “sends a clear message.”
“If a company decides to question someone’s character and integrity, it must do so carefully and honestly,” he said. “Walmart should rethink how it treats the hardworking drivers who are the backbone of its business.”
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