Fired Banks County 911 Operator Awarded $622K for ADA, FMLA Claims

T. Brian Green (left) and Brian J. Sutherland of Buckley Beal

A federal judge this week entered a judgment for more than $622,000, including more than $360,000 in legal fees and expenses, for a former Banks County 911 dispatcher who a jury found was fired in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The judgment more than doubled a July jury award delivered for Jandon Allen, who was fired in 2014 after she began taking medication for panic attacks and was subsequently diagnosed with bipolar and post-traumatic stress disorders.

Allen had sought time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act for treatment of what was described as an adverse reaction to her medication and was terminated two days after she requested the leave.

“This judgment demonstrates two things,” said Allen’s attorney, Buckley Beal partner Brian Sutherland in an email. “First, mental disabilities are real disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Employees who have them are entitled to the same protection under the law as employees with physical disabilities."

“Second, employers and defense counsel in this district are fooling themselves if they do not think we will vindicate the rights of our clients in costly trials like this one if necessary to secure full relief,” said Sutherland, who represents Allen with colleague T. Brian Green.

Banks county is represented by Michael O’Quinn of McDonough’s O'Quinn & Cronin, who said Allen’s lawyers “tried a great case and did a great job for their client.”

“I thought this was a case where the facts were not all that great for the plaintiff,” said O’Quinn, noting that most of the potential jurors “said they’d have a problem with a 911 operator who had panic attacks.”

“But Mr. Sutherland and Mr. Green were able to overcome that, to their credit,” he said.

O’Quinn said an appeal is unlikely.

“I think we’ll just pay the judgment and move on,” he said.

As detailed in her complaint and other filings, Allen began working for Banks County in 2008 and was made a full-time employee in 2012.

She was diagnosed with uterine cancer in 2013 and was granted time off for surgery. Later that year, she began to suffer headaches and anxiety attacks and in early 2014 was prescribed medication for migraines.

In March 2014, Allen “experienced a headache, memory loss, uncontrollable crying and manic moments” and texted her supervisor, Deidre Moore, to say she was going to see a doctor, her complaint said.

A few days later, she experienced a severe panic attack and was hospitalized at Atlanta’s Peachford psychiatric hospital for about two weeks, during which she took a leave of absence under the FMLA.

While at Peachford, Allen began taking Zoloft, a prescription anti-anxiety medication and returned to work.

About a week later, she suffered an adverse reaction to the drug and experienced hallucinations. Emergency personnel were summoned and took her the Habersham County Medical Center.

She texted her boss that she had suffered a panic attack and would see a doctor in the morning and another the next day.

Moore responded that she was not scheduled to work for the next four days and that her “shifts are covered until I hear from you following the doctor’s appointment.”

Allen sent a message the next day saying she was waiting for call back from her doctor at Peachford and had asked about outpatient treatment.

“That same day,” her filings said, “Moore completed and signed a memo to terminate Ms. Allen’s employment.”

Allen sued Banks County and Moore in the Northern District’s Gainesville division in 2016 for claims that would ultimately include interference and retaliation in violation of the FMLA and discrimination under the ADA.

In response pleadings, Banks County argued that Allen was already afforded time under the FMLA and turned down an offer to take unpaid leave and that the county had tried to accommodate her needs under the ADA.

“Ms. Allen had used up all of her paid time off, and she took a short period of unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act,” the county’s outline of the case said.

“When she returned to work, she had another episode that prevented her from being able to do her job. She was offered more unpaid time off under FMLA, but she declined it, stating she wanted to work and keep getting paid.

“Banks County determined that Ms. Allen could not be allowed to handle life and death emergency calls in her condition," the defense filing said. "When she declined to take leave under FMLA she was terminated, because she had no other leave that could be used to hold her job open for her.”

Following a three-day trial before Judge Richard Story, the jury took about a day to find for Allen on claims for discrimination, failure to accommodate and retaliation under the ADA and awarded $81,056 in lost wages and $100,000 for emotional pain and suffering on those claims and that the county interfered and retaliated under the FMLA.

In a final judgment issued Thursday, Story awarded Allen the $181,056 delivered by the jury plus another $81,056 in liquidated damages under the FMLA and $360,491 in fees and expenses, for a total of $622,605.