Former Comp Judge Wins $7M Award

Tuesday, October 6, 2015 | 0

A jury has awarded $7 million to an administrative law judge for the Missouri Workers' Compensation Division who claimed he was fired because of his disability, according to a report by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Matthew Vacca claimed that Judge Karla Boresi and division Director Brian May created a hostile work environment that forced him out of his job after he developed muscular dystrophy and needed accommodations in order to continue working.

After a two-week trial, a St. Louis jury on Sept. 25 awarded the 55-year-old Vacca $4 million in actual damages and $3 million in punitive damages, including $500,000 in punitive damages against May, the Post-Dispatch reported on Sunday.

Vacca was hired as a judge in 1992 and later developed muscular dystrophy. The division allowed him to park closer to the office to accommodate his degenerative disease in 2007. In 2008, he fell in the bathroom because of improperly installed grab bars and was allowed to conduct trials two days a week and work from home three days a week, the newspaper said.

Vacca alleged in his suit that Boresi and May "targeted" his accommodations when she became chief judge and he became division director. Vacca said Boresi gave him his worst performance evaluation of his career and took other steps to make his work environment more stressful, such as moving his office and "targeting" his schedule.

Vacca applied for long-term disability benefits, which were approved. In June 2007, May claimed Vacca could no longer meet the requirements of his job and that he had in effect resigned by being granted disability benefits.

Vacca's attorney, Joan Swartz, said her client wanted to continue working.

“Work was what he had. He’s not going to be able to travel extensively or take up golf,” Swartz said.