A jury has awarded a Kentucky man almost half a million dollars after his employer threw him a surprise birthday party, despite him explicitly asking them not to.
The man, Kevin Berling, suffers from an anxiety disorder and told his office manager at Gravity Diagnostics that he didn't want them to celebrate his birthday because it would cause him to have a panic attack.
On Aug. 7, 2019, Berling was thrown a surprise lunchtime celebration for his birthday, to which he got upset. Days later, he was fired from the company, according to a lawsuit he filed against the company in a Kenton County Court.
Two and a half years later, on March 31, a jury awarded Berling $450,000 after finding that he suffered an "adverse employment action" because of his anxiety disability, according to the court documents.
The court documents state that the company has a practice of having birthday celebrations in the office for employees, but this wasn't the same for Berling. Instead, the surprise party thrown for Berling was thrown in the lunchroom and resulted in him having a panic attack, the suit says.
Upset about what happened, he went to his car and finished his lunch, texting his boss, upset about what had happened.
The next day Berling was "confronted and criticized" in a meeting for how he reacted to the surprise, despite asking them not to throw him one, the lawsuit said.
The meeting about Berling's reaction resulted in another panic attack taking place, according to the lawsuit.
"At the conclusion of this meeting and because plaintiff had a panic attack, plaintiff was sent home from work for the remainder of August 8 and August 9," the suit said.
Two days later, on Aug. 11, Berling received a letter from his company saying he was being terminated due to "the events of the previous week," according to the lawsuit.
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Berling sued the company, alleging disability discrimination and retaliation for not wanting the party.
However, Gravity Diagnostic Chief Operating Officer Julie Brazil told Link NKY Berling was fired for violating "workplace violence policy." Brazil said the company stands by its decision.
"My employees de-escalated 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," Brazil said to Link KNY.
However, one of Berling's attorneys, Tony Bucher, said his client has never posed a threat.
"I think the significance for employers is that they need to understand that they shouldn't make assumptions about individuals with mental health issues. Kevin was an exceptional employee that went above and beyond for his employer and if they would have taken a step back it would have been clear that he did not present any danger at all," Bucher said in a statement, NBC News reported.
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