DETROIT (WWJ/AP) A Michigan jury awarded a local woman a nearly $13 million settlement in a religious discrimination lawsuit against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) after the company fired her for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine.
According to official court documents; Lisa Domski worked for the company as an IT specialist from 2008 to 2022. Her attorneys said the health insurer employed her for a total of 38 years. In early November of 2021, BCBSM announced every employee would get the COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of their employment.
“(Domski) is a devout Catholic who opposed the vaccine because of its use of fetal cells taken from an aborted fetus in developing the vaccine,” stated a press release from her representing attorneys, Jon Marko of Marko Law in Detroit and Noah Hurtwitz of Hurwitz Law in Ann Arbor.
She filed a religious exemption and submitted a statement in writing explaining her faith and provided her employer with the name and contact information for her priest, her lawyers said.
According to court documents, she said in her written statement: taking the vaccine would be “a terrible sin and distance my relationship with God.”
Her lawyers said BCBSM never contacted her priest, but held a 15 minute interview with her and told her she could rely on her written statement.
BCBSM denied her accommodations the following day stating “she did not meet the criteria for an exemption due to a sincerely held religious belief, practice or observance”; the court documents read.
The company decreed that all employees be fully vaccinated by January 4, 2022. They fired Domski on the 5th, the court said.
“Our forefathers fought and died for the freedom for each American to practice his or her own religion. Neither the government nor a corporation has a right to force an individual to choose between his or her career and conscience,” Marko said. “Lisa refused to renounce her faith and beliefs and was wrongfully terminated from the only job she had ever known. The jury’s verdict today tells BCBSM that religious discrimination has no place in America and affirms each person’s right to religious freedom”
Domski filed the lawsuit in August of 2023 in the Eastern District of Michigan United States District Court.
On Friday, November 8th, 2024; the jury awarded Domski $10 million in punitive damages, $1 million in pain and suffering, $315,000 in back pay, and over $1.3 million in front pay.
The health insurer denied claims of discrimination and said they may try to appeal. They released the following statement:
"Throughout the pandemic, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, together with its employees, worked to promote the health and safety of our colleagues, stakeholders, and communities. As part of that shared work, in October 2021, Blue Cross, and its subsidiaries, enacted a vaccine policy requiring all of its employees to be fully vaccinated for Covid-19 or obtain a religious or medical accommodation.
In implementing the vaccine policy, Blue Cross designed an accommodation process that complied with state and federal law and respected the sincerely held religious beliefs of its employees. While Blue Cross respects the jury process and thanks the individual jurors for their service, we are disappointed in the verdict. Blue Cross is reviewing its legal options and will determine its path forward in the coming days."
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) said the COVID-19 vaccines do not contain fetal cells themselves—but fetal cell lines are used in the development process for most brands. They said, once the virus is grown in the fetal cell line, all cellular debris is removed. The cells used in cell lines for development came from two “elective pregnancy terminations” in the 1970s and 1980s, according to the MDHHS.
The MDHHS says the Johnson and Johnson vaccine was produced by growing the virus in fetal cells during vaccine development and the manufacturing process.
Pfizer and Moderna do not use a fetal cell line for production or manufacturing. However, a human cell line was used in the “very early phase to confirm efficacy” for Pfizer and Moderna before the production and manufacturing process. Novavax does not use fetal cells at all in development, production or manufacturing, the MDHHS said. Learn more here, plus how Michigan faith organizations address this.