A jury in California found Walmart guilty of defaming a truck driver, Jesus “Jesse” Fonseca, with false claims of workers’ compensation fraud.
Walmart has been ordered to pay Fonseca more than $34 million in damages, with $25 million in punitive damages and an additional $9.7 million for future non-economic losses.
Driving the news: Fonseca’s attorneys argued that Walmart falsely accused him of violating the company’s integrity policy under its statement of ethics, as part of a broader scheme to force injured truckers back to work prematurely or terminate them to cut down workers’ compensation costs.
- Fonseca, who had worked for Walmart for 14 years, was injured in an accident when a semi-truck collided with his Walmart truck in June 2017, after which he filed a workers’ compensation claim.
- The lawsuit alleged that Walmart failed to accommodate his medical restrictions and eventually terminated him, claiming he had committed fraud by driving his personal vehicle and performing activities beyond his work restrictions.
