Jury Awards $415,000 to Paramedic for Pregnancy Discrimination
Employment, Pregnancy Discrimination
In May 2018 a King County jury awarded $415,000 to our client Danielle Stumpf, a paramedic whose employer, American Medical Response (AMR), subjected her to a hostile work environment based on her pregnancy, childbirth, and status as a nursing mother. When Ms. Stumpf stood up for her rights, AMR retaliated against her by demoting her from a Field Training Officer position and preventing her promotion twice over two years.
MHB attorneys Katie Chamberlain and Sam Kramer represented Stumpf in the two-week jury trial. The jury found that AMR discriminated against Stumpf based on her gender and pregnancy and allowed its employees to harass and retaliate against her.
Stumpf had worked as a paramedic for Rural Metro Ambulance since 2009. AMR acquired Rural Metro in 2015. In 2014, when Stumpf became pregnant, her doctor placed her on lifting restrictions and limited her to an 8-hour work day. Rather than accommodating her with light-duty work, as it did for other workers, AMR forced Stumpf onto unpaid leave, causing her to lose her salary and health benefits.
In the fall of 2015, when Stumpf returned to work after the birth of her baby girl, the company engaged in what a juror described after the verdict as a “perfect storm” of negative employment decisions. AMR stripped Stumpf of her seniority, which forced her to go back to working night shifts, and took away her Field Training Officer position, a promotion she received before becoming pregnant. Witnesses testified at trial that male crew members complained about Stumpf taking breaks to pump milk for her baby and began referring to her as “the milk truck.” On a daily basis, supervisors heard harassing comments against Stumpf, including one comment that she should just “hook a catheter to those things” instead of taking pump breaks.
When Stumpf reported the harassment, AMR failed to put an end to these comments. Instead, the company instituted restrictive rules about where Stumpf could pump milk, forcing her to drive miles through traffic each day to pump at the company’s main office, where she was subjected to ongoing harassment. The company caused Stumpf so much stress that her milk production stopped. Evidence presented at trial showed that Stumpf was not the only paramedic to have been mistreated after becoming pregnant.
After a two-week trial, the six-person jury made up of five men and one woman deliberated for two days before reaching a unanimous verdict, providing powerful vindication to Stumpf. “I just want to thank the jury for approaching my case with an open mind and for reaching a just result. This means so much to me and my family, and I hope that AMR will change its practices to be more friendly to working mothers,” she said. Stumpf continues to work for AMR as a paramedic in the greater Tacoma area.
MHB’s victory on behalf of Danielle Stumpf is part of our commitment to battling pregnancy discrimination and fighting for fair treatment of working parents throughout Washington state. Companies cannot place discriminatory barriers in front of new parents when they are expecting a baby or returning to work.
Attorneys who worked on this case: