His Company Organized A Birthday Party For Him – He Sued Them

Kevin Berling told his manager at Gravity Diagnostics that his birthday party would cause him tremendous stress, as it would bring back bad childhood memories of his parents ’divorce.

He worked there for about 10-months, CBS reports, and since he suffers from anxiety and panic attacks, he asked that the company not celebrate his birthday as it usually does to its employees.

But according to the lawsuit, the manager forgot about his request and still organized a party for Berling, which caused him a panic attack, so he left and took a lunch break in his car.

Bosses held a meeting with Berling the next day regarding the incident, which provoked another attack when a superior colleague reprimanded him “for ruining a happy moment for his associates” and “behaving like a little girl” as stated in the lawsuit. Berling has fired after the second attack, and the company told him that they were worried because he was angry and feared that he could be potentially violent.

In the lawsuit, Berling stated that the company discriminated against him based on his disability, and the jury passed a verdict after a two-day trial, awarding him $ 300,000 for emotional pain and $ 150,000 for lost wages.

Julie Brazil, the company’s founder and chief operating officer, said in an email statement to the newspaper that “With incidents of workplace violence on the rise, this verdict sets a very dangerous precedent for employers and, more importantly, employees that, unless physical violence actually occurs, workplace violence workplace is acceptable.