Sears To Pay $150,000 In ADA Lawsuit

Retail Clerk Claims Company Refused To Provide Reasonable Accomodations

Sears, Roebuck and Company Inc. will pay $150,000 as part of an agreement to end a long-running lawsuit charging the retail giant with discriminating against a sales clerk in violation of the American’s with Disabilities Act, according to a release.

Federal District Judge Charles Norgle on Monday signed a $150,000 consent decree for the case in which the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Sears had refused to provide reasonable accommodations to Judith Keane, who suffered from neuropathy, according to the release from the EEOC.

The condition affected Keane’s ability to walk, and as a result of Sears’ failure to provide accommodations, she was forced out of her job as a clerk in the retailer’s River Oaks Mall store in Calumet City, the release said.

Keane was unable to walk significant distances without pain and sought accommodations, such as being able to walk through a stockroom to her department and to be allowed to eat lunch in the stockroom rather than walking to the mall’s food court, EEOC claimed in its suit. Sears refused those requests in violation of the ADA, the suit charged.

Under the decree signed by Norgle, Keane will receive the entire $150,000, the release said, and Sears will:

End disability discrimination

Report allegations of such discrimination to the EEOC for the next 18 months

Post a notice informing employees of the decree

Train managers and supervisors regarding such discrimination.

The suit, originally filed in 1997, was twice dismissed by the district judge and, in both cases, unanimously reversed by the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, the release said. Following the second reversal, the case was set for trial and the parties reached an agreement, according to the release.