Wells Fargo is continuing a federal court battle against a fired supervisor who won $22.1 million in a disability discrimination lawsuit in July.
The bank is now asking a judge to reconsider a verdict in the case with Christopher Billesdon, according to new court files. A Charlotte jury awarded Billesdon millions of dollars after a week-long trial this summer in the U.S. District Court for Western North Carolina.
Wells Fargo filed a motion on Monday to either set aside the verdict, order a new trial or reduce the judgment. Attorneys for the bank claim Billesdon failed to provide evidence about his claims.
In March 2023, Billesdon sued the San Francisco-based bank over claims of violating the American with Disabilities Act and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.
He has a paralyzed colon and bladder that impacted his working conditions. This involves taking medicine associated with side effects, according to his suit. Billesdon was paralyzed in 1990 after an accident fractured his spine.
Billesdon claims he lost his job in Charlotte after Wells Fargo made employees return to the office following the height of the COVID pandemic, according to court filings. But the bank said he was terminated because of “cost-cutting,” according to Billesdon’s suit.
About the jury decision against Wells Fargo
In July, the jury said Wells Fargo was liable under ADA for failing to provide reasonable accommodation and unlawful retaliation. The bank was also liable under North Carolina law for wrongful discharge, the jury said.
Billesdon was awarded $6 million in compensatory damages for back pay and $14 million for future lost earnings. The jury also awarded $100,000 for emotional distress, $1 million for punitive damages under the ADA and $1 million under N.C. law.
If the verdict stands, Wells Fargo is asking the court to reduce the award to Billesdon. This includes cutting back pay to $4.2 million and nothing for compensation. The motion claims that his own evidence of back pay was not greater than that amount and the $14 million for compensation is speculative based on employment history.
The bank is also asking the court to reduce ADA punitive damages to $200,000 — and combined with the award of $100,000 for emotional distress — the total complies with the ADA’s $300,000 cap for damages, according to the filing.
And if the state law wrongful-discharge is pushed aside, then punitive damages for the claim must be thrown out too, according to Wells Fargo’s claims.
Billesdon’s lawyer, L. Michelle Gessner of Charlotte, said Wells Fargo recent motion is offensive.
“It is insulting to this jury — members of this community — for Wells Fargo to in any way claim this jury, or the court, got it wrong. Indeed, they did not,” she said in a statement to The Charlotte Observer. “As (Judge Frank Whitney) said to the jury after rendering the verdict, ‘thank you for telling us the truth of this matter’ which they did in all aspects of their verdict.”
Wells Fargo declined to comment to the Observer about the recent filings.
Billesdon case against Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo employed Billesdon for about 25 years at offices in the Los Angeles area and Charlotte — home to Wells Fargo’s largest employment base.
Billesdon came to Charlotte in August 2020 during the pandemic and kept his position as Head of West Coast Asset Backed Finance Sales within Wells Fargo Securities’ Corporate & Investment Bank’s Markets Division.
When Wells Fargo began talks of workers coming back to the office, he asked to stay at home. The request was denied in December 2021 and Billesdon was let go a couple of months later. This occurred weeks before a mandatory return-to-office for everyone, the suit claimed.
Billesdon claims the Charlotte office did not have the right working conditions because of the bathroom being on the opposite side of the building where his groups were located, the suit said.
