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New York Hotel Worker wins $500,000 in Wrongful HIV Lawsuit
Last week a jury awarded Antonio Muñoz — a 50-year-old HIV-positive man more than $500,000 in a wrongful termination suit against the Manhattan Club, in NYC. Muñoz’s termination came in February 2011 when he received a suspicious complaint against him after filing a discrimination complaint against his employer.
He was fired in February 2011 after an anonymous — and suspicious — complaint was leveled against him.
The following year was miserable for Muñoz, who struggled to find work and lost his apartment to foreclosure..
Muñoz had explained to a supervisor that he was being treated for a chronic condition that required him to take a medication at night that causes drowsiness, his lawsuit stated and he asked to be moved to the day shift.
His supervisor denied the request. Even after he produced a doctor’s note, his supervisor not only turned him down, she suggested that he quit, the suit says.
Muñoz was eventually put on a day shift but it didn’t last.
His supervisor told him he would be put back on nights starting April 30, 2010, prompting Muñoz to file a “complaint of disability discrimination” with human resources.
Not long after, Muñoz received a scathing evaluation “full of falsehoods,” his suit stated adding that a few years earlier Muñoz r an office manager was awarded two raises and received an “Exemplary Manager Award”
On Thursday, a jury awarded him $185,000 in compensatory damages and $347,500 in punitive damages to be paid out over 3 years.
Muñoz, said he was ‘estatic’ over the verdict, but the money was never the point. ‘At least I know that I was able to tell my story,