A Wells Fargo supervisor who was fired the banking giant won a disability discrimination lawsuit and was awarded $22.1 million by a jury in federal court in Charlotte.
The decision for Christopher Billesdon came Friday after a week-long trial in the U.S. District Court for Western North Carolina. His case against the San Francisco bank began in March 2023 when he sued the bank alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.
Billesdon has a paralyzed bowel and bladder, which has affected the working conditions he requires and the side effects of medications, his lawsuit states. Billesdon’s disability began in 1990 after he broke his spine in an accident.
Billesdon said in court documents that he was fired because he wanted to work from home as Wells Fargo brought employees back into the office after the height of the COVID pandemic. But the bank told Billesdon he was being let go for “cost savings,” according to his lawsuit’s claim.
“We are so grateful to the jury, who courageously sent a loud and clear message that willfully refusing to follow the law is unacceptable in society,” he said. Billesdon’s attorney, L. Michelle Gessner, said in a statement to The Charlotte Observer. “We enforce our laws, even against violators like Wells Fargo.”
Gessner said the jury’s verdict is one of the largest in a workplace discrimination case before Fourth Circuit courts, based on her research. She also said it is likely the largest damages award in an employment case under North Carolina law.
When asked for comment by the Observer, Wells Fargo said in a statement: “We are disappointed and disagree with this decision. Wells Fargo’s policy is to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees, regardless of disability or other legally protected status, and we have provided those opportunities in this situation.”
What the jury decided
The jury said Wells Fargo was liable under the ADA for failure to provide reasonable accommodation and wrongful retaliation. Jurors said the bank was also liable under North Carolina state law for wrongful discharge.
Billesdon’s 2023 age discrimination claim was dismissed before trial began.
He was awarded $6 million in damages for back wages 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 NC state law.
About the Wells Fargo case
Billesdon was with the bank for about 25 years, holding various positions in offices in the Los Angeles and Charlotte areas, where Wells Fargo has its largest employment base.
He moved to the Charlotte area in August 2020 during the pandemic and kept his job as head of West Coast Asset Backed Finance Sales in the Markets Division of Wells Fargo Securities’ Corporate & Investment Bank.
When Wells Fargo started talking about a return to the office, According to his complaint, Billesdon applied for a residency permit. The request was denied in December 2021 and Billesdon was fired a few months later, just weeks before everyone was required to return to the office, the lawsuit says.
The Charlotte office did not provide adequate working conditions for Billesdon because the bathroom was on the opposite side of the building from where his groups were located, the lawsuit alleged.
“Wells Fargo continues to say what its anti-discrimination policy is. But the jury and the court clearly heard from Wells Fargo’s own witnesses that executives at the highest levels of the bank have never read the policy, let alone followed it,” said Gessner.
