The company continued to pay for our medical and disability insurance until Steve returned to work. We were grateful for this too. Since neither of us were working our financial status was looking gloomy.

They kept one promise!!!They paid the insurance premiums until the day Steve returned to work. Oh, and they did deliver the van to us in November. The state paid their part toward the van ,for the wheelchair, lift as promised. The balance owed on the van was to be paid for by the dealership. We never saw the title and, to this day, we do not have legal license plates on it.(We have a transporter tag.) We continued to contact the business manager of the company regarding the necessary paper work to register and license the van. We were told that she was still waiting for them to tell her what department would be paying for the van.

And the job, well, it never happened. Steve was told that his position as parts manager had been filled by his assistant manager within a week of Steve's accident. They now wanted him to run this new warehouse, that would be opening soon, at half the salary he was being paid before his injury. We should have filed a discrimination suit at this time but we were just all too grateful that Steve even had a job to go back to. Reluctantly, he took the new position.

Several things seemed a little wierd but we just tried to ignore them. He was never told about managers' meetings (these were mandatory of all managers) and his boss rarely came over to discuss anything with him about the warehouse. It was very obvious that these people had no plans to keep him there. We had heard rumors, from other employees, that Steve was only given this job because of legal reasons and they planned on weeding him out in just a short amount of time. No one there at this company helped him in making this new business a success. When Steve would make a suggestion on how to make things work a little better, they went totally ignored. In spite of all this, things were going okay but they could have been better.

Within a few months Steve's boss and the general manager came over and told him that he was spending too much time in therapy (they knew in advance that he would continue therapy). During this conversation the GM told him that the corporation (the dealership was bought out by a corporation out of New York a few years ago) did not even want to hire Steve back after his accident. They were afraid that it would just "open a can of worms by hiring someone that was disabled". He told Steve that they decided to bring him back, regardless of what the corporation thought. He must have been trying to make himself look good in Steve's eyes. What was about to take place would show what appeared to be in the plan all along.

Steve cut his therapy almost down to nothing. One month later, without any further discussion, Steve was told that he was being replaced by a man they felt would be more physically capable of handling the job. They wanted him to know that he would always have a job with the company, just not as a manager!

A few days later his replacement showed up. Steve's boss came in and started talking to him. I will never forget the one thing that he told us. Steve asked him if they were doing this to him because he was in that wheelchair. His boss dropped his head and said "yes it is but it is not me doing this to you. I have to answer to them". We left immediately and filed discrimination charges against them though the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Steve continued to show up for work. He was determined that he was not going to get pushed out so easily. If they wanted him gone they would have to fire him! He sat around for a week with nothing to do. None of the managers would even speak to him. He finally kept on them about what his new job was going to be until they gave him a new responsibilty. He was now the person that would issue credits to customers with returned parts, a job that would take a whole hour, at the most, to complete per day. His salary was again cut in half. Steve got bored with his job so he started helping the other men answer phones and sell parts. Eventually, he worked his way into a position of parts salesman, with no added compensation. He wanted something more to do than just sit in an office by himself and enter a few credits so he accepted with this for the time being. He wanted so badly to quit. He felt humiliated by what this dealership had done to him. The EEOC advised him to keep working.

The investigation started within 2 weeks of being filed. Normally these cases took about a year before the investigation would begin. After the investigation was complete the company was charged in violation of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Civil Rights Act. They were being charged for discrimination based on his demotion, lack of reasonable accommodations (not replacing door knobs so Steve could get out of his office, etc.) and retaliation. The retaliation came in when the owner made a phone call to me one day, after we filed charges, and told me that he had decided to just loan us the van. When I questioned him as to why he was doing this he said "situations are different now". They also gave Steve a disciplinary report saying he was stealing company records (he printed a report that had always been available to anyone that wanted to view the sales figures for the month). Steve had never been written up for anything in his entire career with this company!

EEOC received permission from Washington, D.C. to litigate this case on our behalf. This, I am told, is very rare! We proceeded with a settlement offer to the company. We asked for $300,000 (figuring they would counter offer something lower), the title to the van, and reinstatement to position as manager of the warehouse. They counter offered with $10,000, title to the van, and Steve must resign from the company and waive his rights to ever request employment with this company or any of it's affliated companies. We laughed. Then we said hell no!

While Steve was working I was around alot, to help him in any way I could. I constantly had someone asking me when I would be returning to my job. My boss (who was also Steve's boss) and I were discussing my return to work the very morning that he and the GM told Steve that he was being replaced. I told him that I would return in August when the kids went back to school. He told me he would like to have me back sooner but whenever I was ready to just come on. Little did I know that he was about to go tell Steve that he was being demoted. Still yet, when the time came to put the kids in school I did as I promised and notified my boss that I was ready to come back to work. All of a sudden I no longer had a position with the company. I would have to fill out an application if I wanted to work for this company. I figured that I was getting this treatment due to the fact that Steve had filed charges with the EEOC against them. The investigator with the EEOC encouraged me to file charges against them for doing this to me. It would have fallen under the category of "discrimination due to association" as well as been added to Steve's case as retaliation. I had already been so emotionally and physically drained from Steve's case that we made the decision not to file on my behalf. We now regret that decision but it is too late to file because of the statute of limitations. So I went to work for another car dealer about a mile from Steve and I am very happy there.

We would now have our day in court with them. We were set up for a jury trial for January 2000. Steve continues to work for this company today. The attornies have started depositions. Steve was the 1st one to give his deposition. After his deposition the attorney for this company said they wanted to settle, Steve was a very credible witness. This offer was very substantial, considering their first offer almost year earlier. They still wanted Steve to resign. We turned it down. We figured that we had waited this long, we would go to court and take our chances for a larger amount in damages and either a reinstatement or front pay wages. Ironically, just a few months before we were to go to trial they shut the warehouse down. They moved most to the people working there over to the individual dealerships of which they were selling parts for. They left Steve there. This eliminated the position that we were negotiating reinstatement to, therefore, no more leverage for that part our case (not even for front pay). We had warned the EEOC for months that this was going to happen. We had asked for the trial to be moved up to an earlier date. We were told that it would not matter. Guess what? It did. There is a cap on the amount one can be awarded in damages. Front pay would not be part of the cap, it could be an additional amount awarded. But now that was gone. Our trial date has been moved to October 2000. We are still waiting trial. It appears that we have a very good case against them. It is just a matter of waiting it out. It has been an emotional ordeal for us but we are more than half way there. We feel it will be worth the wait!

I should tell you that Steve has been the top salesman for several months running. Only after they shut down the warehouse did his business slow down. He only gets the overflow calls and the customers that are still doing wholesale business with them. Most of the wholesale customers are now doing business with other dealerships. I think it is pretty amazing that someone with his limited abilities can do as well or better than one that does not have the obstacles that he has in doing his job.

Note: Will update this page with any new progress toward this case as it comes along.

Steve had to leave his job due to some medical problems. Looks like this will end this fiasco! He will be concentrating on gaining some strength back that he has lost due to lack of excercise.

Was filing charges against his company worth it? A very difficult question to answer at this point. If it prevents this company from doing this to another employee then the answer would be 'yes'. We went through hardship and a great deal of emotional stress. I would do it all over again because I feel that my husband was treated wrong. We finally got the papers to the van out of the deal but that is not what we were looking for. The company also has to do several things as far as training managers to prevent discrimination in the workplace. They will also have to post some notices referring to how they will not tolerate discrimination, etc. In the beginning, I feel like an apology from them would have been sufficient. When we saw that we would not be getting an apology we felt that we had no choice but to continue with the charges.

I can only give you this advise. If you feel that you have been discriminated against and feel you are doing what is right then file charges. It is a very serious matter and should not be played around with. Keep very accurate records of everything that takes place, do not assume that the EEOC or your attorney will do this for you. Do as much research as you possibly can to know what to expect and what you may be up against. Above all, pray daily.

I will be happy to answer any questions I can. Please return to the Home page and click on the mailbox to email me.

Newest saga to this story is that the dealership that I work for has just been bought out by this company. As of January 2, 2001 I will have to make a choice to either look for another job or stay there, swallow my pride, and work for the company that tore our lives apart for 2 and 1/2 years. Just another path to cross that will work out for the best, I hope.

It is now mid May and things are working out very well for me. I am still working for this company and they are actually treating me pretty good and I don't feel as if it is because they have to. I guess life goes on! If it continues to go this well I will plan to work there until I retire (God willing).