CINCINNATI — A Hamilton County jury ordered Cincinnati-area company Total Quality Logistics to pay a former employee $22.5 million for a wrongful death lawsuit claiming the company caused the death of the employee's baby.
According to the lawsuit filed in 2023, the baby's death was a direct result of the then-pregnant employee being denied the ability to work from home, despite a letter from her physician saying she needed to be on bed rest.
The lawsuit says the woman began experiencing pregnancy complications while she was employed by TQL; she had to undergo an emergency surgery in February 2021 in order to prevent premature labor, according to the lawsuit.
When she was discharged from the hospital, her obstetrician ordered she remain on modified bed rest to protect the baby, the lawsuit says.
According to the lawsuit, when the employee first requested permission to work from home, so she could maintain her pay and health care during the mandated bed rest, she was instead sent paperwork for an unpaid leave of absence. After that, the employee presented TQL with a note from her doctor saying that she could work, but needed to do so from home because of her pregnancy complications.
The employee's manager rejected the doctor's note, saying no action could be taken because the letter did not have an end date for the accommodation, or a medical reason for its need. Later that same day, the employee submitted a new letter from her doctor that more explicitly stated she needed to work from home until the start of her maternity leave, expected some time in July.
"I am requesting that she work from home in order to prevent further complications with her high risk pregnancy, due to increased activity at the work place," reads the letter included in the lawsuit.
After the employee sent the second letter to her manager, the lawsuit says that manager forwarded it to a human resource officer, writing "did you want to take it from here? I am guessing we are not approving her [working from home] for this long."
According to the lawsuit, TQL did not request any clarification on the request or otherwise engage with the employee about it — they just denied it.
The employee was told she could either continue working in the office against her doctor's orders, or take an unpaid leave of absence until she gave birth.
This is despite TQL having allowed employees to work from home just one year before, during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic; the lawsuit says that in early 2021, most employees returned to in-person work, but at least one employee in the same department worked remotely before and after the pandemic. Others had worked from home after being exposed to COVID, the lawsuit says.
As a result, the employee chose to keep her pay and health care, and she worked in the TQL building as directed, the lawsuit says.
The employee's husband spoke to an HR manager at his place of employment who believed TQL's decision was incorrect; the employee's husband then reached out to a departmental vice president at the company with whom he was socially acquainted to discuss the work from home issue.
According to the lawsuit, the vice president responded: "Thank you. You just saved us a lawsuit."
Very quickly after, the employee's accommodation request was granted and she was permitted to work from home — but the same day, she began experiencing cramping and bleeding, the lawsuit says.
The employee was taken to Bethesda North Hospital, where she had to give premature birth to her daughter, Magnolia, who was just 20 weeks and six days in gestation. Magnolia died an hour and a half after she was born, the lawsuit says.
The employee was discharged from the hospital on February 26; TQL expected her to return to the office the following Monday, on February 29, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit claimed that TQL's denial of the employee's work from home request during doctor-ordered bed rest directly led to the premature birth and death of Magnolia. A jury agreed, and on March 18, over five years after Magnolia's death, TQL was ordered to pay the family $22.5 million in compensatory damages.
"This is a heartbreaking out come for a young family," said Matthew Metzger, an attorney with Wolterman Law Office who co-counseled the family. "The evidence showed that Chelsea Walsh was following her doctors' instructions for a high-risk pregnancy and simply asked to work from home. The jury found that TQL's denial of that reasonable request led to the death of her daughter."
We reached out to TQL about this story. A spokesperson sent us the following statement:
"We extend our condolences to the Walsh family. We disagree with the verdict and the way the facts were characterized at trial. We are evaluating legal options and remain committed to supporting the health and well-being of our employees."
