A 60-year-old dishwasher has been awarded $21.5 million in damages by a federal jury in a lawsuit against Hilton hotels over continuously scheduling the religious woman to work on Sundays, before ultimately firing her.
But Jean Marie Pierre, who worked at the Miami Conrad, won’t be seeing anywhere near that amount of money, because punitive damages, which are meant to teach defendants a lesson rather than being based on actual harm suffered, are capped at $300,000 in federal court where her case went to trial.
‘The jury was not aware of the cap,’ Marc Brumer, Pierre’s Miami-based lawyer, said. ‘They thought that they punished Hilton hotel with $21 million [in damages].’
Pierre will likely end up with something much closer to $500,000 when all is said and done, from her 2017 lawsuit against Virginia-based Park Hotels & Resorts (formerly known as Hilton Worldwide) for violations of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
She was awarded damages by the jury on Tuesday.
‘I love God,’ the Haiti-born, devout Christian missionary said. ‘No, I can’t do Sundays, because Sunday I honor God.’
Pierre had worked at the Hilton property for nearly a decade, according to Brumer, with her religions needs accommodated for much of that time.
But something changed, and after Pierre missed six Sundays she was scheduled to work in order to attend services at the Bethel Baptist Church in northeastern Miami-Dade County, she was let go from the company in March of 2016, NBC6 reported.
‘They accommodated her for seven years, and they easily could’ve accommodated her, but instead of doing that, they set her up for absenteeism and threw her out,’ Brumer said.
‘She’s a soldier of Christ. She was doing this for all the other people, all the other workers who are being discriminated against.’
When Pierre took the job at the Miami Conrad in 2006, she said she told management Sundays were off limits for her due to her religious beliefs.
When the hotel began scheduling her to work her holy day in 2009, she said she told the company she would have to leave, at which point the hotel accommodated her until 2015.
Late in 2015 is when the Conrad again started scheduling her to work on Sundays, and after taking issue with that change, Pierre was fired a few months later for alleged misconduct, negligence and ‘unexcused absences,’ according to the lawsuit.
Hilton argued in court that the company had no knowledge that the longtime employee is a member of a Catholic missionary group that helps the poor, or why she consistently required having Sundays off.
But according to Brumer, ‘There were letters in [her personnel] file and her pastor went down there.’
The Hilton corporate team provided the following statement in response to the award, entered by the US District Court in Miami:
‘We were very disappointed by the jury’s verdict & don’t believe that it is supported by the facts of this case or the law. During Ms. Pierre’s ten years with the hotel, multiple concessions were made to accommodate her personal & religious commitments.’
Federal law requires that employers make reasonable accommodations for religious practices.
Out of the $21.5 million the jury technically awarded Pierre, she’ll take home about $500,000 from an award that will be whittled down to just under $1 million, Brumer estimated.
From the $21 million that was intended as punitive damages, the maximum amount she can get is $300,000 per the federal court limit.
She was also awarded $500,000 for emotional distress and $35,000 in lost wages. After legal fees are subtracted, the estimated $835,000 award will be a lot closer to half a million once it hits Pierre’s bank account.
But Brumer said his client’s case ‘was not about money,’ anyway.
‘This was about sending a message to other corporations, whether big or small, whatever size you are,’ he said.
‘If you’re gonna take the blood and sweat of your workers, you better accommodate them, or let them at least believe in their religious beliefs, not a preference, but a belief.’
The hotel company said it plans to appeal the award.
