Woman Fired for Refusing COVID Shot Wins $12.7 Million in Jury Trial

by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.

 

A federal jury in Detroit last week awarded nearly $12.7 million to a Catholic woman who sued her former employer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, after she was fired in 2022 for refusing to get a COVID-19 shot.

Lisa Domski worked for Blue Cross for 33 years, most recently as an IT specialist. In 2021, she sought a religious exemption to her employer’s vaccine mandate, saying it violated her sincerely held Catholic beliefs because the vaccines were developed or tested using fetal cells.

Blue Cross denied Domski’s request and fired her on Jan. 5, 2022. She sued the company in August 2023, alleging religious discrimination and violations of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act.

In their Nov. 8 verdict, jurors sided with Domski, awarding her $10 million in punitive damages, $315,000 in back pay, $1.375 million in lost future wages and $1 million for noneconomic damages.

Jonathan Marko, co-counsel for Domski, told The Defender his client “felt vindicated that a jury of her peers gave her justice by finding that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan discriminated against her based on her religious beliefs.”

Marko told the Detroit Free Press that Domski’s lawsuit was the first case to go to trial in Michigan involving an employer’s denial of a religious accommodation request connected to the COVID-19 shots.

Blue Cross rejected 75% of employees’ religious exemption requests

According to Fox News, Blue Cross introduced a vaccine mandate for employees in October 2021. The policy required all employees to be fully vaccinated or obtain a medical or religious exemption.

Domski, who worked fully remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic and mostly remotely before the pandemic, submitted a written statement to Blue Cross outlining her religious beliefs along with the contact information of her priest and parish. Blue Cross never followed up, she said in her lawsuit.

Instead, Domski said Blue Cross denied her request and ordered her to get vaccinated. When Domski refused to get the shot, Blue Cross fired her.

According to Marko:

“[Domski] did everything Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan asked her to do. She filled out a religious exemption questionnaire, provided the information for her priest and gave a written statement explaining her sincerely held religious beliefs.

“Blue Cross never contacted her priest, did not request any additional information and told Lisa her statement was sufficient. It then denied her request without any explanation.”

During the trial, Blue Cross claimed it was unaware of Domski’s Catholic faith at the time of her firing and denied any discrimination, Fox News reported. According to Newsweek, Blue Cross questioned the sincerity of Domski’s religious beliefs in earlier court filings.

“Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan blamed Lisa for not having her religious accommodation request granted, claiming she should have provided more information,” Marko said. “Yet, Blue Cross could not articulate what specifically was wrong with her request and admitted it never requested any additional or different information from her.”

According to the complaint, Domski also alleged that Blue Cross interviewed employees seeking religious accommodations. One of the questions was whether the employees took over-the-counter medicines such as aspirin, Sudafed, Tums or Tylenol, falsely claiming that Tums and Tylenol were developed and produced using stem cells.

Marko told The Defender Blue Cross Blue Shield Michigan “denied over 500 religious accommodations” — 75% of the requests filed.

According to Marko, Domski began working for Blue Cross when she was 17. Her firing led to her losing “vision insurance, 401k benefits, bonuses, all the vacation time she earned and other benefits.” She has been unable to find other employment because she lacks a college degree…

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE… (childrenshealthdefense.org)

 

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