Lawsuit Alleges Bank of America Fired Woman Due to Lymphoma

A lawsuit filed in the Marshall Division of the Eastern District of Texas in September claims that the bank fired a woman because of her age and because she had been diagnosed with lymphoma.

In her complaint, Lohrey Henderson, 60, claims that she was hired in August of 2010 as an assistant vice president in the company’s mortgage resolution team.

Almost immediately, Henderson claims her immediate supervisor began to make discriminatory comments towards her regarding her age.

"On numerous occasions, [a] Ms. Garcia made comments insinuating that ‘old employees’ could not perform their job duties as well as young employees. Ms. Garcia also forced the plaintiff and other older employees to perform more audits than the younger team leads and would verbally reprimand plaintiff for failing to perform audits that Ms. Garcia required of her. The younger team leads were not reprimanded for failing to perform their audits."

The following year Henderson learned she had lymphoma. Due to swelling in her legs as a consequence of the disease she had trouble walking.

She learned on 5 January 2013 that she was being fired due to management's "lack of confidence in her management skills."

However, Henderson claims that she was never either coached or reprimanded for this issue before getting fired. "This stated reason was simply a pretext for defendant’s discriminatory animus against employees over the age of employees with a disability," the suit alleges.

Henderson is seeking compensation for lost wages and benefits, plus punitive damages, costs, attorney fees and other relief the court deems just.

[Marshall Division of the Eastern District of Texas case number: 2:14-CV-895]

Source: The Southeast Texas Record