LEWISBURG – A Greenbrier County man says he was wrongfully terminated by the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine after being on medical leave.
Christopher W. Lambert filed his complaint in Greenbrier Circuit Court against the school, which is based in Lewisburg. Lambert resides in White Sulphur Springs.
According to the complaint, Lambert started his employment with the school in 2010. In 2019, his job title was webmaster. He says he had not received a single disciplinary action or unsatisfactory job review.
Kolenich
Lambert suffers from severe asthma, according to the complaint. In September 2019, he says he made several requests for accommodations for his condition. He says those requests were refused and ignored. As a result, he says he suffered a work-related injury.
He filed for medical leave under the Family Medical Leave Act and was out from January 2, 2020, to March 31, 2020. During that time, he filed a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regarding the school’s failure to accommodate his condition.
Upon his return to work, Lambert says retaliatory action against him began almost immediately.
“Plaintiff was stripped of his job responsibilities and functionally demoted,” the complaint states. “Defendants WVSOM began withholding information from plaintiff that was essential to his job and assigning work to plaintiff with unattainable deadlines, thereby setting him up to fail.”
Lambert was fired August 4, 2020. He says the firing was unlawful.
He accuses the school of violating the FMLA, disability discrimination, workers’ compensation discrimination, retaliation for reporting discrimination to the EEOC and a tort of outrage.
Lambert says he has suffered injuries, damages and losses including back pay, lost benefits, front pay, future loss of benefits, emotional distress, anxiety, fear, embarrassment, humiliation, financial hardship, medical bills, pain and suffering.
He seeks compensatory damages as well as attorney fees, court costs, interest and other relief.
Lambert is being represented by Erika Klie Kolenich of Klie Law Offices in Buckhannon.
Greenbrier Circuit Court case number 20-C-115
