Congratulations to Minneapolis lawyer, Joshua Williams, for a $500,000 jury verdict for the plaintiff in Daniel v. City of Minneapolis.
Williams had to take the case up to the Minnesota Supreme Court and back down again before getting his client his day in court. (The issue that went up to the Minnesota Supreme Court was the reconciliation (or “exclusivity”) of the workers’ compensation statute and the Minnesota human rights act.) (“The broad remedies provided by the human rights act, including monetary damages, equitable relief, and civil penalties, further show that the personal and societal injuries caused by discrimination are different in
nature and scope from the physical and mental work injuries that are compensable under the workers’ compensation act.”)
The facts of the case are quite pedestrian, the issue being whether the City discriminated against Mr. Daniel by not allowing him to wear doctor-prescribed tennis shoes, which Mr. Daniel had been prescribed for pain from an injured ankle.
Is it just us, or do others think it strange that the City of Minneapolis thought it appropriate to invest such time, energy, and resources to fight against one injured firefighter’s desire to wear doctor-prescribed tennis shoes because of his ankle injury?