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Olsen v. Toyota Technical Center12/27/2002
UNPUBLISHED
The jury found in favor of plaintiff Larry J. Olsen in this case concerning Toyota's responsibility to accommodate his back injury pursuant to the Persons With Disabilities Civil Rights Act (PWDCRA). The jury awarded Olsen $360,600 for lost wages, $5,000,000 for emotional distress, and $800,000 lost future wages. The jury also found in favor of Mary E. Olsen with respect to her claim for loss of consortium, awarding her $1,000,000. The trial court reduced the Olsens' total award to $6,388,087.87, plus attorney fees, interest, and costs. Defendant Toyota Technical Center, USA, Inc., now appeals by right the trial court's order denying its motions for new trial, remittitur, or judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV). The Olsens cross-appeal by right the trial court's decision to set off Olsen's award by the worker 's compensation and social security benefits he received and will receive in the future. We affirm.
I. Basic Facts And Procedural History
In 1971, Olsen began working for Braun Engineering as a maintenance technician. In 1983, while lifting a motor at Braun, Olsen sustained a serious back injury for which he received worker 's compensation . Over the next several years, Olsen had intermittent medical leaves of absence from work because of his back injury, including surgery in 1985. For the first several years after the injury, when he was able to work, Olsen had restrictions on the work he could perform, including the weight of objects he could lift. The chief, lingering symptoms of this injury were lower back pain and pain radiating into his legs. Olsen used prescription pain relievers, muscle relaxers, and a back brace to control his pain and discomfort, and his condition improved sufficiently for him to return to work full-time at Braun in the late 1980s.
In 1990, Braun suspended Olsen for a few days because he was involved in a fight on the job with a co-worker. The co-worker was reportedly drunk at the time and his assault on Olsen rendered Olsen unconscious and caused him to sustain a concussion. Afraid to return to work at Braun because of this co-worker, Olsen began searching for a new job. Olsen saw a job posting in a local newspaper in which the Toyota Technical Center was advertising its need to hire a senior maintenance technician. The job description did not indicate that the work required heavy lifting, or repetitive bending or pushing. Believing that he could perform this work even with his back condition, Olsen applied for work at the Toyota Technical Center as a senior maintenance technician in September 1990.
Jerry Frazier, who worked in Toyota's personnel department, and Robert Riemer, who was a facilities manager in charge of the maintenance technicians, interviewed Olsen. According to Olsen, the men described the senior technician's work responsibilities as general maintenance, which included "boilers, everything from the lights, light switches, ceiling tile - anything that - and everything. That included even off the wall things," like acting as a messenger. In the interview, Olsen was "open" with Frazier and Riemer about the circumstances surrounding the assault at Braun. He did not tell them about his back injury because he knew he had to pass a preemployment physical, during which he could not hide the four-or five-inch scar on his back from his surgery. Nothing said in this interview, or his subsequent interview, made Olsen question whether he could perform the job .
Toyota, evidently impressed with Olsen's lengthy experience in the field, especially his knowledge of heating and cooling systems, offered him the job. The letter extending the employment offer asked Olsen to obtain a preemploym
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