Mashel Law Files Disability Discrimination Case Against Iron Mountain, Inc.

Last week Mashel Law filed a failure to accommodate wrongful discharge disability discrimination lawsuit against Iron Mountain Incorporated (Iron Mountain). Iron Mountain is a company publicly trading on the New York Stock Exchange which provides various services to its customers, including information destruction and data backup and recovery services. In the lawsuit, Mashel Law alleges their client’s employment as a Driver for Iron Mountain was unlawfully terminated because he had diabetes in violation of New Jersey’s broad and liberally-construed Law Against Discrimination, N.J.S.A. 10:5-1, et. seq. (the “LAD”). Mashel Law also alleges, among others, that Iron Mountain violated the LAD by failing to reasonably accommodate their client by not continuing him in a Helper position as he worked with his doctor to wean himself off insulin. Lastly, because Mashel Law’s client was no longer taking insulin at the time Iron Mountain ended his employment, and therefore, no longer should have needed to satisfy the company’s demand that he obtain a DOT Diabetes Exemption to perform the role of Driver, Iron Mountain wrongfully perceived their client as being disabled in violation of the LAD. The lawsuit filed by Mashel Law seeks statutory damages permitted by the LAD for their client including lost wages and benefits, emotional distress, punitive damages, and reasonable attorney fees and costs of suit. It is expected Iron Mountain will file papers in court denying these allegations.