A Catholic woman who was fired for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine was awarded close to $13 million in damages after suing her former employer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.
Lisa Domski, who worked at the insurance company for 38 years as an IT specialist, was awarded the massive payout after a federal jury in Detroit ruled in favor of her religious discrimination case. She argued that the company denied her request for an exemption from its 2021 COVID vaccine policy despite her insistence that it conflicted with her Catholic faith.
Domski’s lawyer Jon Marko told Fox News Digital that she had worked remotely during the pandemic and was on a hybrid arrangement prior to the COVID outbreak. Her remote work arrangement should have excluded her from the vaccine policy as she posed no risk to others, he said.
“This was a woman who was working from home in her basement office who wasn’t a threat to anybody and was completely fulfilling all of her job obligations for 38 years,” Marko told Fox News Digital.
After the policy was implemented, Domski submitted a written statement to her employer detailing her religious beliefs and attached the contact information of her priest and parish, but the insurer never followed up, Marko alleged.
Instead, the company allegedly denied her accommodation request and threatened to terminate her if she didn’t comply with the vaccine mandate, he said. Domski refused and was subsequently fired.
“They made up their minds that they were going to discriminate against people who had sincerely held religious beliefs,” Marko alleged.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan introduced its COVID vaccine policy in October 2021, which mandated all employees be fully vaccinated or obtain a religious or medical accomodation.
Domski was awarded $10 million in punitive damages against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, an additional $1.7 million in lost wages and $1 million in noneconomic damages.
When reached for comment, the insurer said they were “dissapointed in the verdict” while defending their vaccine policy in a statement to Fox News Digital.
