This article is provided as a courtesy service of the Great Lakes ADA News Service under a subcontract with the Disability News Services and funded by the U.S. Department of Education, NIDRR #133D60011. Please review the Conditions for Reproduction of this Article.
(591 words, posted January 31, 2000)
by Leye Jeannette Chrzanowski
Copyright ©2000 The Disability News Service, Inc.
EEOC v. CEC Entertainment, Inc. dba Chuck
E. Cheese's
Civil Action Number: 98C698X
Filed: U.S. District Court for the Western
District of Wisconsin
In early November, 1999, a jury found that Chuck E. Cheese, a subsidiary of CEC Entertainment, Inc. of Irving, Texas, violated Title I, employment provisions of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) and awarded Donald Perkl, a resident of Madison, Wisconsin, $10,000 in back pay, $70,000 compensatory and $13 million in punitive damages.
The verdict represents the largest monetary award by a jury in an ADA case brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). According to a spokesperson for Wisconsin Coalition for Advocacy, the protection and advocacy (P &A) organization that joined EEOC in the trial, Perkl will receive attorney's fees, but the amount of compensatory and punitive damages will be capped at around $300,000 because of statutory limitations.
Perkl, who has mental retardation and cognitive disabilities, compensated for speech difficulties by using picture cards and a hand-held computer device. Coupled with the assistance of a job coach, Perkl, who is in his early fifties, was employed as a janitor by a Madison Chuck E. Cheese. Although the restaurant's manager was pleased with his performance, Perkl was fired by a regional manager, who stated Chuck E. Cheese did not hire “those kind of people.” When Perkl's manager and coworkers asked the company's president and CEO to intervene and reverse the regional manager's decision, they were met with silence.
Earlier efforts by EEOC to resolve the case through conciliation failed. Based on an administrative finding that the regional manager illegally fired Perkl from his job, EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court in early 1997.
Adding insult to injury, Chuck E. Cheese attorneys argued Perkl's cognitive limitation left it “highly unlikely” that he experienced any significant distress as a result of his termination.
With its decision and landmark monetary award, the jury clearly recognized that Perkl did feel the pain of discrimination, even if his disabilities placed limitations on his ability to express those feelings in a traditional manner, and that hiring and firing decisions should be based on ability not myths, fears or stereotypes.
“The case sends a clear message that prejudice will not be tolerated in the workplace,” says Peter Blanck, a University of Iowa law professor and author of The Americans With disabilities Act and the Emerging Workforce: Employment of People With Mental Retardation. During the trial, Blanck offered expert testimony about the myths and stigma involving persons with mental retardation in employment. “Many of the employers I have studied recognize the value of workers with mental retardation.”
“It is likely that the case further exposes prejudices against people with disabilities and provides important safeguards against purely prejudicial practices,” says William Woolcock, Ph.D., a program specialist with National Center for the Dissemination of Disability Research in Austin, Texas. “Hopefully, it furthers the spirit of the ADA, in which people with and without disabilities support each other in developing diverse productive workplaces.”
Using similar assistive devices and supports which he used while employed with Chuck E. Cheese, Perkl now holds two part-time janitorial positions.
The suit was originally filed against Showbiz Pizza Time, Inc., but on 25 June, 1998, Showbiz Pizza stockholders voted to change the company's name to CEC Entertainment, Inc. Earnings for the company totaled $338.9 million in the first nine months of 1999. CEC has indicated it will appeal.
This work was performed under a subcontract with the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, and funded by the U.S. Department of Education, NIDRR #133D60011.
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