A former Walmart bakery worker’s retaliatory discharge lawsuit was dismissed by Madison County Circuit Judge William Mudge on April 25.
Diana King alleged that she had been fired from Walmart in Collinsville in 2013 for having made a claim for workers’ compensation in 2011.
She originally sued in 2013, but that case was removed to federal court by Walmart.
In a motion to voluntarily withdraw the original suit, King’s attorney John Leskera of Collinsville wrote on March 20, 2015, that the parties had agreed that a settlement value was $7,500, but that they could not “agree that a resignation of Plaintiff’s employment should be a term of the settlement.”
Leskera indicated that damages sought by King were less than $75,000, that federal court lacked jurisdiction, and that he intended to refile it in Madison County.
It was refiled in Madison County on April 21, 2015, and assigned to Mudge.
King's injury for which she claimed worker’s compensation involved slipping on a freshly mopped floor in 2011. As a result of her injuries, King alleged that that she had been scheduled for surgery in mid-September 2013.
King claims she was accused of stealing cakes for family and friends by store personnel on Aug. 15, 2013, which she denied. She was fired on Aug. 19, 2013.
Walmart denied King’s allegations that she was terminated for having filed a workers’ compensation claim.
Its attorneys at Dowd Bennett in St. Louis stated that King “admitted that she had stolen between four and six donuts per week over the course of two years and that she was terminated for such theft.”
On May 9, the parties jointly stipulated that King’s claims would be dismissed with prejudice with each party to bear their own costs and attorney’s fees.
Madison County Circuit Court case number 15-L-492