Bank of America accused of firing woman with lymphoma

Bank of America is accused of firing a woman with lymphoma allegedly due to her age and her illness.

Lohrey Henderson filed a lawsuit Sept. 12 in the Marshall Division of the Eastern District of Texas against Bank of America. 

In her complaint, the 60-year-old Henderson says she began working with Bank of America Aug. 30, 2010, where she worked as an assistant vice president in the company's mortgage resolution team.

While Henderson was working for the bank, her immediate supervisor began to make discriminatory comments regarding Henderson's advanced age, the suit states.

"On numerous occasions, [a] Ms. Garcia made comments insinuating that 'old employees' could not perform their job duties as well as young employees," the complaint says. "Ms. Garcia also forced the plaintiff and other older employees to perform more audits than the younger team leads and would verbally reprimand plaintiff for failing to perform audits that Ms. Garcia required of her. The younger team leads were not reprimanded for failing to perform their audits."

In 2011, Henderson was diagnosed with lymphoma and experienced swelling in her legs, which made walking difficult and painful, according to the complaint.

On Jan. 5, 2013, Henderson was terminated because of her managers' "lack of confidence in her management skills," the suit states. 

"Plaintiff was never coached or even reprimanded for this issue prior to her date of termination," the complaint says. "This stated reason was simply a pretext for defendant's discriminatory animus against employees over the age of employees with a disability."

In her complaint, Henderson seeks compensation for lost wages and benefits, plus punitive damages, costs, attorney fees and other relief the court deems just.

Scott C. Skelton of Skelton, Slusher, Barnhill, Watkins and Wells in Lufkin will represent Henderson.

Marshall Division of the Eastern District of Texas case number: 2:14-CV-895

This is a report on a civil lawsuit filed at the Marshall Division of the Eastern District of Texas. The details in this report come from an original complaint filed by a plaintiff. Please note that a complaint represents an accusation by a private individual, not the government. It is not an indication of guilt and it represents only one side of the story.