Overweight Woman Wins Bias Lawsuit Against Xerox Corp.

A woman who was refused a job by Xerox Corp. on grounds that she was too fat at 249 pounds won a discrimination case against the company in New York’s top court Tuesday.

In a 5-1 ruling, the Court of Appeals said the company had no right to deny Catherine McDermott a job as a systems analyst in 1974 on the grounds that a company physician diagnosed her overweight condition as “gross obesity.”

McDermott, 67, of Staten Island, pursued her case through the courts for years, writing her own legal briefs without the aid of an attorney.

She said she did not know what she might receive for back pay and other benefits as a result of Tuesday’s ruling but estimated it would be more than $100,000.

After she started the suit, she said, the company made several settlement offers in attempts to persuade her to drop the action.