Man With Nervous Disorder Gets Job Case Settlement

An Anaheim man who claimed that he was denied a railroad switchman’s job because he has Tourette’s syndrome received a $100,000 check in a settlement with Southern Pacific Lines, his lawyer said Tuesday.

Eric Thompson, 28, said he was happy with the settlement, which came a week before the case was scheduled to go to trial, and still wants to work for a railroad--although not Southern Pacific.

“I lost a lot of faith in the company,” he said.

Gloria Allred, Thompson’s attorney, said the settlement may be the first in the nation in which a victim of Tourette’s syndrome has won a settlement for employment discrimination.

“He is a true pioneer,” she said. “There are no published appellate cases in the nation in which a person who has Tourette’s syndrome has sued an employer for employment discrimination.”

Thompson takes medication to control the malady, which causes muscle and vocal tics. About 200,000 people nationwide have the neurological disorder, according to the Tourette’s Assn. in Bayside, N.Y. The figures could go as high as one in 200 if findings from a new genetic study are used.

Thompson, whose great-grandfather, grandfathers and father have all worked for Southern Pacific, left his job as an aircraft mechanic in September, 1989, to apply for the job of brakeman-switchman.

Thompson was approved as a student trainee after interviews and a physical examination at which he mentioned his Tourette’s.

It was only after a week of training that he was told to take a second physical and then told his disorder made him ineligible for the job, Thompson said.