A federal jury ruled on Friday that New Orleans jeweler Mignon Faget discriminated against a pregnant woman who requested family leave while employed by the company, according to court records.
The jury decided that Mignon Faget has to pay Shelby Webb Cox $100,000 in punitive damages along with back pay after firing her in February 2023, shortly after she requested maternity leave, the records showed.
The jury found that Mignon Faget interfered with her rights under the Family Medical Leave Act, and that her request for maternity leave and her pregnancy in general were motivating factors for the company when it fired her.
Mignon Faget denied the discrimination claims. In a statement after Friday’s verdict, the company said it does not think the evidence supported Cox’s claims. The company called its actions “lawful and appropriate” and said it will pursue an appeal.
“For more than 55 years, Mignon Faget Ltd. — a woman-owned, woman-operated New Orleans business — has championed the advancement and rights of women within our community and will continue that founding legacy,” the statement read.
Cox, with her attorney Allison Jones, brought the lawsuit against Mignon Faget in April 2024, a little over a year after the company fired her, stating that they wanted to “go in a different direction,” the complaint details.
Hired in October 2017 as a sales professional, Cox was promoted to gallery manager in 2019 and then web manager in September 2021. In February 2023, she told the retail director that she was pregnant and inquired about the leave policies. Cox said she’d intended to return to work after giving birth, court documents show.
Cox was told her requests would be forwarded to the company’s bookkeeper. A week later, Mignon Faget’s retail director and chief financial officer told her she was fired, effective immediately, according to court records.
Mignon Faget’s CFO allegedly offered Cox two weeks’ pay if she signed a severance agreement that released her of all claims for sex and pregnancy discrimination, as well as violations of the Family Medical Leave Act. Cox declined the offer.
By March 2023, Cox had sent Mignon Faget a letter seeking a settlement. She then filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which closed its investigation and issued Cox a right-to-sue notice.
Her lawsuit claims that Cox was “economically, physically and emotionally harmed” as a result of her termination.
In a statement after Friday’s verdict, Cox said that she sued to “clear my employment record and to ensure that no woman or family would ever be treated by Mignon Faget, Ltd, or any other business, in such a despicable fashion.”
Cox said she was eight months pregnant at the time.
“What Mignon Faget, Ltd did to me has taken a significant toll on me and my family. It gives me great satisfaction that justice has now been achieved,” the statement read.
U.S. District Judge Lance Africk, who was nominated to the bench by former President George W. Bush, presided over the four-day trial.
Staff writer John Simerman contributed to this story.