A federal jury in New Mexico has awarded more than $41,000 to a former legal assistant who said a personal injury law firm pressured her to resign after she disclosed she was pregnant and then failed to honor a promise to pay severance wages.
The jury returned a verdict Friday ordering Parnall Law Firm LLC to pay $41,540 in direct and punitive damages to Dominique Romero-Valdez. She alleged the firm withdrew an oral agreement to provide six weeks of pay and required her to sign a release of claims to receive the money.
Romero-Valdez worked for the firm from 2021 through 2023. In her complaint, she said that at seven months pregnant she was told she could risk termination without severance or resign in exchange for several weeks of wages. She chose to resign based on that offer.
After she agreed to leave, the firm told her the wages would be paid only if she signed paperwork waiving her right to sue, according to her claims. She argued that the condition was not part of the original agreement and amounted to a breach of the deal.
Parnall disputed the allegations, contending that Romero-Valdez’s departure stemmed from performance issues rather than pregnancy. The firm also argued that she was an at-will employee and that New Mexico law does not recognize a breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing in at-will employment contracts. It maintained that she was trying to enforce an oral agreement to avoid the written separation agreement presented at the time of her resignation.
On the verdict form, jurors determined that the firm breached the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. They found Romero-Valdez agreed to resign — not to release legal claims — in exchange for six weeks of pay.
Earlier in the case, U.S. Magistrate Judge Laura Fashing denied both sides’ summary judgment motions on breach of contract and fraud, holding that a jury should decide whether verbal and written agreements governed the separation. The court later dismissed other claims, including constructive and retaliatory discharge, retaliation and defamation, with prejudice.
Attorneys for both sides did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The case is Romero-Valdez v. Parnall Law Firm LLC, No. 1:23-cv-01084, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico.
