Historically Walmart and semi-truck drivers have had a rough relationship. For example, Walmart doesn’t allow truckers to park on location overnight. But one former Walmart truck driver gets the last laugh by winning a $34.7 million lawsuit. 

Former Walmart truck driver wins $34.7 million in a defamation lawsuit 

Jesus ‘Jesse’ Fonseca is a former Walmart truck driver who just won a defamation lawsuit in San Bernardino, California. He got $9.7 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages. 

The California jury awarded him $34.7 million in damages after Walmart allegedly defamed him. Walmart thought Jesse violated its integrity rules by driving a recreational vehicle during medical leave and fired him. 

Fonseca was one of Walmart’s drivers for 14 years and was once the face of Walmart truckers for a national commercial after being injured on the job in 2017. 

According to Courthouse News, Jesse went on worker’s compensation leave because his doctors said he wasn’t well enough to drive a semi-truck. 

Driving an 18-wheeler truck for 11 to 14 hours a day, which was the 54-year-old’s job, is extremely exhausting.  

About a month and a half after the accident, Jesse informed Walmart worker compensation administration personnel that he was taking his family on an RV camping trip and would be taking his wife on a cruise for their wedding anniversary in September during his medical leave. 

A Walmart employee secretly investigated Jesse to see if he was cheating and filmed him driving the RV and bending, which is another activity his doctors restricted. 

The Walmart Statement of Ethics department immediately fired him for fraud and for acting with intentional dishonesty.  

But he took the proper steps to inform Walmart about his trips. Jesse was honest and open with the proper representatives. The investigation found that he wasn’t being intentionally dishonest, deceptive, or fraudulent.