A gay former longtime Walt Disney Co. employee has settled his lawsuit in which he said he suffered age and sexual orientation discrimination on the job and that his work conditions ultimately caused him to quit.
David Jessen’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit also alleged failure to prevent discrimination, harassment and retaliation, whistleblower retaliation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. His attorneys filed court papers with Judge Joseph Lipner notifying him of a settlement and also requesting that the case be dismissed.
No terms were divulged.
In previous court papers, Disney attorneys denied Jessen’s allegations and cited multiple defenses, including violation of the statute of limitations and that the claims belonged in a workers’ compensation forum.
According to the now-64-year-old Jessen’s lawsuit, he was hired in 1995 as the director of international product development and was promoted two years later to vice president of the same division. His responsibilities included creative content producing and creative marketing, involving budgets of tens of millions of dollars, the suit stated.
From 2016 until Jessen’s resignation in 2022, a supervisor made demeaning and highly offensive comments to the plaintiff regarding his sexual orientation and subjected him to adverse employment actions, the suit alleged. The boss allegedly excluded Jessen from important meetings and emails, provided the plaintiff only low bonuses and prevented him from reaching out to work contacts he needed in order to perform his job well.
After Jessen filed an internal complaint for discrimination and harassment in 2017, he was subjected to a “persistent pattern of retaliation and harassment” and no investigation of the issues he raised was conducted, the suit stated.
At a company meeting in 2018, Jessen was asked if he found a male actor to be attractive, the suit stated. Another management person who indirectly supervised Jessen referred to him as a “dinosaur” who had been at Disney too long to have fresh ideas, the suit stated.
When Jessen presented his supervisors in 2018 with a proposal for him to become a senior vice president, he was instead demoted to an ambassador position in 2019 with less significant responsibilities and his previous role was filled by three younger workers, according to the suit.
In fall 2019, Disney terminated many employees more than 40 years old in Jessen’s creative group, most of whom were replaced with younger workers, the suit stated.
Jessen was demoted again in 2021 and complained to human resources, where a representative promised that the allegedly hostile conduct toward him would be addressed, but the adverse employment actions continued, according to the suit.
Jessen suffered a mini-stroke in March 2022 that left him with a loss of balance and coordination and with a difficulty articulating words, the suit stated. He took a 12-week leave of absence, but was again subjected to improper work actions when he returned, the suit filed in January 2023 alleged.
Jessen complained to Disney’s then-CEO Bob Chapek that he had been the victim of ageism, harassment and retaliation, but Chapek did not respond and Jessen resigned in November 2022 because he “could no longer tolerate the disrespect, unfair treatment, shame, anxiety and depression” while working for Disney, the suit stated.