Cincinnati Jury Holds TQL Liable for $22.5 Million in Wrongful Death of a Newborn After a Denied Work-From-Home Request

Chelsea Walsh worked at Total Quality Logistics, the Cincinnati-area freight brokerage that ranks among the region's largest private employers. In early 2021 she was pregnant, and the pregnancy was high risk. That February she underwent an operation on her cervix intended to prevent early labor. Her doctors told her to limit activity, stay on modified bed rest, and work from home.

On February 15, 2021, days after the surgery, Walsh asked TQL to let her work remotely. The company said no. On February 24 TQL approved the request, though according to her lawyers the approval came only after a third party intervened, and by then it was too late. That same day Walsh was hospitalized with complications. She delivered her daughter at 20 weeks and six days of gestation. The newborn lived only a few hours.

Walsh and her husband Matt sued in 2023 on behalf of their daughter's estate, alleging employer negligence and wrongful death under Ohio Revised Code sections 2125.01 and 2125.02. The case was tried over seven days in the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas before Judge Chris Wagner. Matthew C. Metzger of Wolterman Law Office tried it alongside co-counsel Brian Butler of The Butler Trial Firm.

In March 2026 the jury returned a $25 million verdict and assigned 90 percent of the fault to TQL, putting the company's share at $22.5 million. The award was entirely compensatory. A request for punitive damages was denied. Wolterman Law Office describes the result as one of the largest jury verdicts in Hamilton County history.

The case drew attention well beyond Cincinnati's local news. Because TQL is one of the largest freight brokerages in the country, trade outlets including FreightWaves covered the trial, and the verdict was widely noted as an unusual application of wrongful death law: an employer held liable in tort for the death of an employee's newborn after refusing a medical accommodation, rather than facing the more familiar discrimination or accommodation claims under employment statutes.

TQL extended condolences to the Walsh family but said it disagreed with the verdict and with how the facts were characterized at trial. The company argued that the doctor's notes Walsh submitted lacked sufficient information to support approving remote work, and after the verdict it said it was evaluating its legal options. The Walshes' attorneys have said they fully expect TQL to appeal. As of mid-2026, news reports described TQL as still weighing post-trial options, which could include an appeal or a bid to reduce the damages, and no appellate ruling had been reported.

The Walsh family's daughter was born and died in late February 2021, nine days after her mother first asked to work from home.