A trucker discharged from Watkins Motor Lines Inc. has filed suit against the truck firm claiming discrimination based on weight. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is representing Steven Grindle, who stood about 6 feet and weighed 400 pounds at the time of his discharge.

The lawsuit, filed Oct. 31 in U.S. District Court in Dayton, OH, accuses Watkins of engaging in "unlawful employment practices," including "refusing to allow Steven Grindle to return to his truck driver job by keeping him on a 'safety hold' and ultimately discharging him on July 22, 1996," the Dayton Daily News reported. Grindle's firing, the lawsuit says, was done "with malice or reckless indifference," in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in March that morbid obesity falls within the definition of "handicap," as did New York's highest court, the Court of Appeals, which held in 1985 that obesity is a disability under the state's Human Rights Law. The California Supreme Court issued a similar disability ruling in 1993.

"He's an excellent and qualified driver," Jeffrey A. Stern, the EEOC trial attorney for Grindle, told the newspaper. "He's met his federal Department of Transportation examinations, so there's really no question of his qualification or ability to drive."

The lawsuit seeks a court order compensating Stern for his monetary losses as well as damages for "humiliation and injury to dignity."