An Ohio freight-brokerage firm must pay $22.5m in damages to a woman whom the company denied permission to work from home as she tried managing pregnancy complications – and then endured her newborn’s death after prematurely giving birth, a state court jury has decided.

The case centering on Chelsea Walsh, her late daughter Magnolia, and Total Quality Logistics (TQL) unfolded as many employers increasingly allowed remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic – but then pushed to get workers physically back into the office.

Matthew C Metzger, an attorney for Walsh’s family, said in a statement that the sizable verdict handed up on Wednesday in favor of his client came only after TQL passed up “multiple opportunities to resolve this … for far, far less”. Metzger’s statement added: “We wish those opportunities had been taken seriously.”