BANGOR – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Wednesday sued an air freight company with terminals in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Vermont for allegedly violating the Americans With Disabilities Act when it fired a disabled employee in Pittsfield while she was on a temporary medical leave.

The lawsuit, filed at U.S. District Court in Bangor, contends Land Air Express of New England Ltd. violated the federal law by failing to accommodate Donna Malone’s disability. A seven-year employee, Malone was denied a request for leave to deal with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder and was fired in 1999 while she was in a hospital, according to the lawsuit.

Land Air Express of New England has its headquarters in Vermont. It operates terminals in Pittsfield and Scarborough.

Malone, also known as Donna Laster, was hired in December 1992 and held positions of increased responsibility including terminal manager at Scarborough. At the time of her termination, she was the operations manager at the Pittsfield terminal, the lawsuit states.

At the time Malone was fired, she had no documented performance problems, according to the lawsuit. Starting in 1999, she began requiring leaves of absence for her disability and was terminated during her third hospitalization, the lawsuit said.

The legal document describes Land Air Freight as a company with “tremendous employee turnover: in just over two years, beginning in 1998, [Land Air Express of New England] had experienced over 600 employee terminations,” according to the lawsuit.

“Employees with mental disabilities are entitled to the same protection under the law as are employees with physical disabilities,” said Katherine Bissell, a commission attorney in New York. “The EEOC will seek full relief from employers who discriminate on the basis of disability, regardless of the nature of the disability.”

John Hansell, a company official with Land Air Express, declined comment.

The lawsuit seeks damages for emotional pain, suffering and inconvenience upon Malone that caused her to suffer financially. It seeks back wages, compensatory and punitive damages as well as an injunction against the company preventing its staff “from engaging in any employment practice which discriminates” on the basis of real or perceived disability.

Malone initially filed a discrimination charge with the Maine Human Rights Commission. “We are very pleased that we were able to bring this case to the EEOC’s attention and contribute to the investigation,” said Patricia Ryan, executive director of the Maine Human Rights Commission.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.