A West Baltimore resident is suing the mayor and the City Council and two city contractors after she said she experienced emotional and physical anguish and damage to her home after her toilet exploded in November 2014. 
 
 According to the lawsuit, filed in Baltimore City Circuit Court in February, Angela Wright was using the bathroom when the toilet backed up and, without warning, blew her off the commode “with great force and violence.” Wright, who was knocked to the floor, was covered in feces and suffered serious injuries to her head and body, the lawsuit stated. 
 
 The lawsuit holds defendants, which include the city and contractors Spiniello Companies Inc. and Heitkamp Inc., responsible for repairing the sewage system connected to Wright’s Liberty Square home in a "negligent manner," causing the explosion. 
 
 The experience has impacted Wright's mental and emotional health, according to the lawsuit, leading to “mental anguish” and “loss of enjoyment of her usual pursuits and pastimes." Her bathroom was also severely damaged and in need of repair, the lawsuit said. 
 
 Wright’s lawsuit reported $3,300 in medical bills and $14,000 in property damages. She and her attorney, Louis Glick, are seeking $75,000 from each defendant, for a total of $225,000. 
 
 Wright and attorney Glick did not immediately respond to requests for comment, nor did representatives from Heitkamp Inc. and Spiniello Companies Inc. Howard Libit, a spokesman for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, said in an email that the mayor's office does not comment on pending litigation. 
 
 The anticipated length of the trial will be one day and will include a jury, but no date has been scheduled, according to court records. 
 
 bbritto@baltsun.com 
 
 twitter.com/brittanybritto ||||| A Portland-area woman claims she was fired while pregnant with her second child after male managers told her she spent too much time going to the bathroom. 
 
 Dawn Steckmann is suing her former high-tech employer for $406,000. 
 
 According to her lawsuit filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court, Steckmann and other employees had never been told they needed to clock out before using the restroom at Maxim Integrated Products, a Beaverton company that produces wafers for wireless devices. 
 
 But Steckmann states that while pregnant and using the toilet more often than she used to, she was suddenly fired for “stealing from the company” for using the restroom on the company’s dime. She'd worked for the company for 10 years, most recently as a fabrication technician making $18.76 per an hour. 
 
 Melissa Healy, a Portland attorney for Maxim Integrated Products, declined to comment about the lawsuit, citing the pending litigation. 
 
 Steckmann’s lawsuit -- which claims pregnancy and gender discrimination -- comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is weighing another issue involving pregnant workers’ rights to accommodation. The high court heard arguments Wednesday in the case of Peggy Young, a former UPS delivery driver from Maryland who says she was forced to take unpaid leave after UPS wouldn’t abide by a doctor’s note stating she shouldn’t lift heavy packages. 
 
 According to Steckmann’s suit, when she was pregnant with her first child in 2011, she asked her supervisor if she should clock out during restroom breaks because her pregnancy was causing her to urinate more frequently. The suit states that her supervisor said she didn’t have to clock out. 
 
 After the birth of her first child in February 2012, she took 8 ½ weeks off for medical leave before returning to work, the suit states. 
 
 In late January 2013, Steckmann told her supervisor that she again was pregnant, and he “appeared unhappy with the news,” states the suit. 
 
 Again, she needed to use the bathroom more frequently -- but this time it was worse because of a disabling bladder condition caused by her first pregnancy, according to the suit. 
 
 “Plaintiff’s bladder issues were so severe that she would not even have had time to clock out to use the restroom without an accident,” states the suit. 
 
 In April 2013 -- two or three months after announcing her second pregnancy -- Steckmann complained to the company’s CEO that her supervisor appeared to be favoring male employees in assigning out tasks and administering discipline. 
 
 In June 2013 -- about two months later -- Steckmann “was suddenly called to a meeting” with her supervisor and a human resources manager for the company, according to the suit. 
 
 “They immediately asked Plaintiff why she was not clocking out when using the restroom,” the suit states. “Plaintiff was dumbfounded and replied that she was not aware that she had to clock out.” 
 
 The suit states that her supervisor incorrectly claimed that he had told Steckmann that she needed to clock out. The suit claims that the human resources manager told Steckmann that for all he knew, she could be watching movies in the bathroom. 
 
 Steckmann promised to clock out before using the toilet from that point on and pleaded to keep her job, but was unsuccessful, the suit states. 
 
 Steckmann’s lawsuit seeks up to $106,480 for lost wages, a bonus she says she wasn’t paid, lost benefits and damage to her reputation. She seeks up to $300,000 for emotional distress. She also wants her job back. 
 
 Portland attorney Mitra Shahri is representing Steckmann. 
 
 -- Aimee Green
– A Baltimore woman who says she was blown off of her toilet when it exploded in November 2014, causing her physical injuries and PTSD, as well as loads of physical damage to her home, is now suing the city's mayor and City Council, as well as a couple of city contractors, for $75,000 each, or $225,000 in full, the Baltimore Sun reports. Angela Wright says in her February court filing that she was using the facilities when the system got backed up and exploded, knocking her off the toilet seat "with great force and violence" and leaving her covered in excrement and seriously wounded. "I was literally covered in feces. … Who wants that?" she told Fox45 shortly after the incident, with her lawyer adding, "She had to clean it up herself. Can you imagine doing that?" Why Wright is suing those particular parties: She says the mayor, the city, and contractors Spiniello Companies and Heitkamp fixed a sewage system next to her home in a "negligent manner," causing her toilet to back up and burst. (She says it also happened a few months before but she was lucky enough not to be sitting on the toilet.) The ABA Journal notes the suit doesn't specify if the commode itself actually exploded or if the burst of waste was caused by contractors using high-pressure hoses. Either way, Wright claims in her complaint that the incident caused her "mental anguish" and "loss of enjoyment of her usual pursuits and pastimes." Her attorney, meanwhile, notes the bathroom alone will likely cost around $14,000 to repair, and her suit mentions she's already racked up about $3,300 in medical bills. (She probably wasn't thinking about making beer out of the spewing toilet water.)