Worker says managers leaked her medical info, then wrote her up for "pushback"
A pregnant escrow assistant says D.R. Horton's HR machinery did not just fail her - it powered her harassment.
J. Alexis Magee filed suit on April 29, 2026 in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas against D.R. Horton, Inc. - which the complaint describes as the largest homebuilder in the United States - its title subsidiary DHI Title, and three co-workers. She brings claims under Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, the PUMP Act for Nursing Mothers, and Texas state law for assault and negligent retention.
Magee worked as an escrow assistant in D.R. Horton's Houston North Division Corporate Office in Conroe, Texas. According to the complaint, what started as petty taunting from three co-workers - Emily DeSpain, Mariah Wisnowski, and Maribel Soto - turned into 32 months of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation that her managers either ignored or joined.
The HR mechanics will sound familiar to anyone in the function. Magee has ADHD. She says she disclosed it in confidence to her branch manager, Christine Miles, who then spread the information around the office. The complaint alleges Miles told her she was "too sensitive" and that "the girls shouldn't have to tip-toe around your feelings," and floated termination on multiple occasions with the line, "I'd hate to have to fire you."
The accommodation pattern is the cleanest cautionary tale in the filing. After she got pregnant in October 2023, Magee says she asked for three things: tennis shoes for pregnancy-induced sciatica and pelvic girdle pain, a desktop scanner to cut painful trips across the office, and a desk move away from her alleged harassers. Each was initially denied, the complaint says, with the scanner request brushed off because "the scanner is 10 feet away." Magee alleges she had to produce physician notes to get approvals other employees received without friction. She also alleges that DeSpain, who became pregnant after Magee went on leave, was granted "every accommodation that had been denied to Plaintiff - without resistance."
The complaint's most serious allegations are physical. Magee says that on April 30, 2024, when she was nearly eight months pregnant, the three co-workers cornered her at her desk and screamed at her about lender packages. According to the filing, DeSpain said as she moved toward the door, "I need to pay my attorney to have on standby to get my gun outta the truck." Magee says she reported the incident to Branch Operations Manager Sarah Richardson, telling her the group was "literally attacking me right now." She alleges DeSpain and Wisnowski were sent home to "cool off" while she was kept at her desk. She says she later developed hypertension, was hospitalized for approximately one month, and delivered her daughter on June 16, 2024 by emergency cesarean section after suffering sepsis on two occasions and a postpartum hemorrhage.
The post-leave allegations target the basics of a return-to-work plan. Magee says the pumping room she was given had no lock, was open to walk-in customers, and shared a wall with two of her alleged harassers' workstations - close enough that she could hear them during pumping breaks. She emailed Richardson on October 17, 2024 to say her milk supply had "drastically dropped" and she was "desperately trying to feed my baby." On October 25, 2024, the complaint alleges, an executive manager pulled the group into a meeting and said: "This is bullshit, you all need to get along. I know you're accommodating for lactating but you all need to get along."
Then the retaliation. Magee says she confidentially disclosed a PTSD diagnosis to new management in or around June 2025. Six days after that information was forwarded up the chain, she alleges, she was issued a written warning for "pushback" - a term the complaint says was used internally to mean she had complained about discrimination, with no actual policy behind it. She also alleges that HR cut her FMLA paperwork window from 15 days to roughly four days, disclosed her FMLA status to one of her alleged harassers, and withheld between $900 and $2,100 in earned commissions during her leave. By contrast, she says DeSpain was paid commissions during her own FMLA leave under the same written policy.
Magee returned to work in October 2025. She says she still reports up through the same supervisor, attends weekly meetings with her alleged harassers, and has been passed over for an annual review and merit raise.
For HR leaders, the case is a tour through the function's pressure points: medical confidentiality, the interactive accommodation process, PUMP Act compliance, FMLA administration, and the gap between "we did the paperwork" and "we actually fixed the problem." It is also a reminder that internal shorthand for an employee's behavior - in this case, "pushback" - can read very differently in a federal pleading.
The allegations have not been tested in court. D.R. Horton, DHI Title, and the individual defendants have not yet filed a response, and no court has ruled.
