Employment Law and Wrongful Termination Cases

Here is a recent interview, where I talk about the employment law and wrongful termination cases that we handle at my law firm. We represent both employees and employers in these cases, with about 85% of the cases being on behalf of employees. We handle everything from breach of contract to discrimination, EEOC charges, arbitration, mediation, litigation, government employees, union matters and more, and we do it across the United States, as long as we can apply federal laws to the case.

Bruce Coane is a lawyer handling wrongful termination cases throughout the United States for over 30 years. He is a 2020 and 2021 Super Lawyer selected by Thomson Reuters company, with offices in Texas and Florida. He may be reached at bruce.coane@gmail.com or 713.850.0066 or 305.538.6800. The law firm website is http://www.coane.com

Home Depot Sued for Job Harassment and Discrimination

Our law firm filed a lawsuit last week on behalf of our client, and against Home Depot. The federal court lawsuit alleges job harassment because of our client’s race, national origin and age.

Our client, age 62, was a happy employee of Home Depot for over 20 years. The staff at Home Depot enjoyed working  with our client and all was well until our client transferred to the Little York store in Houston. There, his store manager was Thomas Willtrout, and that is when the problems began.

In his lawsuit, our client alleges that Thomas Willtrout, his store manager, told him that he was “old and slow,” and that he “did not know anything about technology.” In addition, Willtrout, who is white, allegedly made fun of our client’s Indian-Carribean accent in front of customers and co-workers. Further, it is alleged that Willtrout would pretend that he could not understand our client whenever he spoke to Willtrout.

Our client also states that when he asked Willtrout to stop harassing him and making fun of him because of his age and national origin, that Willtrout said, “I’m the f***ing manager, I can do what I want.”

Following that exchange, our client states that he complained about the discrimination to Mervin Alphonse (District Manager) and Pamela Holland in Human Resources. They apparently initiated an investigation, but Willtrout remained as our client’s manager.

In May of 2016, our client states that Willtrout confronted him about the complaint to HR and told our client that he is “unhappy about that.” The following month, Willtrout gave our client a written warning, and in August of 2016, Willtrout fired our client, allegedly in retaliation for his complaint to HR and the District Manager. His 20+ years at Home Depot came to a very sad end.

The lawsuit is currently pending in U.S. District Court in Galveston, with the first hearing set for April 12 of next year. This Houston employment lawyer is representing the worker in his case against Home Depot.

For further information, I may be contacted at bruce.coane@gmail.com or at 713.850.0066 or 305.538.6800.

 

October in Miami: A Lawyer’s Perspective

Here is the view from the office of this Miami immigration lawyer and Miami  discrimination lawyer, today. Our staff is diligently working on our clients’ immigration and discrimination cases from our Florida headquarters in South Beach.

While I will be back in our Houston office tomorrow, I personally prefer the view from our South Beach office. Today, I was working on a couple of our local discrimination cases against Kohl’s Department Store and against Checker’s. We are representing clients before the Miami EEOC in discrimination cases against those two companies. Also, we are working on preparing Summons documents after suing Johnson and Wales University in Miami for allegedly discriminating against our client, a Native American at that school. And, finally, we are working on a lawsuit against the Oppenheimer & Co. for religious discrimination where our Jewish client was allegedly taunted with bagel jokes and other derogatory religious comments before they fired him.

On the immigration side of our practice, I was so pleased to see the approval of our horse trainer client’s case today. We have been working on that case for ten years and it finally got approved. In these times of America First, it is not easy to be getting foreign worker applications approved. However, in this case of the horse trainer from Mexico, we tested the labor market and were able to prove that there were no available USA workers for the job.

For further information, I can be reached at 713.850.0066 or 305.538.6800, or via email at bruce.coane@gmail.com

Shintech Faces EEOC Race Discrimination Charge

Our law firm filed a race discrimination charge against Shintech, of Freeport, Texas, on behalf of a Hispanic worker who was recently fired.

photo: wbrz.com

The charge is currently under investigation at the EEOC. It alleges that our client was fired, after 13 years of employment, with no warning and with no valid cause, other than he was non-white.

It is alleged that our client and another non-white worker were both fired by the company, solely because of their race, and over a minor incident. The charge alleges that white workers who violated company rules and engaged in serious infractions were not fired, yet our client and another man were fired for a far less serious matter. The EEOC will conduct their investigation where they will determine if there is sufficient cause to support the charge of race discrimination.

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About the author: Bruce Coane is an attorney who specializes in labor and employment law and immigration law, with offices in Florida and Texas. He may be reached at houstonlaw@aol.com, 713-850-0066 or 305-538-6800.

EEOC Charges Against LNR Property LLC Go to Investigative Unit

After a failed mediation at the EEOC, our client’s charges of race and national origin discrimination against LNR Property LLC, of Miami Beach, are being returned to the EEOC’s investigative unit.

The charges were filed in April 2012, after our client was fired. Our client was at the firm for over 10 years. He is a US citizen, born in Haiti. He says that he was the only black person in his department and one of the few non-Hispanics. He says that most of his Hispanic co-workers spoke in Spanish (which he could not understand) and constantly piled work on him, while they took constant breaks and often sat around with nothing to do.

The EEOC will investigate these charges to determine if LNR has violated the law. If the EEOC determines that LNR has violated the law, they may seek conciliation or the EEOC could file a lawsuit. Alternatively, the EEOC can issue a Right to Sue letter, allowing our client to pursue the matter directly in Federal court.

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About the author: Bruce Coane is an attorney who specializes in labor and employment law and immigration law, with offices in Florida and Texas. He may be reached at houstonlaw@aol.com, 713-850-0066 or 305-538-6800.

Race Discrimination Case Against Kroger and Use of word "Nigger"

I am preparing for a jury trial in Houston which starts on August 7, 2012. The case involves race discrimination against Kroger, the big supermarket chain in Houston.

photo: you-can-learn-basic-employee-rights.com

Our client claims that she was constantly called “nigger” by her white co-worker. She says that she complained to management and they rarely, if ever, took action. They let him continue working there, she alleges, because he was friends with the store manager.

As I prepare for trial, I was discussing how many times we think the word “nigger” will be mentioned in the trial. We even talked about substituting the phrase, “the “N” word”, rather than saying the racial slur over and over again. I’ve had sex harassment and race discrimination cases where other slurs were used, and I always avoid repeating them, but rather say the “f-word” or the “b-word”.

Wondering what my friends in the blogosphere and on FB think. Should we keep saying “nigger” throughout the trial, or should we say “the N word”, instead. Somehow I think the jury will grow tired, and maybe even offended by the constant repetition of the word “nigger”.

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About the author: Bruce Coane is an attorney who specializes in labor and employment law and immigration law, with offices in Florida and Texas. He may be reached at houstonlaw@aol.com, 713-850-0066 or 305-538-6800.

Kroger Loses Motion to Dismiss Race Discrimination and Sex Harassment Lawsuit

In an Order released today by the U.S.District Court in Houston, The Kroger Company lost its motion for summary judgment on a race discrimination and sex harassment case.

© AP Photo/David Koh

The case was brought by Angella Ayissi, a long-time cashier who works at Kroger. The papers on file in her case state that Kroger management allowed an employee at their Sugar Land, Texas store to constantly say the word, “nigger” and other racially and sexually hostile words. She states that this went on for years before Kroger ever took any action.

Lawyers for Kroger tried to get the case dismissed, but on May 29, 2012, Judge Nancy Atlas denied their motion, except for a retaliation claim, and ordered that the case proceed to jury trial at the end of July.

Our law firm has been representing Ms. Ayissi from the outset, and we were very pleased with the judge’s 17 page Order allowing this case to be decided by the jury. Many times the judges dismiss these cases, but in this case, the judge found that Ms. Ayissi raised genuine issues of material fact and that Kroger would have to stand trial.

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About the author: Bruce Coane is an attorney who specializes in labor and employment law, and, immigration law, with offices in Florida and Texas. He may be reached at houstonlaw@aol.com, 713-850-0066 or 305-538-6800.

Hatian Man Files EEOC Charge Against LNR Property LLC

Our law firm was recently hired to represent a Haitian-American man in a discrimination complaint against his former employer, LNR Property LLC. The charge of discrimination was filed with the EEOC this month, and alleges discrimination based on race, national origin and sex.

Our client worked at LNR for over 10 years and seemed to be doing just fine. About one year ago, he got a new supervisor, and that is when he alleges the discrimination began against him because he is not Hispanic like most of his co-workers. He alleges that co-workers including his supervisor constantly spoke in Spanish and excluded him from such conversations and other work activities.

The issue of speaking foreign languages in the work place continues to be a hot issue in discrimination cases. Our law firm is handling several cases in Miami concerning similar issues.

In accordance with federal law, the EEOC will be conducting an investigation of our client’s complaint, after which, he can take his case to federal court.

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About the author: Bruce Coane is an attorney who specializes in labor and employment law, and, immigration law, with offices in Florida and Texas. He may be reached at houstonlaw@aol.com, 713-850-0066 or 305-538-6800.

Kroger Files Motion to Dismiss Race/Sex Harassment Lawsuit

In a case that our law firm has been handling, the employer, Kroger, has filed a motion for summary judgment seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed. They claim that there are insufficient disputed facts to warrant a trial. The case is pending in US District Court in Houston and is set for trial this summer.

In this case, our client filed a lawsuit in federal court, claiming that a co-worker harassed her because she is black and female, by among other things, calling her a “nigger.” Store managers, Raymond Wei and Mike Childs, have signed statements on behalf of Kroger’s motion.

Co-manager of the Kroger store (in Sugar Land, Tx), Raymond Wei, verifies that our client complained about a co-worker using curse words at her, and he notes that a customer verified our client’s complaint. Store manager Mike Childs has verified that the offending employee was disciplined at least one time, yet, his employer still seeks dismissal of the case.

In their motion, Kroger claims that our client cannot prove sufficient facts to win, so the judge should dismiss the case. This is a common defense tactic in almost every discrimination case. Unfortunately, many times a judge will dismiss the case without the employee-victim ever getting their day in court for a trial. In this case, we plan to respond to the motion with compelling evidence, so hopefully the judge will let our client proceed to trial before a jury.

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About the author: Bruce Coane is an attorney who specializes in labor and employment law, and, immigration law, with offices in Florida and Texas. He may be reached at houstonlaw@aol.com, 713-850-0066 or 305-538-6800.

Race Discrimination case at U.S.Court of Appeals

Today, we have oral argument before 3 judges at the U.S.Court of Appeals in New Orleans, on a race discrimination case. This is one court below the U.S.Supreme Court.

The case is called Linda Criner vs. Texas New Mexico Power (TNMP) Company. We represent Linda Criner, an employee of TNMP, who stated in her lawsuit that she was being discriminated against because of her race. Ms. Criner is black and the evidence showed that most of her co-workers are white. Further, she alleged that she was constantly turned down for promotions within the company because of her race. Her filings with the court talked about a “good ole boy” network within the company where almost all promotions she applied for, go to white men.

Despite the large amount of evidence filed with the U.S.District Court in Houston, the judge refused to allow Ms. Criner to have a jury trial. Instead, the judge dismissed the case completely, on the company’s motion for summary judgment.

While such motions are common, many judges still allow the case to go to trial, in order to let the jury decide. In this case, Ms. Criner never had her day in court.

An appeal was filed, and, in an unusual move, the U.S.Court of Appeals, granted oral argument. This is unusual because many times the court of appeals will simply read the lawyers’ briefs and make a decision without hearing oral argument.

The case will be argued by Lauren Schlossberg of our Miami office, at the court of appeals today. Typically it takes 30-90 days to receive a decision. Ms. Criner, the alleged victim of the race discrimination plans to attend the oral argument in New Orleans, as well.

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About the author: Bruce Coane is an attorney who specializes in labor and employment law, and, immigration law, with offices in Florida and Texas. He may be reached at houstonlaw@aol.com, 713-850-0066 or 305-538-6800.