Posts Tagged ‘ racial discrimination ’

White Guy Nets $3.25M Verdict in Racial Discrimination Case

August 16th, 2013. By AbiK

Racial discrimination is something we’ve come to associate with minority groups—it’s rare that you see an item in the press about a non-minority being the victim of such discrimination, outside of say the occasional affirmative action case related to college admissions.

But, what if someone from the majority is actually part of the minority in a work situation? That’s what happened in a recent court case involving the city of Los Angeles.

In James Duffy v. City of Los Angeles, Duffy, a 63-year old Caucasian man who’d been working for the City’s Department of Recreation and Parks as a gardener for 19 years, alleged racial discrimination against his Hispanic foreman and coworkers. According to court documents, Duffy’s foreman, Abel Perez, allegedly began discriminating against Duffy upon becoming his foreman back in 2004.

Duffy claimed he was forced to retire after several discriminatory events took place—including some harassing incidents that happened after Duffy had suffered an on-the-job head injury, resulting in short-term memory problems. According to the filing, Duffy stated he’d complained to his supervisors several times but to no avail.

Some of the alleged discriminatory actions included Perez once stating “I hate white people.” Perez would also allegedly tell Duffy he hadn’t been given certain assignments when he had or that he failed to complete assignments he had never actually been given.

The complaint also stated the city of Los Angeles engaged in intentional racial discrimination by maintaining a “systematic and continuous policy and goal of firing and demoting Caucasian employees”—and that the city took no action after Duffy had made numerous complaints about the harassment he was enduring.

The case, James Duffy v. City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Superior Court, Central , BC454369, went before a jury and a verdict was returned in favor of Duffy. The $3,255,000 verdict was unanimous on claims of disability and racial harassment, retaliation and discrimination by the City of Los Angeles and three of Duffy’s supervisors. The verdict comprised $380,000 in economic damages and $2,875,000 in non-economic damages.

Tags: Abel Perez, City of Los Angeles, Disability Discrimination, James Duffy, racial discrimination
Posted in Discrimination, lawsuits, Settlement | 16 Comments »