Age Discrimination Case

Ex-Circuit City Workers Win $15M In Lawsuit

Dec 12, 2008 LOS ANGELES (CBS) ― More than 200 former employees of Circuit City will share in a $15 million settlement of a lawsuit in which they claimed they were laid off due to age discrimination, their lawyer said Friday.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Victoria Chaney Friday approved the agreement during a hearing, said Gloria Allred, the plaintiffs' attorney.

Although the electronics store chain filed for bankruptcy in November, the judge's approval of the accord allows the former employees to become creditors to the bankruptcy action, Allred said.

"We intend to go after every dollar possible," Allred said. "Just because Circuit City is in bankruptcy doesn't mean they necessarily will get out of it."

In March 2007, the Richmond, Va.-based Circuit City Stores Inc. laid off 3,400 employees who earned more than the local rate for a similar job. The former employees' lawsuit, filed in April 2007, maintained they were replaced with lower-paid, new workers.

Among those who lost their jobs and sued was 67-year-old Eloise Garcia.

Shortly after losing her job, she said being unemployed would make it hard for her to pay her bills.

"At my age I know it will be hard for me to find a job," Garcia said. "I just couldn't believe that after 17 1/2 years, Circuit City would do this to me."

Friday, she said she was pleased with the outcome of the case. Her thoughts were echoed by another former employee, Joe Angel, 44, who worked at the Pasadena store for 24 years.

"I'm just happy there was a settlement," Angel said. "I don't think discrimination should ever be allowed in the workplace."

Because pay rate was the sole criteria Circuit City used in determining which employees were laid off, the impact fell on those with the most seniority, who tended to be older workers, Allred said.

A Circuit City official said previously that discrimination was not involved.

"It had nothing to do with their skills or whether they were a good worker or not. It was a function of their salary relative to the market," said Circuit City spokesman Bill Cimino.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Grower Refused to Hire Women

Grape grower settles million dollar suit By Leslie Sykes

December 9, 2008, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A California-based grape grower has agreed to pay $1.6 million to settle a sex discrimination suit brought by six women. The suit targeted Delano-based Kovacevich 5 Farms and alleged the company would not hire women because they are lazy.

The plaintiffs that spoke Tuesday allege that they were experienced as farm workers when they applied for the jobs as grape pickers.

They filed suit in 2006, and on Tuesday they say they were pleased not just with the$1.6 million settlement, but for what it will mean for other female farm workers.

Erica Hernandez is still emotional when she talks about being denied work though it happened a decade ago.

"At the time I was a single mother and would have been willing to do any agricultural work possible to support my child. I am happy that Kovacevich 5 Farms is now hiring certain number of women because we spoke up and filed a lawsuit," said plaintiff, Erica Hernandez. But on Tuesday she shed tears of joy for what many describe as a victory for female grape pickers.

Hernandez and Terri Saucedo were plaintiffs in a sex discrimination lawsuit against Kovacevich 5 Farms, a Central California grape grower.
"K5 Farms has agreed to pay $1.68 million to our clients and other women who were rejected or deterred from applying for farm worker jobs," said attorney Gloria Allred. Hernandez and Saucedo along with four other women allege that beginning in 1998, the company did not hire women.

"They said a number of things. 'No we don't hire women. Women are lazy and they belong at the house with the kids. Just stay home and take care of your kids and that's it,'" said Hernandez.

According to Allred, the company hired about 300 grape pickers a year between 1998 and 2002 -- but no women. "Too often farm worker women find themselves in these situations, where they're discriminated against. They're not taken seriously, and they're not provided with the same opportunity as any other worker. And yet time and again they demonstrate their competency, their ability and their willingness to do the work," said United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez.

K5 Farms issued a statement Tuesday in response to the settlement:
"Kovacevich 5 Farms has provided employment opportunities for many residents of local farming communities for several generations. Without admitting any liability, Kovacevich 5 Farms intends to continue moving forward in providing employment opportunities."
(Copyright ©2008 KABC)

A Pioneering Lawsuit

How Thin Must a Woman Be To Keep Her Job?

10/30/08 Allred, Maroko & Goldberg filed a lawsuit today on behalf of Virginia Tzortzos, a woman bartender who was removed from her job serving the public in a West Hollywood nightclub and who was required to work in the kitchen because she gained five pounds. In one of the first cases of this type in the nation, a lawsuit was filed against her employer alleging sex discrimination on account of her weight and that weight restrictions are imposed on women but not on men.

Click here to watch a video of the press conference

VICTORY! "The Biggest Civil Rights Case in Decades"

May 15, 2008 The California Supreme Court has ruled in favor of same-sex couples right to marry, in what the media has calling the biggest civil rights case in decades. Attorneys Gloria Allred, Michael Maroko and John West were prominent among the advocates before the court representing our clients Robin Tyler, Diane Olson, Rev. Troy Perry, and Phillip Ray DeBlieck. We are proud to represent these courageous couples who sought the equal right to marry the person that they love, and made history in the process.

Click here to read the court's decision

Click Here for Audio and Video of the Arguments

More information:   New York Times | LA Times | GloriaAllred.com

Daily Journal

The Top Southern California Law Firms

November 13, 2006 – When the Daily Journal editors and reporters started to put together this year’s Top Southern California Law Firms supplement… we wanted to find a way to recognize firms… that were major players in the major practice areas.
To achieve this, we selected five of the leading practice areas in the region: corporate, litigation, intellectual property, real estate, and labor and employment. We canvassed legal leaders from across the state, asking them which firms they thought were the best.  The responses were surprising consistent…

Labor & Employment:  Allred, Maroko & Goldberg

Allred, Maroko & Goldberg continues to be one of the best-known plaintiffs’ labor and employment firms, representing plaintiffs in more sexual harassment cases than any private firm in the country does. The firm recently won an $18.5 million award for a black male Von’s employee who suffered sexual harassment from a female supervisor. The firm also is representing a same-sex couple testing the constitutionality of the ban on same-sex marriages. The issue is on appeal before the state Supreme Court.

Name partner Gloria Allred’s success being successful in front of the media continues to make her and her other name partners, who have been together since law school, sought-after by plaintiffs. Since she has more clients than she can take, this year she published a book to help people fight their own legal battles, “Fight Back and Win: My 35-year Fight Against Injustice – And How You Can Win Your Own Battles.”

Los Angeles Times

Vons must pay $18 million for harassment

Click here to watch Nathan Goldberg and Roxanne Davis discuss Headline Legal News: James Stevens vs VONS.

By Peter Y. Hong, Times Staff Writer

October 28, 2006 – A Ventura County jury on Friday awarded $18 million to a Vons clerk who claimed he was fired because he said a female supervisor sexually harassed him.

James Stevens, now 48, filed a lawsuit in 2004 alleging that a supervisor, Laura Marko, had taunted him daily with sexual gestures and remarks. Stevens said Marko suggestively held a feather duster between her legs and made crude statements regarding his body.

Stevens said the harassment occurred daily in 2001 and 2002 at the Vons store at Los Angeles and Yosemite avenues in Simi Valley. When he reported the harassment to supervisors, Stevens said, he was transferred to another Simi Valley store and then, in March 2004, fired.

The jury in the civil case awarded Stevens $1.672 million for his economic loss and emotional distress claims. Jurors returned an additional verdict of $16.73 million in punitive damages, finding that Vons had retaliated against Stevens.

Vons spokeswoman Sandra Calderon said in a statement: "We do not think the evidence supported any of Mr. Stevens' claims and believe the damage award was excessive. We intend to appeal."

Calderon said Vons trains its staff to prevent harassment and retaliation.

At a news conference at the Los Angeles office of his lawyers, Stevens said he had questioned whether as a man alleging harassment by a woman, and as an African American, he would receive a favorable verdict in Simi Valley. "I was wrong," he said, "pleasingly so."

Stevens, a soft-spoken man who said he was a devout Christian, said he hoped to inspire other men to take action. "Some very masculine men might be reluctant to come forward," he said. Yet in his case, "A jury unanimously agreed with me and stood behind me."

A Camarillo resident and father of three, Stevens had worked at Vons since 1978. His son James, 24, stood behind him at the news conference. Stevens said he had been glad to work for the company, saying his job enabled him to put his son through Pepperdine University. "Vons helped raise my family," he said.

Stevens was married when he worked at the store. Nathan Goldberg, one of Stevens' lawyers, said being fired put Stevens into a depression that was partly to blame for the breakup of his marriage.

Goldberg said Marko resigned from Vons a year after Stevens complained.

Goldberg described Stevens as a man of conservative values who "sent all his children to private Christian schools and was not one to engage in talk about sexual conduct at work." Stevens said his father had taught him "to always work as though God is watching you," and thus he was greatly disturbed by the alleged sexually charged behavior at his job.

peter.hong@latimes.com