Labor and Employment - Race Discrimination

  • Clyde Bennett sued R&L Carriers Shared Services alleging, among other things, that his termination was racially motivated in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1981. United States District Court Judge Robert Payne of the Eastern District of Virginia granted the defendant’s motion for directed verdict at the close of the plaintiff's case and dismissed the claim. Ellis B. Murov represented the company.
    Clyde L. Bennett v. R&L Carriers Shared Services, L.L.C., et al., USDC EDVA, No. 3:08CV498 (RLW).
  • Mr. Murov and Ms. Hayes successfully defended Horace Mann Service Corporation, the largest multiline insurance company focusing on the nation's educators and their families, against allegations of racial discrimination in the re-assignment of policies of their insureds after the company was forced to downsize following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The Plaintiff, an African-American agent currently employed in Lake Charles, claimed too many policies from two laid-off agents in Lake Charles were reassigned to a white agent in Lafayette and too few were reassigned to her. She primarily relied upon well-known economist, Dr. Charles Bettinger, to establish the existence of discrimination and her damages. Ms. Hayes and Mr. Murov, however, showed that Dr. Bettinger’s opinion was fundamentally flawed. When corrected for these flaws, the Plaintiff’s actual earnings exceeded her expected earnings. Therefore, U.S. District Court Judge James Trimble struck Dr. Bettinger’s Affidavit, concluded that the Plaintiff had not established any discrimination damages, granted a summary judgment in favor of the firm’s client, and ordered the Plaintiff to reimburse her employer for the costs of the proceedings.
    Gauthier v. Horace Mann Service Corporation. See 2009 WL 3379127, W.D. La. (October 16, 2009). The Fifth Circuit affirmed. Gauthier v. Horace Mann Service Corporation, No. 09-31089 (5th Cir. 2010).    
  • Mr. Murov successfully handled three individual and one class action race discrimination cases.
    Gary Bailey v. Evans Environmental, et al.,USDC No. 06-0656-T(3); Leonard Lucas, Jr., et al. v. Evans Environmental Geological, et al., United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, No. 06-0655-T(3); Leo Caillier v. Evans Environmental, et al., United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, No. 06-0657-T(3); Williams, et al. v. Evans Environmental, et al., United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, No. 06-1084-T(3).    
  • Mr. Murov successfully handled this class action race discrimination in hiring case.
    Robert Narcisse and Monica Ross v. Progressive Casualty Ins. Co., et al., USDC, ED La. No. 96-3247-L(1).