Fired store manager’s color discrimination case can proceed

A federal appeals court Thursday upheld the dismissal of race and sex discrimination charges filed by a resort employee but reinstated her color discrimination charge.

Brittney Felder worked as a store manager at a boutique within MGM National Harbor LLC, a resort in Oxon, Maryland, beginning in August 2017 and was terminated in September 2017, according to court papers in Brittney Felder v. MGM National Harbor LLC.

Ms. Felder sued National Harbor in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, on charges including that she was wrongfully terminated because of race, sex and color discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The district court dismissed all the charges.

A three-judge appeals court panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, upheld the dismissal of the race and sex charges but reinstated the color discrimination charge.

“We agree with the district court that Felder failed to adequately plead her claims of race-and sex-based discrimination,” the ruling said.  “However, construing the complaint in Felder’s favor, as we must at this stage in the litigation, we conclude that she has alleged a plausible claim of color-based discrimination.”

Ms. Felder has alleged “that lighter-tone African Americans, including herself, were punished more frequently and more harshly than darker-tone African Americans,” the decision said.

“She further alleged that her direct supervisor, a darker-tone African American, predominantly hired darker-tone African Americans and that MGM perpetuated a workplace in which derogatory remarks were frequently made against lighter-tone African Americans,” it said.

“We conclude that these allegations, if proven true, could demonstrate that Felder was terminated because of her color,” the decision said in reinstating her wrongful termination based on color discrimination claim and remanding the case for further proceedings.