ST. LOUIS – A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri recently granted summary judgment against a former employee of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs who claimed he was discriminated against when he was terminated by the agency.
U.S. District Judge Catherine D. Perry, in her June 18 ruling siding with the VA, agreed that the plaintiff, LC Black, was unable to prove age and race were main factors of discrimination in his workplace termination suit in 2014.
Perry granted acting VA Secretary Peter O'Rourke and the VA summary judgment, saying there was not enough evidence to conclude discrimination, retaliation or a hostile work environment did in fact exist.
Black filed suit in 2014 under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Age Discrimination In Employment Act.
He believed he was wrongfully discriminated against by the VA while he was working at the VA Medical Center's Jefferson Barracks warehouse facility in St. Louis.
Black also alleged he was wrongfully terminated because he had made previous complaints of discrimination to his supervisors and he was terminated for retaliation purposes.
Black was the only African-American working in the VA warehouse at the time and he was among the oldest of their employees, court filings said. He was 63 years old when he was terminated.
Black cited two incidents in February and April of 2014 that he believed created a hostile work environment and were discriminatory.
He believed the VA failed to act when a co-worker broke his finger by throwing a pallet and he reported it to a supervisor in February 2014. The filing also said a volunteer employee attacked Black and used a racial slur in April 2014. He reported the issue to a co-worker and he believed the VA failed to act again based on his age and race.
He alleged the failure to act in both incidents established discrimination and harassment, as well as created a hostile work environment.
Black was not without his own complaints, court filings said. In July 2014, a co-worker said Black threatened him with a box cutter. Black was put on leave and ultimately terminated shortly after in September 2014. Police charges were filed against Black, filings said.
The VA requested a motion for summary judgment based on the fact that no material evidence linked to the discrimination and hostile work environment existed. Black was terminated strictly on his actions by bringing a weapon into the workplace, the VA said. The VA attributed Black's termination due to the unlawful use of a weapon.
Black was unable to prove that his broken finger was due to age or race discrimination in February 2014, the ruling said. When Black was attacked in April by the volunteer employee, he needed to establish that those incidents and the VA's failure to act were based on his age or race.
Also, to prove workplace discrimination, Black needed to show he is a member of a protected group, subject to harassment based on his protected group and the harassment affected his employment.
Black's circumstantial evidence was only enough to speculate discrimination based on age and race. He needed more than speculation to win the case, the ruling said.