A Philadelphia woman is suing a senior living facility, alleging she was discriminated against and eventually terminated because of her race and national origin.
Solange Medard filed a lawsuit July 27 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Abington Senior Care, doing business as Arbor Terrace, alleging violations of the Civil Rights Act and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act.
According to the complaint, Medard, who is a black, Haitian female, began working as a case manager at the defendant's Chestnut Hill location in June 2012. The suit states during her employment she was subjected to a hostile work environment with defendant's management making offensive comments about her race and national origin.
Despite having acceptable work performance during her 1 1/2 years with the defendant, the lawsuit says Medard was terminated in February 2014 for allegedly sleeping during working hours.
Medard alleges the reason for her termination was untrue as she only slept at Arbor Terrace because she stayed there for three consecutive days due to inclement weather. She says she was only working part of the time and at the other times she would sleep. The suit says the plaintiff was terminated for a pretextual reason and was actually terminated due to her race and national origin.
Medard seeks lost wages and benefits, punitive damages, attorney fees and court costs, plus other relief deemed appropriate by the court. She is represented by attorney Ari R. Karpf of Karpf, Karpf & Cerutti in Bensalem.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania case number: 2:15-cv-04118-CDJ.