PITTSBURGH – A settlement has been reached in a case filed against CONSOL Coal Company on charges of racial discrimination from a coal miner who claimed he was subjected to racist graffiti and a hostile environment when working there.
On Jan. 20, a joint stipulation was agreed upon between plaintiff Kurt Robinson and defendant CONSOL Pennsylvania Coal Company, LLC, which allowed for the dismissal of the action, both in its entirety and with prejudice. Per the stipulation, all parties will bear their own attorney’s fees and costs.
Terms of the settlement associated with the case were not disclosed.
The suit, filed on May 1, 2018, stated that during his employment ay CONSOL’s Bailey mine, in November 2017, plaintiff Kurt Robinson, an African-American, came across an illustration of a Klansman figure that had the words “KKK” and “Grand Wizard” with it.
Robinson alleged he reported the incident, but CONSOL did nothing more than tell employees to not deface company property and a culprit was never found. Robinson claimed in his complaint that he had previously experienced racism and hostility several times at his workplace.
After the KKK illustration, Robinson filed his complaint alleging discrimination and a hostile work environment. CONSOL then sought summary judgment, arguing the claims should be barred because Robinson failed to exhaust administrative remedies and for a failure to meet prima facie elements.
“CONSOL is partially right, and the court will enter judgment for CONSOL on the Title VII claims for Mr. Robinson’s failure to exhaust his administrative remedies,” Judge Nicholas Ranjan wrote in a Nov. 27 decision on the motion.
Ranjan denied summary judgment for CONSOL on Robinson’s other claims. Ranjan ruled that the Title VII claims were not administratively exhausted and the two in Robinson’s case were to be dismissed.
Ranjan noted in the decision that Robinson also couldn’t establish that he’d suffered an adverse employment action by CONSOL due to allegations he was passed over for a management position, even though he’d never taken the proper tests or even applied for a supervisory position.
In his November decision, Ranjan agreed there was a “genuine dispute of material fact” on whether or not CONSOL properly handled the situation regarding the KKK drawing.
“Indeed, even the undisputed facts could lead a reasonable jury to determine that CONSOL was negligent in its remedial measures,” Ranjan wrote.
The plaintiff was represented by Jeremy Donham of Donham Law in Wellslow, W.Va.
The defendant was represented James A. Prozzi, Laura C. Bunting, Marla N. Presley, Hobart J. Webster and Zachary J. Mueller of Jackson Lewis, in Pittsburgh.
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania case 2:18-cv-00555
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com