Below is the complaint filed by Ron Chalhon against Leg Avenue, Inc., Leg Avenue’s Creative Director Melody Tsai, and Leg Avenue’s Chief Marketing Officer Amy Tsai. In it he alleges discriminatory termination based on his Jewish religious beliefs and hostile work environment based on his religious beliefs and ethnicity, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the New York State and City Human Rights Laws. The New York Post article about the lawsuit is here.
Plaintiff alleges, among other things, that defendants made the following comments which allegedly show their “disdain for Jewish persons”:
- “Fucking Jews are always looking for money”
- “Who is that little Jewish man to sue us?”
- “Why doesn’t that Jew ever reach into his pocket”?
- “It’s a bad time to be Jewish!” (before Yom Kippur)
And so on.
Plaintiff alleges that “as a result of their discriminatory beliefs about Jewish persons, [defendants] would constantly berate Mr. Chalhon by calling him names”, such as idiot, moron, and asshole, and ridiculed him because of his hair loss.
He also alleges that – reminiscent of this case taught in the first year of law school to illustrate the concept of intent (you get a point for naming the case before clicking the link) – “at an employee dinner, Amy Tsai, motivated primarily by her discriminatory beliefs against Mr. Chalhon, further humiliated, harassed, and intentionally caused physical harm to Mr. Chalhon by purposefully pulling a chair out from under him as he went to sit down.”
Plaintiff seeks, among other things, lost wages, punitive damages, compensatory damages for emotional distress, and attorney fees and costs.
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