News & Publications

Souderton Woman Sues Clayton H. Landis Co. Over Religious Discrimination

Posted on December 18, 2009

(US District Court, Eastern District of PA; Civil Action No. 2:09-cv-05990). The Paoli-based law firm of Rubin Fortunato has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Souderton resident Amy F. Elsner against Clayton H. Landis Company, Inc. (also known as CHL Systems) alleging religious discrimination and retaliation in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act.

ABOUT THE CASE

The Plaintiff, Amy Elsner, was employed as a Document Control Specialist with CHL from September 10, 2007 until her termination on January 23, 2008. From the earliest weeks of her employment, Mrs. Elsner was subjected to hurtful, insensitive, and discriminatory comments by her co-workers about her religion and Jewish heritage. When Mrs. Elsner contacted the Human Resources department to report one such comment, CHL’s Human Resources Manager communicated CHL’s decision to terminate Mrs. Elsner’s employment because she was not a “good fit” for the company.

CHL claims that it fired Mrs. Elsner for alleged poor work performance. At trial, Mrs. Elsner will assert that her termination had nothing to do with her work performance and everything to do with her religion and Jewish heritage and/or her complaints related to the discriminatory atmosphere she was subjected to at CHL.

DETAILS OF THE CASE

During the early weeks of Mrs. Elsner’s employment, during a conversation with a co-worker (who worked in the same room as Mrs. Elsner), she related that a previous employer was “cheap” and did not pay employees well. The co-worker replied, “Oh, he must have been Jewish.” Mrs. Elsner, surprised and offended by the comment, advised the co-worker the she herself was Jewish, to which the coworker replied, “Oh, no offense.”

This same coworker, on other occasions, directly criticized Mrs. Elsner’s work performance, which was neither her responsibility nor her place to do. When another employee alerted their supervisor of these transgressions, the supervisor indicated displeasure, but did nothing to stop the behavior.

A short time after the initial derogatory comment about Mrs. Elsner’s heritage was made by the co-worker, a member of CHL’s payroll department said, “So I hear you’re Jewish,” to Mrs. Elsner during a conversation where the comment had no bearing. She went on to say, “My parents once lived next to a Jewish couple, and they seemed really nice.”

In December of 2007, during a discussion with co-workers and Andy Landis, a son of the company’s founder, Mr. Landis made a comment about Jesus and holiday/religious issues, adding, “Well, you’re Jewish, so you don’t know what we are talking about.” When Mrs. Elsner replied that her husband was not Jewish and that they celebrated both the Christmas and Hanukkah holidays, Mr. Landis dismissed her comment and continued the conversation with the co-workers only.

On Wednesday, January 23, 2008, while working in the document review office, the same co-worker who made the initial offensive comment loudly made the following remark during a telephone conversation: “Well, you know those Jews, they’re such cheap assholes.”

Very upset by this comment, Mrs. Elsner quickly left the room and the building, and tried to calm down. She attempted to return to work, but was too upset to concentrate, so she went home for her lunch break, telephoned her husband, and relayed the incident and her extreme distress at the situation to him. Mrs. Elsner’s husband suggested she confront the co-worker, but she was concerned about doing so on her own. Mrs. Elsner decided to call a Human Resources representative to report what had happened. The representative advised that she would speak with the head of Human Resources and have him call her back, which he did some 20 minutes later.

During that conversation and after hearing what had happened, the head of Human Resources did relay that CHL did not condone that type of behavior. However, he then stated that he and others in management did not feel that Mrs. Elsner was a “good fit” with the company and that it would be best if she and the company “parted ways.” Mrs. Elsner was shocked at the statement since she was led to believe everything was fine with her employment, and she started to cry.

CHL asserts that Mrs. Elsner was terminated because of alleged poor performance, yet her termination came just weeks after CHL converted her employment status from “Probationary” to “Regular.”

It is Mrs. Elsner’s belief that the real reason CHL terminated her employment was because of her religion (Jewish) and race (Jewish ancestry), and because of her complaints about religious and race discrimination by her co-worker. Due to the acts by CHL that Mrs. Elsner believes were discriminatory, Mrs. Elsner has lost a job she otherwise enjoyed and attempted to perform to the best of her abilities and suffered great emotional distress and humiliation.

POSSIBLE AWARDS:

The plaintiff is seeking:

Reinstatement to a position equivalent to the one from which she was terminated, as well as full wages and benefits commensurate with that position;
Compensationfor all past and future losses resulting from the company’s unlawful employment practices, including lost earnings, lost promotional opportunities, lost earnings growth potential, all compensation and benefits, all out-of-pocket losses, and an award for front pay if reinstatement is not possible;
Compensation for pain and suffering, emotional distress, humiliation, embarrassment, and a loss of life’s pleasures, as well as punitive damages for CHL’s malicious and reckless conduct; and
All costs, disbursements, and reasonable attorneys’ fees and other post-judgment relief.

ABOUT THE DEFENDANT

CHL Systems was founded in 1957 by Clayton H. Landis as an equipment repair and installation firm in eastern Pennsylvania. Today, the company provides process automation equipment and services for production facilities in the food processing, general manufacturing and steel-making industries and remains a family-owned business.

For more information about the company, visit http://www.chlsystems.com.

PLAINTIFF’S COUNSEL

Julie A. Uebler, Esquire of Rubin, Fortunato & Harbison P.C. is lead attorney for the plaintiff on this matter, and will be supported by Beth A. Dodson, Esquire. Uebler has focused her work exclusively on employment law for over 16 years, now representing employees in a variety of employment-related disputes, including discrimination and retaliation matters. Rubin Fortunato has built a nationally-respected employment law practice based in suburban Philadelphia, PA, representing both corporations and individuals in virtually all areas related to employment law: www.rubinfortunato.com.

DEFENDANT’S COUNSEL

Marvin L. Weinberg of Fox Rothschild LLP represents CHL. For more information about Mr. Weinberg, visit http://www.foxrothschild.com.

# # #