SCHENECTADY — A lawsuit brought by a former Price Chopper store manager alleging gender discrimination against the Golub Corporation will proceed after a U.S. Court of Appeals ruling vacated a prior district court ruling granting summary judgment to the company to close the case.
In a lawsuit filed in March 2020, plaintiff Elaine Bart alleges that she was dismissed from her job as a Price Chopper team leader in Oxford, Connecticut in 2018 due to gender discrimination, with Bart alleging her supervisor stated that women were not suited to serve in management roles.
The company contends that Bart was terminated due to falsifying food logs that are maintained for health and safety purposes. Bart acknowledged that she falsified the food logs, but contends she was fired due to her gender.
In an opinion issued on March 26 by U.S. Circuit Judge William Nardini, the appeals court remanded the case back to U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut.
A Golub spokesperson said on Wednesday that the company does not comment on pending litigation.
The district court previously ruled in 2021 that the company’s stated reason for Bart’s termination was legitimate, defeating the claims brought in the lawsuit.
The appeals court ruled on Tuesday that the plaintiff may, but not be required to, show “that the employer’s stated justification for its adverse action was a pretext for discrimination.”
The appeals court ruled that the plaintiff may satisfy the legal burden for a discrimination case by presenting evidence that “even if the employer had mixed motives, the plaintiff’s membership in a protected class was at least one motivating factor in the employer’s adverse action.”
Bart attorney James Sabatini did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the suit on Wednesday.
During the deposition for Bart’s suit, she testified that she falsified logs for the sale of hot food in 2016 and 2018 because she knew that failure to pass health department inspections would cause business problems for the Price Chopper location.
Under her duties as team leader from 2011 to 2018, Bart managed the food service and deli departments for the supermarket chain, which included managing staff, checking food stations and putting food products out for sale.
In August 2016, Bart received a written warning for food log violations while working in the company’s Southington, Connecticut store and was subsequently transferred to the Oxford location by supervisor Damon Pappas. According to the lawsuit, Bart requested a transfer because she did not want to work with Pappas, who she claims bullied and harassed her.
Bart’s first discipline at the Oxford store occurred on April 17, 2018 for failure to keep proper logbooks and she was terminated on Aug. 26, 2018 by Pappas, with the company citing numerous missing entries on Bart’s food service logs.
In Bart’s deposition testimony, she stated that Pappas “repeatedly stated that men should be in charge of the department and that women were too sensitive to be managers and/or the work was too stressful for a female manager.”