A Discrimination Lawsuit Against a North Carolina Fire Department Moves Forward
A federal judge has dismissed several discrimination-related claims by a one of the highest-ranking female firefighters but will allow her case against the city to proceed based on a key claim of “disparate treatment.”
Attorneys for the city and Asheville Fire Department Chief Scott Burnette had asked U.S. District Court Judge Martin Reidinger for a pre-trial summary judgment throwing out all claims by ex-firefighter Joy Ponder. Those included that Ponder endured a hostile work environment and that Burnette and other officials inflicted emotional distress on her.
Reidinger agreed in part. He dismissed claims against Burnette, saying he could not be held responsible under the 1964 Civil Rights Acts’ Title VII against employment discrimination. That is because the U.S. Fourth Circuit Appeals Court said “supervisors are not liable in their individual capacities for Title VII violations,” Reidinger wrote in his order.
