Black New Yorkers Strike Back

Black New Yorkers strike back at city program that seized their properties for developers

The plaintiffs say the program unfairly aided gentrification and pushed Black and Latino residents out of their homes and neighborhoods.

Sherlivia Thomas-Murchison’s mother worked for nearly 25 years to make sure her family had a permanent home in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.

The home of her mother, Margaret Blow, was in a co-op building, where Thomas-Murchison was a shareholder, on Madison Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. Thomas-Murchison owned her apartment, as well as an apartment she and her siblings inherited after their mother died.

But in 2018, she learned that the city had signed the building’s deed over to a partnering developer. It meant she and her two children — like her neighbors in the eight-unit building — were without a home.

Read the full story on NBC News here.

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Plaintiffs Firm Slams Company With 5 Lawsuits Alleging Race Discrimination, Wage Violations

A national chemical distribution company has been hit with five federal lawsuits since last year by current and former employees, alleging wage-and-hour theft and racial discrimination against its black workers.
The latest lawsuit against Univar USA, filed this week in a federal court in Houston, claims that two drivers, Elton Wilson and Michael Roberts, were regularly passed up for promotions,  compared to their white and Hispanic co-workers, and were treated aggressively by white supervisors throughout their tenure.
The Houston lawsuit follows four filed against the company by Valli Kane & Vagnini since last September.
The complaints allege supervisors and co-workers used racial slurs to refer to former and current employees. They say staff displayed threatening behavior in the office, including hanging a stuffed monkey from a noose over a black worker’s desk, and writing offensive graffiti on bathroom walls.
The lawsuits claim these actions were part of a corporate culture in which black employees were consistently overlooked for advancement opportunities, and retaliated against when they complained. A class action suit in Georgia claims the company did not pay a group of 10 former and current workers for overtime pay they should have received.
Jeff Carr, senior vice president and general counsel and secretary for Univar, called the cases meritless. A team from Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, led by shareholder Eva Turner, represents the company.
“Most of the allegations are vague and amorphous, and although they may be enough to satisfy the liberal pleading requirements, they do not form the basis for a successful lawsuit,” Carr said in a statement. “Univar has and will vigorously defend itself against these cases.”
Similar claims—about the use of nooses, racial slurs by supervisors and fellow workers, and other hostile behavior—have been the subject of federal lawsuits in the last year by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and other private attorneys on behalf of black workers. However, while gender discrimination charges filed by the EEOC soared this year, racial charges sunk, according to the latest data from the agency.
“It seems the issues of racial discrimination are not isolated, but rather it is apparent there is a pattern all the way up the chain,” Vagnini said of the lawsuits against Univar. He said he has many cases pending around the country for similar hostile work environments against black workers, where he said employers feel disinterested in solving racial discrimination issues.
The first lawsuit, filed in Dallas federal court, on behalf of workers Kethenus Gill and Raymond Forman, received some attention from local news stations. This prompted other workers in Univar operations around the country to reach out to the plaintiffs firm, Valli Kane & Vagnini partner James Vagnini said in an interview Friday.
Vagnini said he received calls from Georgia about a similar racial discrimination case and another that alleged an overtime violation for a group of workers, and then the Houston workers followed.
“These cases show that Univar’s response toward these issues lacked any serious approach to resolve the problems,” said Vagnini, who has not ruled out a class action against Univar for the discrimination claims.
Kim Dickens, Univar’s senior vice president and chief human resources officer, said that the company is “built on a foundation of respect,” reinforced every day at the company.
— By Erin Mulvaney
Read the article via Yahoo News

Valli Kane & Vagnini Attorneys Named to 2018 New York Super Lawyers List

We are pleased to announce that Sara Wyn Kane, a partner at Valli Kane & Vagnini LLP has been selected for the 2018 New York Metro Super Lawyers list. This is an exclusive list, recognizing no more than five percent of attorneys in the State of New York.

Super Lawyers, part of Thomson Reuters, is a research-driven, peer influenced rating service of lawyers who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. To ensure a credible and relevant annual list, attorneys are selected from more than 70 practice areas and all firm sizes.
The annual selections are made using a patented multi-phase process that includes:

  • Peer nominations;
  • Independent research by Super Lawyers;
  • Evaluations from a highly credentialed panel of attorneys.

The objective of Super Lawyers is to create a credible, comprehensive, and diverse listing of exceptional attorneys to be used as a resource for both referring attorneys and consumers seeking legal counsel.
The Super Lawyers lists are published nationwide in Super Lawyers Magazines and in leading city and regional magazines and newspapers. The local publishing schedule is:

  • New York Metro Super Lawyers Magazine – October 2018
  • New York Metro Super Lawyers supplement in The New York Times on Sunday October 21,2018
  • New York Metro Top Women Super Lawyers supplement in The New York Times on Sunday, March 24, 2019.

Please join us in congratulating Sara Wyn Kane on their selection. For more information go to SuperLawyers.com.

Ex-Mitsubishi Atty Claims Sex Bias Led To Her Ouster

Law360 (September 19, 2018, 8:30 PM EDT) — A Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. unit illegally refused to promote one of its top attorneys to general counsel because of her gender and fired her under false pretenses after she complained about the conglomerate’s discriminatory treatment of women, according to a suit in New York federal court.
Plaintiff Jennifer S. Fischman, who worked as an in-house lawyer at Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings America Inc. for about a decade, alleged that the company violated Title VII by not promoting her to the job of general counsel and chief compliance officer on a permanent basis because of her gender and later concocted a reason to fire her after she had been demoted, according to the suit filed Sept. 7
Fischman also claimed that the company selected a male attorney, Nicolas Oliva, to fill the role she didn’t get despite him being both less qualified and less experienced than her, and that a top company executive had it out for her because she oversaw an investigation into certain of his alleged misdeeds.
“While the glass ceiling may have some cracks in it, we as a society need to break through completely,” Sara Wyn Kane of Valli Kane & Vagnini LLP, counsel for Fischman, said in a statement Wednesday. “After passing over Ms. Fischman for the top spot, the company unjustifiably retaliated and terminated this longtime senior employee, who earned high marks year after year for her stellar performance, after she spoke out against the wrongful discrimination against herself and other female employees.”
A representative for Mitsubishi was not available for comment.
Fischman, who joined Mitsubishi in March 2008, said in her suit that the position she sought functions as a “secretary” at dozens of affiliated Mitsubishi companies in the United States and a few in Japan that use MCHA’s legal department under a contractual agreement.
The person who gets the job must have approval from the board of each individual company at which they are a secretary, as well as approval from top officials in Japan who oversee each of those companies, according to the complaint.
Almost throughout her tenure, Fischman said, she received sparkling performance reviews, but was told in 2015 that it wasn’t likely she would ever get the general counsel and chief compliance officer job on a full-time basis, according to the complaint.
Donna Costa, who held the job and was herself being promoted within the company and for whom Fischman had filled in, purportedly told her the decision had been made by company brass in Japan.
Top executives at a Mitsubishi affiliate in South Carolina subsequently told Fischman that the decision not to promote her was made because she is female and that Costa “had expended all her ‘political capital’” on getting herself promoted, according to the complaint.
Once Oliva got the job, Fischman alleged that the company treated him better than she was treated when she held the role on an acting basis, including giving him higher pay and more access to company brass.
“Despite her excellent qualifications … Ms. Fischman was passed over for promotion to the full (i.e. non-temporary) position of general counsel and chief compliance officer until the company could hire a suitable male replacement, because the company values male leadership and could not tolerate the notion of having more than one woman (Ms. Costa and Ms. Fischman) in executive positions,” the complaint said. “Indeed, other than one other woman who is an outside member of the board of directors in Japan, Ms. Costa remains the only woman in executive leadership worldwide — in a company with tens of thousands of employees and hundreds of affiliated companies.”
Besides being passed over for promotion, Fischman also claimed that one top company executive, Shoji Yoshisato, who wasn’t named as a defendant, particularly resented her because she had to conduct an interview with him in 2013 that included numerous invasive questions in connection with an investigation that involved potential sexual harassment, as well as his purported blackmailing of a whistleblower who allegedly knew about financial improprieties.
Yoshisato allegedly retaliated against Fischman weeks after the company settled the whistleblower’s claims by not promoting her and starting a search for her replacement, she alleged.
Fischman was ultimately fired in 2017 and escorted from the building purportedly for a negative mid-year review she received, which she claims the company didn’t typically issue, and a purported ethical violation in a case she had been working on — reasons she now claims were pretextual.
“The cruelty with which Ms. Fischman was treated was an attempt by the company to humiliate her, damage her personal and professional reputation, and silence her from making a claim of discrimination and retaliation,” the complaint said.
Besides Title VII, Fischman’s suit also includes claims under the Sarbones-Oxley Act and the Equal Pay Act, as well as various New York City and state statutes. Along with several Mitsubishi corporate entities, Costa and Oliva are named as defendants, with Fischman accusing them of aiding and abetting the companies’ alleged violations of New York laws.
Fischman is represented by Sara Wyn Kane, Robert Valli and Matthew Berman of Valli Kane & Vagnini LLP.
Counsel information for Mitsubishi wasn’t immediately available.
The case is Jennifer Fischman v. Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings America Inc., case number 1:18-cv-08188, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
— By Vin Gurrieri
–Editing by Dipti Coorg.
Read the original article from Law360

CBS Agrees To Settle Parking-Spot Guards’ OT Suit For $10M

Law360 (August 22, 2018, 10:21 PM EDT) — In the latest settlement between a major studio and production assistants hired to guard parking spaces, CBS Television Studios and its affiliates have agreed to pay $9.98 million to resolve allegations they failed to pay overtime, a New York federal court filing Wednesday showed.
The proposed agreement follows a similar $4.3 million deal struck by NBCUniversal Media LLC and preliminarily approved in February. Attorneys with Valli Kane & Vagnini LLP, who represent the class of parking production assistants, or PPAs, in the cases against CBS, NBC and more, said in the filing that there have been a dozen wage and hour cases filed on behalf of such workers.
“While the other settled PPA cases generally contain similar factual and legal allegations, they were brought against different movie and/or television production studios,” the filing stated. “Although not binding, presently there is substantial precedent of both preliminary and final approval of settlements … similar to the one presented here.”
Robert J. Valli Jr., one of the plaintiff’s counsel on the CBS case, told Law360 on Wednesday that his firm had already “filed and settled 11 lawsuits regarding overtime claims for parking production assistants on movie and television productions,” adding that the CBS deal brings the total to 12.
According to the proposed settlement, the attorneys at Valli Kane met with more than 100 potential class members and examined over 20,000 weeks of payroll entries. The filing said that at least 100 individuals have already opted into the suit “despite the fact that notice has yet to be sent out.”
The counsel said they would take up to one-third of the gross settlement amount for attorneys fees and costs. Named plaintiffs will sign a general release of all claims other than those of retaliation for additional payments of $5,000 each, the filing said.
Named defendants in the litigation include CBS Broadcasting Inc., CBS Television Studios, Eye Productions Inc. and Possible Productions Inc. They have disputed and expressly denied all allegations of violating the Fair Labor Standards Act, the New York State Labor Law and the Wage Theft Prevention Act “at all points during this litigation,” the settlement states.
The class includes all PPAs employed by CBS or its subsidiaries from October 2012 to through April 2017.
The litigation dates back to October 2015, when CBS parking production assistants Kareem Hines, Priamo Fermin and Neftali Pellot sued the company and its subsidiaries for allegedly not paying sufficient overtime hours for the work they did securing sets, lots, streets and various individuals on production sites throughout New York for TV shows.
The plaintiffs allege that they worked at production sites for an average of 50 to 100 hours per week, if not more, but this was not reflected in their employment documentation, according to the complaint.
For example, Hines worked as a parking production assistant on “Elementary” and was paid $150 per 12-hour shift and worked on average between 60 and 100 hours per week. But his paycheck did not reflect overtime for these hours, according to the complaint.
The suit came less than a month after employees tasked with defending parking spaces for the production vehicles of the NBCUniversal show “The Blacklist” accused the companies who make the program, including Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., of cheating them out of overtime pay and altering their paychecks.
flurry of subsequent OT cases against major production companies followed — including suits against Columbia Pictures, Lions Gate, Marvel and more — with many ending in settlements like NBCUniversal’s $4.3 million February deal.
Valli Kane’s James Vagnini, who has helped PPAs win over $30 million in these cases according to the firm’s website, previously told Law360 in September 2015 that the practice of hiring workers to hold parking spaces and sets is unique to New York.
In February, he and his colleagues sued HBO on behalf of PPAs who claim they’ve been punished for alleging the OT violations in a suit launched back in 2011.
A representative for CBS did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
The PPAs are represented by James Vagnini, Robert J. Valli, and Sara Wyn Kane of Valli Kane & Vagnini LLP.
The defendants are represented by Jason D. Burns, Christopher A. Parlo and Chelsea L. Conanan of Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP.
The case is Hines et al. v. CBS Corp. et al, case number 1:15-cv-07882, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
— By RJ Vogt
–Additional reporting by Braden Campbell. Editing by Jill Coffey.
Read the original article from Law360

Supervisor sues Omni hotels, alleging sexual harassment and retaliation when she reported it

A former supervisor with Omni Hotels & Resorts has filed suit against the Dallas-based company, alleging sexual harassment and saying the company broke federal laws governing equal pay.Continue reading

Davita Rx Agrees to Pay $63.7 Million to Resolve False Claims Act Allegations

DALLAS – DaVita Rx LLC, a nationwide pharmacy that specializes in serving patients with severe kidney disease, agreed to pay a total of $63.7 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations relating to improper billing practices and unlawful financial inducements to federal healthcare program beneficiaries, the Justice Department announced today.  DaVita Rx is based in Coppell, Texas.
The settlement resolves allegations that DaVita Rx billed federal healthcare programs for prescription medications that were never shipped, that were shipped but subsequently returned, and that did not comply with requirements for documentation of proof of delivery, refill requests, or patient consent.  In addition, the settlement also resolves allegations that DaVita paid financial inducements to Federal healthcare program beneficiaries in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute.  Specifically, DaVita Rx allegedly accepted manufacturer copayment discount cards in lieu of collecting copayments from Medicare beneficiaries, routinely wrote off unpaid beneficiary debt, and extended discounts to beneficiaries who paid for their medications by credit card.  These allegations relating to improper billing and unlawful financial inducements were the subject of self-disclosures by DaVita Rx and a subsequently filed whistleblower lawsuit.
“Providers should not make patient care decisions based upon improper financial incentives or encourage their patients to do the same,” said U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox for the Northern District of Texas.  “The U.S. Attorney’s Office has and will continue to work cooperatively with providers that bring such issues to light to redress the losses the federal healthcare system has incurred.”
DaVita Rx has agreed to pay a total of $63.7 million to resolve the allegations in its self-disclosures and the whistleblower lawsuit.  DaVita Rx repaid approximately $22.2 million to federal healthcare programs following its self-disclosure and will pay an additional $38.3 million to the United States as part of the settlement agreement.  In addition, $3.2 million has been allocated to cover Medicaid program claims by states that elect to participate in the settlement.  The Medicaid program is jointly funded by the federal and state governments.
“Improper billing practices and unlawful financial inducements to health program beneficiaries can drive up our nation’s health care costs,” said Civil Division Acting Assistant Attorney General Chad Readler.  “The settlement announced today reflects not only our commitment to protect the integrity of the healthcare system, but also our willingness to work with providers who review their own practices and make appropriate self-disclosures.”
“The conduct being resolved in this matter presents serious program integrity concerns” said CJ Porter, Special Agent in Charge for the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “DaVita Rx’s cooperation in the investigation of this matter was necessary and appropriate to reach this resolution.”
The lawsuit resolved by the settlement was filed by two former DaVita Rx employees, Patsy Gallian and Monique Jones, under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provisions of the False Claims Act, which permit private parties to sue on behalf of the government when they discover evidence that defendants have submitted false claims for government funds and to receive a share of any recovery.  The case is captioned United States ex rel. Gallian v. DaVita Rx, LLC, No. 3:16-cv-0943-B (N.D. Tex.).  The relators will receive roughly $2.1 million from the federal recovery.
The settlement of this matter illustrates the government’s emphasis on combating health care fraud.  One of the most powerful tools in this effort is the False Claims Act.  Tips and complaints from all sources about potential fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement can be reported to the Department of Health and Human Services, at 800-HHS-TIPS (800-447-8477).  HHS also offers several programs for health care providers to self-report potential fraud.  More information on self-disclosure processes can be found on the HHS-OIG website.
The investigation was conducted by HHS-OIG, the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas.  The claims asserted by the government are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa-Beth C. Meletta handled this matter for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Read the original article from the Department of Justice