2:17-cv-10211-RHC-RSW Doc # 1 Filed 01/23/17 Pg 1 of 15 Pg ID 1

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

JON SUGICK, )

Plaintiff. )

v. ) Case No.

NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE )

Defendants. )
__________________________________________________________________
JEFFREY S. BURG (P38381)
Attorney for Plaintiff
30700 Telegraph Road, Ste. 1675
Bingham Farms, MI 48025
(248) 227-5027
248-856-1258 fax
[email protected]
__________________________________________________________________

COMPLAINT and JURY DEMAND

For his complaint against Defendants, Plaintiff states:

Jurisdiction and Parties

1. This is an action to enforce civil rights arising out of Plaintiffs

employment relationship with Defendants, pursuant to Title VII of the

Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 USC 2000e et seq and 42 USC

2000e(5)(E)(3) (Title VII), the Civil Rights Act of 1866, 42 U.S.C. 1981,

as amended by the Civil Rights Act of 1991(Section 1981), 42 U.S.C.

1983, and the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act ("ELCRA"), MCL 37.2101

et seq.

2. This Court has original jurisdiction of Plaintiff's claims pursuant to 28

U.S.C. 1331 and 1343(a)(4).

3. Defendant NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY is subject to

personal jurisdiction in this District in that it maintained facilities and

business operations in this District, employed Plaintiff and other members

of his protected class in this District, and committed all of the

discriminatory acts alleged herein in this District.

4. Defendant NYLIFE SECURITIES LLC is subject to personal jurisdiction

in this District in that it maintained facilities and business operations in this

District, employed Plaintiff and other members of his protected class in

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this District, and committed all of the discriminatory acts alleged herein in

this District.

5. Plaintiff is a resident of Washtenaw County, State of Michigan, within this

judicial district.

6. Venue is proper in this District pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1391(c) and 42

U.S.C. 2000-5(f)(3), as the place where the events giving rise to this cause

of action occurred.

Background Facts

7. Plaintiff realleges all preceding paragraphs as though fully set forth herein.

8. Plaintiff is African-American.

9. On November 17, 2008, Plaintiff became employed by Defendant NEW

YORK LIFE and Defendant NYLIFE SECURITIES, LLC and was last

employed as a Financial Services Professional (FSP).

10. Throughout the course of his employment with Defendants Plaintiff

performed his job duties in a manner that was superior at all times.

11. Throughout the course of his employment with Defendants, before

Plaintiff complained about discrimination, Plaintiff never received

discipline for conduct or performance.

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12. Throughout the course of his employment, Plaintiff was subjected by

Defendants, through their agents, to disparate treatment on the basis of race

and to a hostile environment on the basis of race.

13. Throughout the course of his employment with Defendants, Plaintiff was

treated differently from similarly situated white employees, with respect to

the terms, conditions, and benefits of employment, including but not

limited to the following events:

a. At the beginning of his employment, Plaintiff was rejected from

personal insurance coverage based upon Defendants refusal to accept

written proof provided by Plaintiffs physician; Plaintiff believes this

refusal was based on the stereotyped view, false in Plaintiffs instance,

that African-Americans all have diabetes. Upon information and belief,

white persons were not treated stereotypically with regard to their

qualifications for insurance.

b. In October, 2009, a member of management told participants in a

meeting, including Plaintiff and other African-Americans, that your

ancestors were probably owned by my ancestors. Plaintiff complained

to management about this discriminatory statement.

c. Throughout his employment with Defendants, Plaintiff and other

African-American staff were not provided proper training on

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procedures and products, whereas white persons were provided with

such training.

d. In March, 2012, a white administrator attempted to deprive Plaintiff of

a $10,000 commission and client based upon the alleged receipt of

information that was false, but without investigating the truth of the

information. Upon information and belief, white FSPs were not

deprived of income and clients in the same manner at any time.

e. In July, 2012 Plaintiff witnessed an African American agent being

publicly verbally abused and humiliated in the middle of the office

during business hours by the white managing partner. In Plaintiffs

years in the employ of Defendants, Plaintiff never saw a white agent

being treated in the same manner.

f. In December 2012, Plaintiff discussed with the white managing partner

the ongoing actions of white office administrators who were creating a

hostile environment in the office based upon race.

g. In January 2013 Plaintiff had a meeting with Defendants agents. In this

meeting, one of the agents admitted he had lied in order to create a

hostile environment towards Plaintiff.

h. Plaintiff was asked by the managing partner at this meeting to not file

any legal actions about this complained-of discrimination.

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i. In May, 2013 Plaintiff had another meeting with the managing partner

wherein Plaintiff again complained of the racially hostile environment.

j. In August, 2013 Plaintiff received a letter from the managing partner

reprimanding Plaintiff about Plaintiff not handling himself in a

professional manner. The incident the managing partner described had

been common conduct by white agents, but they never received letters

commenting on their professional manner.

k. In February, 2015, on a conference call with the white underwriter and

the white manager of IPS, regarding two insurance policies with high

face amounts Plaintiff was writing on two African American business

owners, the underwriter repeatedly asked questions about the potential

insureds that had nothing to do with underwriting principles. Such

irrelevant questioning was intended to hinder, delay and ultimately

prevent the African-American Plaintiff from succeeding in writing

large policies for African-American customers.

l. In June, 2015, the company made errors regarding a policy, and as

Plaintiff was remedying the error, Plaintiff was issued a discipline for

not filling out/turning in late a log. Plaintiff never heard of a white agent

being disciplined for a late log.

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m. In August, 2015 Plaintiff was required to participate in a disciplinary

phone call with FINRA, the administrative agency overseeing

Defendants business, regarding allegations that Defendants wanted to

terminate Plaintiff's contract immediately because of Plaintiff allegedly

being unsuccessful and allegations that Plaintiff was intending to

leave the company. This characterization of Plaintiffs performance and

his intention was patently false, as Plaintiff was highly successful year

after year for Defendants, achieving increasing income and award

status each year.

n. Amidst outstanding performance and increasing his income and

clientele every year, after complaining about discrimination Plaintiff

repeatedly received threats to terminate his contract with Defendant,

whom Plaintiff will prove in court did not want African-American

agents to succeed. Despite outstanding performance, after complaining

about discrimination, Plaintiff received threats to terminate his contract

on December 15, 2014, March 18, 2015, July 14, 2015, and September

23, 2015.

o. In October, 2015, Plaintiff was informed by his supervisor that Plaintiff

had a formal complaint from a client now in his file. Plaintiff was

later told there was no complaint in his file.

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p. In January, 2016, Plaintiff was told he was required to know what his

clients were doing with their money and why they were withdrawing

from their accounts from time to time. Plaintiff had never heard of any

agent intruding into their clients personal business in such manner

before.

q. As a result of these many abuses over the years and the recent harassing

events, on February 1, 2016, Plaintiff sent a detailed written complaint

of racial harassment and discrimination to Defendants, in which

Plaintiff complained to the managing partner of the office, of, among

other things, that Plaintiff and other African American Financial

Service Professionals were not being given the same training support,

client resources and accounts as were the Caucasian agents.

r. Plaintiffs written complaint at this time also included a description of

historic discrimination Plaintiff had suffered from the beginning of his

employment with Defendants to the present time.

s. After Plaintiff made this complaint, his clients were contacted by

Defendants management, falsely told that Plaintiff had wrongly taken

funds from their accounts, and as a result, Plaintiff's production level

and commission income plummeted.

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t. After Plaintiff made his complaint, Plaintiff was continuously

pressured and accused of petty misconduct.

u. In July and August, 2016, Plaintiff had two conference calls with HR

administrators for Defendants. In both calls, the HR administrators

stated they refused to discuss the issues Plaintiff had brought up to

others and to them about race harassment Plaintiff had been

experiencing.

14. Thus Defendant maintained and permitted a long-standing and

demonstrable policy of tolerating a racially hostile work environment, and

complaints by Plaintiff and others regarding this environment were met

with 1) little or no response by management, except for 2) increased

hostility, pressure and false discipline and threatened discharge.

15. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants continuing harassing

actions and retaliation based on race, Plaintiff found the employment

environment intolerable, and like any reasonable person found himself

forced to submit a letter of resignation as of August 2, 2016.

16. After Plaintiffs being forced to resign and thus being constructively

discharged, Defendant retaliated against Plaintiff in a number of ways.

17. After Plaintiffs termination, Defendants further retaliated against Plaintiff

by falsely reporting to FINRA, the regulatory agency governing Plaintiffs

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profession, that Plaintiff had refused to cooperate in an internal

investigation of Plaintiff.

18. In October, 2016, Defendant sent a letter to Plaintiff's former clients,

including information in the letter which intentionally steered clients to

view the false accusations Defended had earlier asserted against Plaintiff.

19. At all times during his employment, Plaintiff's actions were controlled by

the policies, procedures and financial products of Defendants.

COUNT I: VIOLATION OF 42 U.S.C. 1981

20. Plaintiff incorporates by reference all preceding paragraphs.

21. Defendants' creation of a hostile environment based on race and its

disparate treatment of Plaintiff compared to others based on race, were in

violation of the rights of Plaintiff as afforded him by the Civil Rights Act

1866, 42 U.S.C. 1981, as amended by the Civil Rights Act of 1991.

22. By the conduct described above, Defendants intentionally deprived the

Plaintiff the same rights as are enjoyed by white citizens of the creation,

performance, enjoyment, and all benefits and privileges, of his contractual

employment relationship with Defendant, in violation of 42 U.S.C. 1981.

23. As a result of Defendants' discrimination in violation of Section 1981,

Plaintiff has been denied employment opportunities providing substantial

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compensation and benefits, thereby entitling him to injunctive and

equitable monetary relief; and Plaintiff has suffered anguish, humiliation,

distress, inconvenience and loss of enjoyment of life because of

Defendants' actions, thereby entitling him to compensatory damages.

24. In their discriminatory actions as alleged above, Defendants have acted

with malice or reckless indifference to the rights of Plaintiff, thereby

entitling Plaintiff to an award of punitive damages.

25. To remedy the violations of the rights of Plaintiff as secured by Section

1981, Plaintiff requests that the Court award him the relief prayed for

below.

Count II: Race Discrimination- TITLE VII

26. Plaintiff incorporates by reference all preceding paragraphs.

27. The adverse employment actions identified above were motivated by

Plaintiffs race, and Defendants have engaged in unlawful employment

discrimination in violation of TITLE VII.

28. This discrimination was in the form of harassment and the creation of a

hostile environment, and in the form of disparate treatment.

29. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants wrongful acts and

omissions, Plaintiff has sustained loss of earnings, earning capacity, and

fringe benefits and has suffered mental anguish, physical and emotional

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distress, humiliation and embarrassment, and loss of professional

reputation.

30. To remedy the violations of the rights of Plaintiff as secured by TITLE

VII, Plaintiff requests that the Court award him the relief prayed for below.

Count III: Race Discrimination- ELCRA

31. Plaintiff incorporates by reference all preceding paragraphs.

32. The adverse employment actions identified above were motivated by

Plaintiffs race, and Defendants have engaged in unlawful employment

discrimination in violation of ELCRA.

33. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants wrongful acts and

omissions, Plaintiff has sustained loss of earnings, earning capacity, and

fringe benefits and has suffered mental anguish, physical and emotional

distress, humiliation and embarrassment, and loss of professional

reputation.

34. To remedy the violations of the rights of Plaintiff as secured by ELCRA,

Plaintiff requests that the Court award him the relief prayed for below.

Count IV - Retaliation For Opposing A Violation Of TITLE VII

35. Plaintiff incorporates by reference all preceding paragraphs.

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36. Plaintiff opposed violations of his rights under TITLE VII, which

opposition constituted activity protected under that law.

37. Defendants retaliated against Plaintiff for opposing violations of Title

VII, in violation of the act.

38. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants unlawful actions, Plaintiff

has sustained injuries and damages including, but not limited to, loss of

earnings and earning capacity; loss of career opportunities; humiliation and

embarrassment; mental and emotional distress; loss of the ordinary

pleasures of everyday life, including the right to pursue gainful occupation

of choice; and medical costs.

39. To remedy the violations of the rights of Plaintiff as secured by Title VII,

Plaintiff requests that the Court award him the relief prayed for below.

Count V - Retaliation For Opposing A Violation Of The Elliott-Larsen Civil

40. Plaintiff incorporates by reference all preceding paragraphs.

41. Plaintiff opposed violations of his rights under the Elliott-Larsen Civil

Rights Act, which opposition constituted activity protected under the

Michigan Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, MCL 37.2101 et seq.

42. Defendants retaliated against Plaintiff for opposing violations of the

Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act in violation of the act.

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43. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants unlawful actions, Plaintiff

has sustained injuries and damages including, but not limited to, loss of

earnings and earning capacity; loss of career opportunities; humiliation and

embarrassment; mental and emotional distress; loss of the ordinary

pleasures of everyday life, including the right to pursue gainful occupation

of choice; and medical costs.

44. To remedy the violations of the rights of Plaintiff as secured by ELCRA,

Plaintiff requests that the Court award him the relief prayed for below.

Damages

PLAINTIFF REQUESTS that this court enter judgment against Defendants

1. Legal relief

a. a judgment for lost wages and benefits, past and future, in whatever

amount Plaintiff is found to be entitled;

b. compensatory damages in whatever amount Plaintiff is found to be

entitled;

c. liquidated damages in the amounts allowed by the statutes under which

Plaintiff claims;

d. punitive and exemplary damages commensurate with the wrong and

Defendants ability to pay;

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e. an award of interest, costs, and reasonable attorney fees as provided for

by statute.

2. Equitable relief

a. an injunction prohibiting any further acts of retaliation or

discrimination by Defendants;

b. whatever other equitable relief appears appropriate at the time of trial.

Respectfully submitted,

Law Offices Jeffrey S. Burg, Esq.

/s/ Jeffrey S. Burg

JURY DEMAND

Plaintiff demands a trial by jury.

Respectfully submitted,
Law Offices Jeffrey S. Burg, Esq.
/s/ Jeffrey S. Burg
__________________________
Jeffrey S. Burg
Dated January 23, 2017 Attorney for Plaintiff

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