Ex-AIG Lawyer Targets 'Lewd, Crude' Boss in Racial Discrimination Lawsuit

A former lawyer at AIG is Suing the firm for discrimination

A former AIG lawyer is suing the insurance giant for discrimination, claiming colleagues and supervisors taunted him, mistreated him and ultimately fired him because he is black.

Earl E. Brown, 40, filed suit in federal court in New York on Wednesday against his former boss and AIG Investments, a subsidiary of AIG, the insurance giant that survived the 2008 economic collapse with a U.S. government bailout. The suit alleges that Brown's boss, John P. Hornbostel, then a managing director, fostered an environment in which Brown was exposed to "discriminatory, humiliating, lewd, crude, unprofessional and inappropriate jokes, behavior, statements, innuendo, remarks, gestures comments, discussions and overall blatant and suggestive racist terms." The suit was first reported by The New York Post.

In one instance, the suit says, Hornbostel asked Brown into his office, only to yell: "Hey! Hey! Hey! It's Fat Albert! Do you remember that cartoon!" Brown was the only African American in a group of 50 lawyers, according to the complaint. Hornbostel told his executive assistant, in front of Brown, to "take Earl with you" next time she needed to get documents signed by someone in the office, the suit says. "I'm sure with this brother behind you, he can scare anyone into signing quickly," the suit says Hornbostel told the assistant.

"Earl Brown is an accomplished, accredited, diligent, hardworking attorney who was treated differently solely based upon his race," Eric Stern, a lawyer for Brown, told The Huffington Post. "They have an obligation to create a harassment-free work environment."

AIG spokesman Mark Herr called the lawsuit "baseless and without merit." He said the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission dismissed Brown's complaint and "a third party looked at his complaint and found that it was without merit." An EEOC spokesman couldn't immediately be reached for comment

Hornbostel denied Brown an office, though every other lawyer in the group got one, and made him share a cubicle with assistants and paralegals, the suit says. Brown has a master's degree from the University of Notre Dame and a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania, according to the complaint. Once, Hornbostel chucked a newspaper at Brown's head, the suit says.

In July 2008, Brown said he was informed by another employee that Hornbostel wanted Brown fired. Brown then sent a letter to Angela Mauro, an AIG employee relations director, complaining of Hornbostel's behavior, according to the complaint.

"My experience has been marked by antagonistic, condescending, and at times disparate treatment," the letter read, according to the complaint. "It is my strong belief that it has been [Hornbostel's] every intent to discourage my participation in the group, malign my character among the very individuals I was asked to work for and with, and generally effort to 'prepare an argument for my termination.'"

"His desire in my opinion, has manifest in treatment toward me that is absolutely capricious, unprofessional, conspiratorial and very likely illegal," the letter reads. The suit alleges no human resources action was taken in response to the complaint.

AIG fired Brown in March 2009, telling him his "position had been cut," according to the suit.

Comments

[Devanshi Srivastava]

02:35 AM on 05/01/2012

very exclusive information. Thanks for sharing.

[nypapajoe]

12:04 PM on 04/27/2012

It's an insurance Theiving company and treat everyone in the same dispicable manner! Sue them for every penny!

[Kurt Reply]

09:16 AM on 04/27/2012

IS he suing because of racism, or because it's AIG? Would a similar scenario cause him to sue if it was a poor public defenders lawfirm or a small local bank in a black neighborhood trying to stay afloat? This is all about $$$, not race.

[byronic]

09:32 AM on 04/27/2012

Well, he would be entitled to sue in any case...

[janalyce]

10:20 AM on 04/27/2012

Gee, I thought it was about a nasty, bigoted boss.

[Gary Strawley]

05:22 AM on 04/27/2012

HE IS rich THAT MEANS HE CAN DO ANYTHING HE WANTS!!! WAKE UP SUCKERS!!
THE rich ARE OUT TO CONTROL YOU!! SUCKERS!!! PLEASE WAKE UP!!!!

[loolindsayhoo]

04:43 AM on 04/27/2012

I popped into my office before leaving for an athletic competition to have my boss sign a document. I was wearing athletic attire. I walked in her office had her sign it and left. Only to find out when i returned to work that she had taken the time to
leave.her.office and tell the rest of the department she.thought she was being robbed when i walked into her office. This was just one of many incidents. I had a hair product on my desk, which she looked at and said "oh, is that how you people do your hair." So rock on Earl

[Kurt Reply]

09:14 AM on 04/27/2012

Where do people get these silly stereotypical ideas in the first place? From watching the nightly news every day or sneaking out to a secret KKK meeting? If your boss was black, she might have done exactly the same thing, because she wasn't used to seeing you out of your normal attire and black crime on the television is more common. Black entertainers, esp. comedians, make their livings continuing to foster these sorts of stereotypes. As long as the black community insists on a separate but equal set of standards (like who can use the n-word) and there are no white comedians making their living telling black jokes, there is no way to kill racism, because even when most whites want to erase those stereotypes, some black leader resurrects them.
The only way to kill any form of racism is not to seek equal treatment by force of law, but by being better than your detractors as a whole. WHen more blacks graduate high school than whites, score better on ACT scores, have lower rates of illegitimacy, and fewer perps on the nightly news with dark rather than white skin, only then can racism ever die.

[Ichigo Kurosaki]

03:52 AM on 04/27/2012

There are worse bosses.

A woman working for a Long Island car dealership chain donated her kidney to her boss, who repaid her kindness by firing her shortly afterwards.

[Earfling]

07:20 AM on 04/27/2012

Thats not quite true. Her kidney did not match her boss's so she donated the kindney to someone else. About the firing I don't know all the reasons but the HP article 'promo'd
' it incorrectly.

[durof1]

09:34 AM on 04/27/2012

While the employee's kidney did not match the dealership owner, it allowed her to move up the chain to receive a kidney from another donor. And this is how she repaid her employee !!! Hope people in the area stop doing business with the dealership because she is just getting started on a PR nightmare and nothing she can say or do is going to change that image.

[Ichigo Kurosaki]

09:41 AM on 04/27/2012

The kidney got given to another, but it bumped Ms. Grinch to the top of the list, so she DID derive a direct specific benefit (her sorry life) and repaid that act of selflessness (as in what Jesus would do) by FIRING HER!

[VanTroi]

02:34 AM on 04/27/2012

I hope he wins!!!

[jackflash23]

02:00 AM on 04/27/2012

The jewish and black communities have always had a tense relationship.

[VanTroi]

02:34 AM on 04/27/2012

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_civil_rights_workers_murders

[walkerhds]

06:07 AM on 04/27/2012

say what?

perhaps you should reread (or at least read it once) the history of the Civil Rights Movement. There was a lot of Jewish support and involvement in the efforts, including putting their butts on line on Freedom Rides and Marchs.

you, sir, either don't know what you are talking about, or just made a really lousy attempt at "humour"

[Anthony Garnett]

09:46 AM on 04/27/2012

"The jewish and black communities have always had a tense relationship" - and your getting this information from where exactly. Because that has not been my experience in my lifetime

[duxguts]

01:56 AM on 04/27/2012

Well like they say, if you can't believe a lawyer.....who can you believe?

[robXdion]

01:49 AM on 04/27/2012

Nothing was said about his performance. But these are the subtle or not-so-subtle things people pull and tell you you're crazy for noticing it.

[realitytrumpsbull]

01:38 AM on 04/27/2012

If The Government really went through AIG like they were looking for serious systemic problems, how long would it still be open for business?

[babby201]

11:30 PM on 04/26/2012

Been there , hung on for eight years , sent me around the bend ,my work under those conditions suffered , eventually I was fired . As not to get into a lawsuit ,My employer paid my salary for the balance of the year .
I still have dreams and wake with heavy breathing and a weight pressing on my chest .
Back then it was not worth the fight ,no one would have taken it seriously.

[ali baba lol]

11:08 PM on 04/26/2012

Interesting how the EEOC dismissed the complaint.
They are as tuff as nails when it comes to race and gender bias.
Could it be this African American lawyer has a performance issue, or is that something we can no longer use as a criteria for continued emplyment.

[ceekreewd]

10:35 PM on 04/26/2012

.....get Hornbostel on it, he's a sneaky little s*** like you > original Dean Wormer dialog from Animal House.

[BlacknProud310]

08:35 PM on 04/26/2012

Wow....Just WOW is alls I can write at this point.