LUFKIN – An East Texas woman claims that a North Carolina-based home improvement retail company wrongfully terminated her because of her race and gender.
According to recent Lufkin federal court records, Yolanda Lackland filed a lawsuit against Lowe’s Companies, Inc. on Nov. 15.
Previously employed in a managerial position by Lowe’s for approximately a decade, Lackland explains that she unsuccessfully applied for various management positions within the Angelina location after a downsizing and these positions were filled by employees with “less tenure.”
Court documents further state that Lackland was fired for supposedly fired to rudely confronting assistant manager Bryan Coutee, to which the plaintiff asserts was in retaliation to her rebuffing his sexual advances. The store purportedly replaced Lackland with a woman who “engaged in an ongoing sexual liaison” with Coutee.
A woman of African American descent, the complainant recalls an alleged instance which a white male employee cursed store manager Michael Jordan but was sent home with pay instead of being terminated.
Consequently, Lackland seeks unspecified monetary damages.
She is represented by Warren T. McCollum of the law firm Fenley & Bate, L.L.P. in Lufkin.
Lufkin Division of the Eastern District of Texas Case No. 9:18-CV-0198