In a striking legal battle, an individual has taken on a major oil corporation, alleging serious claims of discrimination and retaliation. Julianne Mondelli filed a complaint against Marathon Oil Company in the District Court of Harris County, Texas, on November 8, 2024. The lawsuit accuses the company of sex and national origin discrimination, creating a hostile work environment, and retaliating against her for raising these issues.
Julianne Mondelli, who worked as a Maintenance & Reliability Engineering Supervisor at Marathon Oil from October 2019 until her termination in February 2024, claims she faced persistent discrimination based on her gender and Hispanic heritage. According to the petition, Mondelli was one of only two female supervisors reporting to Brian Lipscomb and the only Hispanic supervisor in her department. She alleges that Lipscomb favored male employees over her, excluded her from key meetings while taking credit for her work, publicly berated her in front of colleagues, and pressured her to falsify safety documents—a demand she refused.
Mondelli asserts that after lodging a formal complaint about this discriminatory treatment in October 2023, the situation deteriorated further. Her employment was abruptly terminated just weeks later on February 22, 2024. Adding insult to injury, Marathon replaced Mondelli with a non-Hispanic male employee shortly thereafter. The lawsuit contends that these actions violated Texan labor laws prohibiting employment discrimination based on sex and national origin.
The complaint seeks over $1 million in damages for lost wages (both back pay and front pay), emotional distress, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, and other compensatory damages due to Marathon's alleged unlawful conduct. Furthermore, Mondelli is pursuing exemplary damages due to what she describes as Marathon's malicious or recklessly indifferent behavior towards her rights. She also requests attorney’s fees and demands a jury trial to resolve these claims.
Representing Mondelli are attorneys Melissa Moore and Rochelle Owens from Moore & Associates law firm based in Houston. The case has been assigned Case ID 2024-78980 under the jurisdiction of Judge Wanda Chambers at the 164th District Court in Harris County.