EL PASO - A Houston plaintiffs firm finds itself facing a legal malpractice claim from a woman who tried to sue the U.S. Postal Service for race and age discrimination.
But Kennard Law failed to properly follow protocol for suing the federal agency, Crystal Flack says in a Dec. 23 lawsuit filed in Harris County District Court against the firm and lawyers Alfonso Kennard and Eddie Hodges.
Kennard Law boasts on its website that it turned to representing plaintiffs after years of defense work for corporations. But the suit says it botched Flack's claim, leading to dismissal of it in 2022 for failure to properly serve the Postal Service and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.
Flack is seeking up to $1 million in damages, noting she paid the firm a non-refundable $15,000 retainer.
"Defendants' motion to reconsider the dismissal was denied on Dec. 21, 2022, due to a lack of substantive argumentation to prevent manifest injustice," the complaint says.
"Defendants did not timely notify Plaintiff of the dismissal and did not timely refile the lawsuit. Plaintiff discovered the status of the lawsuit when she called the court in February 2023.
Kennard Law filed Flack's lawsuit in December 2021 after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found she had failed to prove she was subjected to discrimination.
Her case alleged she was fired from the USPS after 13 years of employment. It said as a Black woman, she already had "two strikes" against her at her customer service supervisor position in El Paso.
She complained she received only two days of training while others were granted two weeks. Plus, she had trouble attending mandatory new supervisor training online because her computer access was revoked and she was forced to work in the field on route check during the day.
A six-year period at work featured discrimination from management based on her race and age (over 40), the suit says. She received threats of termination and that she needed to report for pre-disciplinary hearings.
Issues with time sheets caused friction, leading to her 2014 EEOC complaint. Supervisors retaliated by forcing her into an excessive amount of route checks, which are "physically demanding and an undesirable assignment for most supervisors."
A constructive suspension was imposed in July 2014, and over the next four years Flack says the USPS never met any of the reasonable accommodations she requested to return to work.
Judge David Guaderrama never had to decide the merits of her case. He found that Kennard Law had not filed proof of service on the defendants, as requested by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The lawyers failed to meet a March 10, 2022, deadline.
Kennard Law, after the dismissal order, served the defendants and asked for reconsideration, which was denied.
"While the Court 'must allow a party reasonable time to cure its failure to serve a person required to be served... that is not without limits," Judge Guaderrama wrote in his dismissal order.
"The Court has provided Plaintiff with over 200 days beyond the Rule 4(m) 90-day deadline to perfect service. Not only that, but the Court has issued two show cause orders directing Plaintiff to perfect service."
LeRoy Scott of Scott Law in Houston now represents Flack.