Bank offers $500,000 to settle LV lawsuit alleging discrimination

Grace Leong

Tuesday, March 19, 2002 | 11:23 a.m.

Bank of America has offered to pay $500,000 to settle a discrimination lawsuit filed by a former Las Vegas branch manager who said she was called "excess baggage" by her boss and fired at age 59 because of her age and gender.

But former manager Patricia Flick may not accept the $500,000 and may hold out for even greater damages, court records show. A hearing is set for Thursday on Flick's motion to replace her former attorney with new lawyers, who plan to press for damages in excess of $500,000.

The case began when Flick sued the bank in U.S. District Court for $750,000 in December 1999. Flick, a manager since 1992 at a former Bank of America office at Boulder Highway and Charleston Boulevard, had requested to be reassigned to another office at 4111 E. Charleston Boulevard after the Boulder Highway office closed in April 1998.

Flick, who said she was eligible for the branch manager position "by virtue of her training, qualifications and years of service," said the bank rejected her request and instead awarded that position to a male employee under 40 and who "never achieved a position higher than assistant manager."

Flick said the bank gave all other employees at the Boulder Highway office lateral transfers to other branch offices in the Las Vegas area.

Flick, who said B of A district manager Bruce Daly described her as "excess baggage," also accused him of imposing "unreasonable and impossible demands on her to belittle, humiliate and denigrate her in the eyes of her employees and force her to resign."

She complained that Daly demanded a copy of her daughter's death certificate after she took a leave of absence to care for the daughter, who died in 1997 from breast cancer.

Daly was also accused of trying to trick Flick into resigning by giving her verbal assurances that she would be taken care of by the company's benefit program. Flick alleged his intention was to prevent her from raising her discrimination claims.

Daly declined comment on Flick's allegations.

The bank, in court papers, denied Flick's allegations, saying her arguments concerning the bank's refusal to transfer her are "irrelevant" because she was terminated for allegedly failing to achieve performance goals set after she was placed on probation for alleged poor performance in February 1998.

The bank also said Daly had terminated seven other branch managers, three of whom were male, and that all were younger than Flick.

Nonetheless, the bank said a settlement was reached. It now wants a federal judge to enforce that alleged settlement after Flick hired a new set of attorneys to represent her and requested on March 1 to have the case reopened for trial.

Charles Chester, the bank's attorney, said in court papers that the bank's offer met her alleged demands and was "twice as large as any he had ever previously made in an individual employment case." He disputed Flick's claims that a settlement was not achieved and that the case was taken off trial calendar to allow the parties to pursue further settlement negotiations.