Woman claims job loss due to diabetes, age, race

CHARLESTON -- A 60-year-old African-American woman with diabetes alleges she is no longer allowed to teach at a building owned by Capital Area Services Company due to her disease and age.

Taella Woolfolk-Hill filed a lawsuit May in Kanawha Circuit Court against Capital Area Services Company, doing business as CASCI.

In her complaint, Woolfolk-Hill claims she began teaching human relations and employment law classes for Mountwest Community and Technical College in 2012. The classes took place in classroom space at CASCI’s Charleston office, according to the complaint.

Before that, Woolfolk-Hill had been working for CASCI as a senior training specialist. During her employment, she received high performance scores and excelled on her 2012 evaluation, the suit states.

However, her career at CASCI took a turn for the worse when Myra Holloway replaced the human relations director in October and became Woolfolk-Hill’s new supervisor, the complaint says.

The change in management affected Woolfolk-Hill’s evaluation. In her 2013 evaluation, Woolfolk-Hill received an overall low score on her evaluation, which she had never received before, the complaint says.

Following her evaluation, Woolfolk-Hill was told to develop an action plan and was given six months to improve her job performance, she claims. However, on March 20, Holloway told Woolfolk-Hill she was going to seek a severance package for her.

She sent Woolfolk-Hill home on March 21 and told her not to return until March 31, according to the complaint.

The order impacted her ability to teach her Mountwest class and she was forced to teach instead from the Charleston Town Center Mall, the suit states.

Shortly thereafter, Woolfolk-Hill received a severance package, which she was told she had to sign before April 14 in order to avoid an interruption in pay. Woolfolk-Hill refused to sign the severance agreement. In turn, she was told she was no longer considered a CASCI employee, according to the complaint.

She contends she lost her job due to a discrimination based on her disability and age discrimination. She also alleges defamation, invasion of privacy, tortious interference with employment, discrimination based on race, negligent infliction of emotional distress and outrage.

Because of CASCI’s treatment of her, Woolfolk-Hill’s good name and reputation were damaged, the suit states. She also suffered annoyance, inconvenience, embarrassment, fear and emotional distress, the complaint says.

Woolfolk-Hill is seeking actual, general, compensatory and punitive damages, plus attorney’s fees, pre- and post-judgment interest, costs, attorneys’ fees and other relief the court deems just.

She is being represented by attorneys Hoyt Glazer, Ben Sheridan and Mitchell L. Klein of Klein, Sheridan and Glazer in Huntington. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge James C. Stucky.

Kanawha Circuit Court case number 14-C-839