BECKLEY – A Raleigh County man says he was wrongfully discharged as CEO of the New River Travel Council.
Arnold Douglas Maddy filed a complaint Jan. 9 in Raleigh Circuit Court against the council, also known as Visit Southern West Virginia.
In his complaint, Maddy says he was hired as CEO on Jan. 28, 2005, and reported to the council’s Board of Directors. He says he performed his duties ably and competently “without criticism or discipline.”
He says he was fired on Oct. 18 when he was 70 years old. He says he was fired because of his age and replaced by 39-year-old Lisa Strader.
Maddy says he “required to immediately vacate the premises,” the complaint states, and that the defendants “required him to immediately pack his personal belongings, supervised his packing, and escorted him from the premises, all to the extreme humiliation and embarrassment of plaintiff.”
He claims the firing was carried out with actual malice and was in bad faith, wanton, vexatious and oppressive.
Maddy says he has suffered loss of pay and benefits, emotional pain, suffering, inconvenience, mental anguish, humiliation, loss of enjoyment of life and other non-pecuniary losses.
He seeks compensatory damages, back pay and benefits, punitive damages, front pay, attorney fees, court costs and other relief, including pay for two weeks of vacation he didn’t use in 2017.
Maddy is being represented by Debra Kilgore of Burton & Kilgore in Princeton. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge H.L. Kirkpatrick.
Raleigh Circuit Court case number 18-C-20