CHARLESTON – A former apartment maintenance worker says he was wrongfully fired and the victim of age discrimination.
Steve Higginbotham filed his complaint in Kanawha Circuit Court against Apartment Management Services.
According to the complaint, Higginbotham started working for the defendant company in early 2019 for $14 per hour. Higginbotham was 55 years old at the time of his hiring.
He says the defendant employed more than 50 employees and has maintained operations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In December 2019, Higginbotham says the defendant hired a younger employee to perform similar work assignments to him. Higginbotham says he then started receiving fewer assignments until his “work load dwindled to nothing.”
Soon after he reported his concerns to management, he was terminated at the end of February 2020. Downsizing was the reason he was given.
Higginbotham accuses the defendant of age discrimination, violating the West Virginia Human Rights Act and retaliatory discharge.
He seeks compensatory damages for lost wages, front pay, back pay, fringe benefits, costs of obtaining new employment and other out-of-pocket expenses; general damages for annoyance, inconvenience, embarrassment, humiliation and emotional distress; punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interest, court costs, attorney fees and other relief.
In its answer to the complaint, Apartment Management Services denies the claims and seeks to have the case dismissed.
Higginbotham is being represented by Huntington attorney Hoyt Glazer. The defendant is being represented by Brian J. Moore and Chandler E. Strogen of Dinsmore & Shohl’s Charleston office. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Carrie Webster.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 20-C-467