BECKLEY – An Indian American family says they were discriminated against and treated poorly by staff at The Greenbrier Resort.
Arun, Parmla, Aman, Emily, Ashwin, Puja, Arjun and Rishi Aggarwal filed their federal complaint February 22 in federal court against the Greenbrier Hotel Corporation. The Greenbrier is owned by West Virginia Jim Justice.
According to the complaint, the North Carolina family were guests of The Greenbrier from September 18 to September 20, 2021. The resort had offered the plaintiffs a complimentary two-night stay in exchange for bringing a party to the hotel to gamble in its casino. They were given a parlor of four guest rooms and other amenities.
The complaint says the family from Raleigh had stayed at the resort numerous times.
The party with which the family was traveling included three Caucasians, including two who are not related by blood or marriage to the plaintiffs. After being given complimentary champagne upon arrival, the male plaintiffs soon went to the casino where the wait staff “began plying plaintiffs with large quantities of alcohol, including service of drinks before plaintiffs had finished previously served drinks.”
By late afternoon, the complaint says Arun, Ashwin, Aman and Arjun Aggarwal were heavily intoxicated and displaying “unmistakable signs” such as slurred speech, glassy eyes and abnormal gait.
Still, the staff continued to serve them large amounts of free alcohol and continued to allow them to draw on their lines of credit and “gamble their money away.” Even when Emily Aggarwal told a waitress that Aman Aggarwal had enough alcohol to drink and requested water, the waitress brought more alcohol instead, according to the complaint.
The complaint says Ashwin, Aman and Arjun Aggarwal began incurring “substantial gambling losses” after they became heavily intoxicated. Still, it also says the party was not unreasonably unruly or disruptive in the casino.
After gaming, the plaintiffs went to wait on a shuttle bus to take them to the Sam Sneed Restaurant for dinner. After waiting 15-20 minutes, the bus arrived. But Arjun Aggarwal was in the restroom. The others asked the driver if he could wait, but he refused. And when the plaintiffs arrived for their reservation at 8:45 p.m., the staff claimed their reservation was for 8 p.m. and refused to seat them. The plaintiffs say the reservation was for 8:30 p.m.
They secured a reservation at The Greenbrier’s Prime 44 restaurant, but the same shuttle driver arrived to take them there. He refused to transport them, saying “absolutely not” before shutting the door in their faces, according to the complaint. But it also says he allowed five Caucasian men to board the bus, including one who was with the plaintiffs.
After a verbal exchange with the plaintiffs, the driver got out of the bus and called security. The plaintiffs say they told security they believed they were being treated differently because of their heritage.
“Don’t pull the race card,” one of the security guards said, according to the complaint.
Once the plaintiffs arrived at Prime 44, staff refused to serve any of them alcohol even though not all of them had previously been drinking.
After dinner, the plaintiffs went back to the casino to gamble and dance. They say a security guard named Jacob Coleman “rudely and aggressively admonished” Ashwin Aggarwal to wear his mask.
“When plaintiff Puja Aggarwal attempted to point out that others in the hotel were not wearing masks, Mr. Coleman aggressively put his hand up in her face to silence her,” the complaint states. “During this entire stay and on previous occasions, The Greenbrier staff vigorously enforced their mask policy against the Indian American plaintiffs while Caucasian guests were permitted to walk around freely without masks. One of the Caucasian members of the plaintiffs’ group went maskless for the entire stay but was never admonished like the Indian American plaintiffs.”
On earlier visits, the family says it had experienced situations where The Greenbrier treated them differently than non-Indian American guests. That includes strict enforcement of the COVID-19 masking requirement for them while Caucasian guests went “maskless with impunity.” The family also says they had been required to show identification to enter the casino, but Caucasian guests were not required to do so.
Soon after entering the casino, Aman Aggarwal says he was told by Coleman his party had to leave because they had been banned from the casino for the night. He was assured they party could re-enter the casino the next day.
Still, some of the plaintiffs remained in the casino. Ashwin Aggarwal did, and he says he was given more free alcohol and allowed to gamble in a heavily impaired state. Later, Ashwin’s wife Puja asked a waitress to bring him coffee instead of alcohol. But she returned with vodka.
The complaint says Ashwin Aggarwal was allowed to gamble until the early morning hours and ultimately lost all of his credit line of $180,000. That included a substantial sum after returning to the casino from dinner.
On the morning of September 19, Rishi and Sunil Aggarwal were denied entry into the casino. The Greenbrier then informed the plaintiffs they all were banned from entering the casino, according to the complaint. Then, the plaintiffs say they were told their complimentary stay had been revoked and had to leave within two hours.
“The non-Aggarwal Caucasian members of the plaintiffs’ traveling party were allowed to continue their complimentary stay until the following day and were not banned from the casino during the remainder of their stay despite being present for the behavior upon which the Aggarwal ban/revocation was purportedly based,” the complaint states.
Later, Aman Aggarwal had a phone conversation with Steve Johnson from The Greenbrier. He tried to tell Johnson the plaintiffs believed they were treated poorly because of their heritage, but Johnson again told him not to “play the race card.”
The plaintiffs accuse The Greenbrier of violating their civil rights, denying public accommodation in violation of the West Virginia Human Rights Act and breaching their contract.
The Aggarwals say they suffered economic damages, annoyance, inconvenience, embarrassment, humiliation, loss of dignity and emotional distress. They seek compensatory damages, punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interests, attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
They are being represented by Kurt Entsminger of Estep Entsminger Law Group in Charleston and by Michael Addair of Addair Law Office in Hurricane.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number 5:22-cv-00091