WINFIELD – A Putnam County woman who had filed a lawsuit alleging she was sexually harassed at and forced to resign from her job at Toyota Motor Manufacturing has voluntarily dismissed the complaint with prejudice.
Jennia Edwards filed her complaint in Putnam Circuit Court against Toyota Motor Manufacturing West Virginia, Toyota Motor North American and Ryan Flowers, who was a co-worker and supervisor. Edwards' motion to dismiss with prejudice was granted February 7.
According to her complaint, Edwards began working at the Toyota plant in Buffalo through a staffing agency in 2015 and was hired by Toyota in 2018.
Jon D. Hoover
| hooverlawwv.com
While working with Flowers, she says she was “subjected to hourly and daily comments from the defendant Ryan Flowers about her vagina, ass, breasts and requests for sex.”
“Flowers on at least two occasions touched the plaintiff’s buttocks with his hands, slid his hands inside the plaintiff’s jeans and touched her buttocks, pubic area (and) her outer labia,” the complaint states. “Flowers’ physical contact on these occasions was unwanted, uninvited, unwelcomed and constituted an assault, sexual harassment and a hostile work environment.”
She says Toyota employees also circulated nude pictures of a woman assumed to be her.
Edwards said she had meetings with Toyota human resources officials after the incidents, and she requested a transfer away from Flowers. The transfer was granted.
In February 2020, however, Flowers was promoted and became Edwards’ supervisor. Edwards then applied for a weeklong Medical Leave of Absence, which was approved. Upon her return, Edwards met again with HR and advised of a “predatory environment.”
“This is a man’s world,” the HR representative told Edwards, according to the complaint.
Edwards says she was forced to use her personal leave and was denied short-term disability even though her anxiety was exacerbated by Flowers’ conduct.
On March 16, 2020, Edwards says she was “written up” in a retaliatory manner. Three days later, she asked for information regarding leave payout. And on March 23, she was moved to her new work area.
But less than a month later, Flowers again was promoted, this time to team leader. In May, Edwards again asked about leave payout. But, the HR department said it was not aware of the payout issue.
On September 23, 2020, Edwards says she was constructively terminated by Toyota.
Edwards accuses Toyota of unlawful retaliation, sexual harassment, hostile work environment, wrongful termination, vicarious liability and intentional infliction of emotional distress. She accuses Flowers of sexual harassment, hostile work environment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
She says she suffered lost wages and benefits, loss of earning capacity, indignity, embarrassment, humiliation, annoyance, inconvenience and emotional distress. She was seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages, exemplary damages, court costs, attorney fees and other relief.
Edwards was being represented by Jon D. Hoover of Hoover Law in Barboursville. Toyota was represented by Drew Smith of Steptoe & Johnson in Huntington.
Putnam Circuit Court case number 22-C-179