Former LU employee files 2nd discrimination suit

A former Lincoln University employee sued LU last week for the second time in six years.

In her new lawsuit filed Monday in Cole County Circuit Court, Theresa Smith accused the school of retaliating against her by filing a counterclaim to her 2011 lawsuit charged Lincoln with racial discrimination when she was fired in September 2010.

Smith, who is black, reminded the court in the new lawsuit she was an administrative assistant and instructor in Lincoln's College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences when then-President Carolyn Mahoney fired her on the recommendation of Steven Meredith, the college's dean and one of Smith's supervisors.

A jury rejected her first claim nearly two years ago, deciding at the end of a six-day trial in favor of Lincoln and Meredith - and awarding LU $1 in damages on the counterclaim Smith had committed "fraud, embezzlement and/or theft" when she allegedly took more leave time than she was entitled to receive.

This past May, the state appeals court upheld the jury's verdicts in an unpublished opinion shared only with the parties because the court's findings are not considered to have any legal value for future cases.

Smith on July 13 asked the state Supreme Court to hear her appeal of the case.

In the new discrimination suit filed last week, Smith's attorneys argued Lincoln's "decision to file a counterclaim for fraud against Smith was in retaliation for Smith filing her (original) charge of discrimination" under Missouri's Human Rights Act.

The new lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages in an amount "to be proven at trial, but for certain in excess of $50,000" - plus attorneys' fees and costs.

The new case was assigned to Circuit Judge Jon Beetem.

Judge Dan Green presided over the first case and the 2015 trial where Smith argued her termination - after 32 years of employment - was racially motivated.

Lincoln officials said her termination was based on her job performance; insubordination; and that she had failed to report, accurately and truthfully, her use of paid leave.

That last concern was the basis for Lincoln's fraud counterclaim in the first lawsuit.

LU argued, after receiving approval for their vacation, sick or personal leave requests, employees were to submit the approved forms to human resources so the leave could be accounted for - but Smith had not submitted all of her requests, causing her online employment records to show more available leave time than she had.

Evidence presented during the 2015 trial, and reviewed by the appeals court, showed Smith's immediate supervisor - Yvonne Matthews, who is also black - at Meredith's request in 2009 began keeping extra copies of all of the leave forms she approved before returning them to the employees.

After 17 months, only Smith's leave request forms had not all been submitted to LU's human resources office for entry into the computer system - while other employees' forms matched the records.

Although LU officials said, because Smith didn't submit her leave requests properly, she appeared to have taken leave time that wasn't deducted from her account. The appeals court noted when she was fired, Lincoln paid her for all 322 hours of the accrued-but-unused vacation time, "including the disputed leave which constituted one of the bases for Smith's termination."

In its 18-page memorandum opinion, the appeals court also noted: "In addition to the problems with Smith's leave records, Matthews testified to Smith's persistent performance issues, including chronic tardiness, absenteeism, failure to complete work and insubordination.

"Smith's performance problems had become so severe that, separate from the leave-time issue, Matthews had asked Meredith to remove Smith from her department."

And, the appeals court said, "Smith admitted in her (trial) testimony that prior supervisors had, at various points over many years, noted in writing her performance issues involving tardiness, excessive absenteeism and substandard work, and that she had been suspended on two occasions over these issues."

In her appeal from the jury's July 28, 2015, verdicts, Smith's lawyers challenged Lincoln's handling of the leave records, Green's allowing some of them to be used as evidence and his modifying some of the jury instructions.

But the appeals court found no problems with the trial or the evidence and instructions used in it.