
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, May 6, 1995                   TAG: 9505080062
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BANK SUIT REFERRED TO MEDIATION

Overruling a motion by First Union National Bank of Virginia, a Roanoke judge has declined to dismiss an age and race discrimination lawsuit brought against the bank by a former manager.

Wallace I. Allen of Roanoke, who is black, claims in the lawsuit filed a year ago that he is entitled to $850,000 in damages and his job back. Allen had worked for the bank as a branch administrator and senior vice president.

Allen, 48, stated in the suit that he was the highest-placed black person with Dominion Bankshares Corp. when the Roanoke banking company was acquired in March 1993 by First Union Corp. of Charlotte, N.C.

First Union filed a demurrer to the lawsuit, which did not dispute the facts alleged but asked that the suit be dismissed on technical grounds. The demurrer argued that Allen's suit was barred by the National Bank Act of 1864, which provides that a national bank's officers serve at the pleasure of its board of directors.

But Allen claims that it was the bank's president, Benjamin P. Jenkins, and not the board of directors that fired him in August 1993 because of his race and age.

In a 12-page opinion released this week, Roanoke Circuit Judge Clifford Weckstein agreed. "Since the National Bank Act provides immunity only when the board of directors discharges an officer, First Union's demurrer on that ground is overruled," Weckstein wrote.

In a letter Thursday, Weckstein directed Allen's attorney, Jonathan Rogers, to prepare an order referring the case to a mediation session with the Conflict Resolution Center Inc. If mediation does not produce a resolution, the case could still go to court.

In his lawsuit, Allen claims that First Union first informed him he would be retained after the bank's merger because of his qualification and experience. But later, he alleged, he was replaced by a younger woman with less experience.

The lawsuit claimed that First Union "has no African-American high-ranking employees and is one of the most 'lily-white' organizations in Virginia."

Bank officials declined to comment on the suit when it was filed, but did say that 20 percent of the company's 4,200 employees in Virginia are minorities.

According to an exhibit filed with Allen's suit, a 49-year-old white man in a similar position was terminated at the same time in order to create a position for a 45-year-old white woman.

by CNB