ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 17, 1996 TAG: 9604170028
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
A man who says he was the highest ranking black employee of First Union National Bank of Virginia before he was fired in 1993 can proceed with an age and race discrimination lawsuit, a Roanoke judge has ruled.
For the second time in the past year, Circuit Judge Clifford Weckstein has denied a motion by the bank to have the suit dismissed.
Wallace I. Allen, a former branch administrator and senior vice president, claims in the legal action that he was fired because of his age and race five months after Dominion Bankshares Corp. was acquired by First Union Corp. of Charlotte, N.C. At the time, Allen was 47. First Union acquired Roanoke-based Dominion in March 1993.
His $850,000 lawsuit alleges that First Union "has no African-American high-ranking employees and is one of the most 'lily-white' organizations in Virginia."
In a motion to have the suit dismissed, attorneys for the bank made three arguments: that the Virginia Supreme Court was wrong in 1994 when it barred employers from discriminating based on race or gender; that age discrimination was not addressed in that ruling; and that recent amendments to the Virginia Human Rights Act changed the law.
In a four-page ruling this month, Weckstein said he was in no position to second-guess the Supreme Court. "A circuit judge is bound to follow the rulings of the Commonwealth's court of last resort," he wrote.
Last May, Weckstein denied another motion by the bank to dismiss the suit. He referred the case to a mediation session with the Conflict Resolution Center Inc. Mediation failed to resolve the dispute, said Jonathan Rogers, the attorney representing Allen.
"I can only tell you that [the bank] didn't want to talk," Rogers said.
Thomas Winn, a Roanoke attorney who represents First Union, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Weckstein's ruling, which was on an amended motion to have the suit thrown out, now allows the case to move toward trial, Rogers said.
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 alleges, he was replaced by a woman who was younger and had less experience.
While bank officials have declined to comment on the specifics of the suit, they said at the time it was filed that 20 percent of the company's 4,200 employees in Virginia were minorities.
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