White Man Awarded $10 Million After He Sued His Employer Over Discrimination
A white man has been awarded $10 million by a federal jury after he sued for being fired by Novant Health, his employer, without notice.
David Duvall, the North Carolina-based not-for-profit health system’s senior vice president of marketing and communications, was terminated on July 30, 2018, according to his 2019 complaint.
The document claims Duvall was ordered "off the premises immediately, five days before his fifth work anniversary," even though he had received strong yearly reviews from Novant. Duval was allegedly fired "without warning or cause as part of an intentional campaign to promote diversity in its management ranks; a campaign [Novant] has boasted about publicly," the complaint says, according to CBS News.
Duvall was replaced by two women, one white and one Black, to increase racial and gender diversity among the system’s executives. The suit claims five other White men were let go by Novant and replaced by either a woman or a person of color over a 12 to 18 month period.
Duvall claims prior to the Tuesday (October 26) ruling, that his race and gender were the motivating factors behind his firing.
Duvall's attorney, S. Luke Largess, told CBS that his lawsuit was "not a statement against diversity and inclusion programs," but only about the need to run such programs lawfully.
"We believe the punitive damages award was a strong message that an employer cannot just fire employees based on their race or gender to create opportunities to achieve diversity targets," Largess said. "That is plainly unlawful and very harmful and that is what the jury denounced here."
Novant Health disputes the allegations and says it will fight the jury’s finding.
