Federal judge denies move to dismiss Justin Vineyards sexual harassment case. What’s next?
A federal judge denied a Paso Robles winery’s efforts to dismiss a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by the U.S. government in late January, court records show.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued Justin Vineyards & Winery LLC and its Los Angeles-based parent company, The Wonderful Company LLC, in August for failing to properly investigate complaints of sexual harassment or prevent further sexual harassment — saying that the winery instead retaliated against employees who reported it.
The commission is a federal agency that provides oversight and enforces U.S. law against discriminatory labor practices.
“We just dispute entirely the allegations made in this filing and will defend Justin against them,” a spokesperson for The Wonderful Company said in a statement to The Tribune at the time the lawsuit was filed. “Beyond that, we do not comment on matters of litigation.”
The lawsuit claims that harassment included “unwanted sexual touching of the buttocks, waist and breasts, rubbing of genitals on female subordinate employees, unwanted hugging and kissing, forcible kissing on the mouth, grabbing on the hands, snapping of bra straps, nibbling on the ear, biting on the shoulder, exposure of male employees’ private body parts, texting inappropriate photos and stroking employees’ hair,” as well as inappropriate communication from male managers toward female subordinates.
The harassment was “ongoing, unwelcome, severe and pervasive,” the lawsuit said.
Justin Vineyards and The Wonderful Company both responded to the complaint Feb. 6, denying all allegations in the federal lawsuit, court documents show.
Judge denies attempt to Justin Vineyards sexual harassment case
The companies filed a motion to dismiss the sexual harassment case in December, claiming that the allegations included in the complaint were not specific enough.
The motion alleged that the commission’s complaint needed to specify the date and time of alleged misconduct, location and identity of each accuser and include more details about the accusing parties.
U.S. District Court Judge Percy Anderson, however, ruled against Justin Vineyards and The Wonderful Company.
The commission is not required to name every accuser, the judge said, and the details in the complaint are sufficient.
Anderson noted the complaint included specific examples of harassment, described accusers and perpetrators and specified a date when harassment began. He denied the motion to dismiss Jan. 22.
What allegedly happened at Paso Robles winery?
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed an amended complaint Jan 30, with more specific details of the alleged harassment experienced by four former female employees of Justin Vineyards.
One employee alleged the harassment she experienced from her male supervisor “included but was not limited to (him) yelling at her, slapping her buttocks, putting his hand around her waist while standing behind her and touching her buttocks (and) making fun of her grammar and accent when she spoke English,” the complaint said.
That supervisor also “forcibly” pulled her by the arm to find the human resources manager to translate when the employee spoke to him in English, “although her English was not in fact difficult to understand,” the complaint said.
The complaint called the treatment “harassing, hostile and discriminatory behavior.”
Another woman in the complaint alleged her male supervisor would attempt to discipline her by slapping her hands.
“The male supervisor demanded (the employee) extend her arms and hands forward in order to slap them with his hands as a punitive and humiliating measure following what said male supervisor perceived as a mistake from (the employee),” the complaint said. “When (she) refused to extend her hands, the male supervisor told (her), ‘Would you rather I slap your behind?’ ”
The supervisor allegedly made other inappropriate statements, including comments about the employee’s panties, and said, “Women are gross” and “I’m glad I wasn’t born a women,” court documents say.
One male supervisor would always glide his hand across an employee’s buttocks, the complaint said, and another supervisor would tell a different employee numerous vulgar, sexually explicit phrases in Spanish.
Justin Vineyards and Wonderful Company “failed to exercise reasonable care to prevent and correct promptly the sexually harassing behavior,” the complaint said.
The complaint alleges the companies participated in discrimination based on sex; created and maintained a hostile work environment rife with sexual harassment; retaliated against employees for reporting the harassment and failed to prevent discrimination and harassment.
The commission and the accusers quoted in the complaint want the case to be brought to trial, court documents show.
SLO County company: Treatment was for ‘legitimate reasons’
Justin Vineyards and The Wonderful Company filed separate, nearly identical responses to the commission’s complaint, both containing 44 defenses. Some of those defenses alleged that the federal agency made procedural mistakes when filing the complaint, and others denied any allegations of wrongdoing outright.
One of the defenses said any seemed disparate treatment was for “more legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons,” rather than because the employees were women, as alleged in the complaint.
The companies also said in their responses that they had an anti-discrimination policy in place.
Justin and The Wonderful Company alleged the commission’s complaint omitted any mention of actions by the accusers that could have contributed to the work environment, and alleged the accusers “voluntarily and with full knowledge of the circumstances, performed acts and/or engaged in conduct” that could increase any damages the companies may have to pay as a result of the lawsuit.
The companies also allege the former employees and commission failed to fully participate in a mediation process before the complaint was filed.
Justin Vineyards previously came under fire in 2016 after San Luis Obispo County code enforcement officials issued a stop-work order on a Justin Vineyards property in Adelaida west of Paso Robles, the Tribune reported at the time.
Workers clear-cut thousands of oak trees and steeply graded the hillside, angering many residents and leading some local restaurants to boycott Justin Vineyards wines.
Justin Vineyards is one of the namesakes of Cal Poly’s Justin and J. Lohr Center for Wine and Viticulture, which broke ground in 2018. Justin and J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines in Paso Robles each committed $2.5 million to a campaign for the new facility, the university said then.
A scheduling hearing for the sexual harassment case will be held on March 20, court documents show.
This story was originally published February 15, 2023 at 1:56 PM with the headline "Federal judge denies move to dismiss Justin Vineyards sexual harassment case. What’s next?."
