Fired Albion River Inn manager's lawsuit settled for $165,000

A luxury Mendocino Coast inn has agreed to pay $165,000 to settle federal allegations that its former dining room manager was fired for protesting a customer's racist remarks.

Albion River Inn reached the agreement this week with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, just before a planned illegal-discrimination trial in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

The inn's owners made no admission of wrongdoing under terms of a deal accepted by federal Judge Susan Ilston.

Abdellatiff Hadji, an Arab American who was dismissed abruptly by inn owners in 2004, said Friday he was satisfied with the outcome. The federal action was filed in 2006 on his behalf.

"I feel vindicated. I knew what happened to me was wrong, but I felt I had no recourse at the time," Hadji said.

As part of the settlement, inn owners Flurry Healy and Peter Wells also agreed to provide annual anti-discrimination training for staff and to revise the restaurant's anti-harassment policies.

Healy and Wells could not be reached for comment. Raymond Erlach, the inn's San Francisco attorney, also was unavailable.

The lawsuit was filed in August 2006 after lawyers for the federal agency said they were unable to reach a settlement.

In the lawsuit, federal attorneys said Hadji was fired after refusing to write a letter of apology to a customer, who had cursed a waiter of Tunisian origin the night before.

When the customer returned the next day, Hadji contended that he approached the man and told him he did not approve of his comments. Hadji claimed in the federal lawsuit that the man told him to return to his native country, adding, "I fought two wars to get rid of people like you."

Hadji said the confrontation ended with the customer swearing at him and challenging him to a fight. The next day, reacting to the customer's complaints, the inn's owners asked Hadji to write a letter of apology. He said he refused and was fired.

Robert Rubin, director of the San Francisco-based Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, on Friday called the settlement "very significant."

"An employer is recognizing that it faces substantial liability not only for its own actions but for failing to respond properly to racist comments uttered by its customers," Rubin said.

You can reach Staff Writer Mike Geniella at 462-6470 or mgeniella@pressdemocrat.com