As it plans West End hospital, Norton Healthcare facing another race discrimination suit
As Norton Healthcare prepares to open the first hospital built in Louisville’s West End in more than a century, the massive local company is also preparing to defend itself in court against allegations of racial discrimination and retaliation from three current and former Black employees.
Norton Healthcare is the lone defendant in the civil lawsuit, filed in 2022 by a supply chain manager still with the company and two former human resources employees.
The former HR employees claim they were overruled and later forced out after they recommended firing a white supervisor they investigated in a racial harassment case.
The case is set to go to trial early next month in Jefferson Circuit Court. It's at least the second time since late 2021 the company has faced a racial harassment lawsuit — an earlier civil case filed by a former employee settled out of court in September.
A statement from Norton Healthcare provided by spokesperson Renee Murphy said the company is "committed to creating an environment where all employees feel supported and have a sense of belonging" among its more than 20,000 employees at more than 400 working locations.
"Our values include respecting every person and we strive to maintain an equitable culture across every facility," Norton's statement said. "We strongly disagree with the accusations presented and will defend ourselves against these allegations."
Lawyers representing the three plaintiffs — Jarvis Binford, a hospital supply chain manager; former employee relations manager Randolph Butler; and former human resources manager Christopher Martin — contrasted the claims in their lawsuit with company’s pitch to the community as it gets closer to opening the new Norton West Louisville Hospital in November.
The complex at 28th Street and West Broadway, a space it will share with Goodwill Industries of Kentucky's new West Louisville Opportunity Center, will be the first hospital to open west of Ninth Street since 1845, in an area that will serve an overwhelmingly Black population.
Company CEO Russell Cox has said it will "change the narrative about investment in west Louisville" and its 65,000 residents.
“As lawyers, Vanessa (Cantley) and I want to get justice for Jarvis, Randy and Chris,” said attorney Andy Epstein, who provided depositions to The Courier Journal from at least four other current or former employees who believe racial discrimination exists within the hospital system. “But even more important, we want Norton to change.”
Binford may have filed the lawsuit, but the Norton Children’s Hospital supply chain manager didn’t tip the first domino. Instead, he told The Courier Journal earlier this month, he spoke up in 2018 only after he was approached by Butler and Martin, who were investigating claims against his supervisor of racial harassment and discrimination.
Binford confirmed a number of instances had taken place, and his supervisor retaliated when he heard what happened, Binford claims, no longer passing along essential communications and at one point confronting him about what he’d told investigators.
“I kind of felt betrayed,” Binford said. “I was told that I didn't have to worry about that because, at first, I didn't even want to participate in the investigation. … So, once that happened, I was just more disappointed than anything else.”
Later, the lawsuit alleges, Binford was passed over for a promotion for a role given to a less experienced white woman he had trained. His office was moved during hospital renovations in late 2018 to a former supply closet before being relocated again in April 2021 to an isolated construction cargo container outside the hospital — the space was “gnat-infested” with no access to internet or restrooms, he said. He wasn’t moved back inside until the following spring.
Martin and Butler, who now live out of state and declined to comment for this article, have said they were dealing with retaliation of their own.
The pair were overruled when they submitted a report recommending the supervisor should be fired immediately, the lawsuit claims, and openly stated they disagreed with the decision. Both alleged they were retaliated against after the decision.
Butler claims in the lawsuit he was forced out months later, in June 2019. Martin, meanwhile, left on his own terms the following summer. The lawsuit alleges he was the lone HR team member required to work in person while his white peers were allowed flexible schedules amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and he was passed over in June 2020 for a new position to a less experienced white woman who had not worked in Norton Children’s Hospital.
In a court filing in January, Norton's attorneys argued the three cases are unique and requested to split up the lawsuit. "Their claims of race discrimination and retaliation are based on various reasons and supported through various methods of proof," the motion added.
Butler resigned "following poor performance and insubordination," it said (in the lawsuit, his attorneys argue he was set up to fail after voicing his displeasure and was eventually given the choice of resigning or being fired, and he chose to leave to avoid a termination on his record).
Martin's allegations stem from his "efforts to avoid Norton’s in-person work requirement during the onset of COVID," the filing claimed (his attorneys said he and his wife had a newborn and he was concerned about contracting the coronavirus) and other HR team members were also required to work in-person.
Meanwhile, the defense team argued, Binford's issues are due to "ongoing supply chain and management issues" during the height of the pandemic.
Binford, Martin and Butler were referred to Epstein and Cantley, their lawyers, by another former Norton staff member who filed a separate racial discrimination case against Norton in December 2021.
That case, settled out of court last year after about 21 months of litigation, was put forward by a Black employee and lobbyist who alleged she was harassed by her supervisor over her race, sex and disability before she was fired in 2019.
The two lawyers would not comment on that lawsuit. Before that case settled, Norton's attorneys argued in court filings that it was "markedly different" and not relevant to the pending lawsuit, as it involved a separate cast of characters who worked in a separate department.
Binford is the last remaining member of the trio to work at Norton. Butler and Martin stood up for him, he said, even after they faced retaliation from fellow members of the company’s HR department.
“I'm indebted to them because of their courageous activities and standing for what they thought was right. Most people won’t do that,” he said. “This is my life, my career they’re messing with. Some people would have just shoved it off and left me alone. But they’re still supporting me, so I appreciate that to the fullest.”
The civil trial is set to begin April 8 in front of Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Julie Kaelin.
Cantley said she believes the case, and the number of current and former employees who said in interviews they've seen racial discrimination at the hospital chain, shows Norton needs "institutional change."
Binford said he hasn’t thought much about what he plans to do once the lawsuit, which is seeking damages and attorney's fees, is resolved. He likes his coworkers and the job pays well.
But he thinks about his case as he looks ahead to the opening of the West End hospital.
"Knowing that I'm representing the organization as a Black leader in the organization, knowing what I'm going through, it was depressing," Binford said. "I'm thinking, like, how can you push this and sell this to the public but internally, you're messed up and not taking care of the people that you're saying you're supposed to be investing in and listening to? How can you move outward if you're not fixing inward?"
Reach Lucas Aulbach at laulbach@courier-journal.com.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville's Norton Healthcare facing another race discrimination suit
