Lafayette, NJ – Truck driver Myron Cowher sued his former employer Carson & Roberts Site Construction & Engineering Inc. and his former supervisors under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination.
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A state trial judge threw the case out, even though two of his supervisors at the company admitted to the slurs.
The trial court held that being a perceived membership in a protected group — other than disabled persons — wasn’t a basis to file a lawsuit under the state’s anti-discrimination law.
On Wednesday, the Appellate Division of New Jersey Superior Court reversed the trial court and reinstated the lawsuit.
“If plaintiff can demonstrate that the discrimination that he claims to have experienced would not have occurred but for the perception that he was Jewish, his claim is covered by the [New Jersey Law Against Discrimination],” wrote Judge Edith Payne for the three-judge panel. “Whether such is the case is a matter as to which there is no conclusive evidence.”