LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) – A Black employee of a California Jiffy Lube can sue Castrol for intentional infliction of emotional distress after he was called “banana hands” during one of a few odd exchanges at a presentation.
California’s Fourth Appellate District made that ruling for Robert Smith on May 12 as he pursues claims against BP Lubricants, owner of Castrol, and employee Gus Pumarol. It also ruled Smith can make claims under a state civil rights law, the Unruh Act.
Pumarol was presenting a new Castrol product to about 50 employees of Jiffy Lube in September 2017. When Smith asked a question, Pumarol said “You sound like Barry White.”
Smith says he thought the comment had a racial connotation. Later, Pumarol said:
“I don’t like taking my car to Jiffy Lube because I’ve had a bad experience with a mechanic putting his hands all over my car. How would you like Barry White over there with his big banana hands working on your car?”
The decision says white members of the audience laughed. When Smith asked another question, Pumarol responded, “What, I can’t see your eyes, what?”
Smith felt Pumarol made that comment because he is a Black man with dark complexion.
The next day, someone scratched Smith’s name off the scheduled and replaced it with “Banana Hands.” When his boss at Jiffy Lube urged him not to complain about Pumarol, Smith says he suffered physical and mental health problems that required medical attention.
He sued several defendants. He also made a claim under the Fair and Equal Housing Act against Castrol and Pumarol because the law contains a prohibition on racism in the workplace. He lost that claim at the trial and appellate courts.
But his other two claims against Castrol and Pumarol have been revived.
“(A) rational juror could find Pumarol’s conduct was extreme and outrageous,” Justice Art McKinster wrote.
“Smith alleges that Pumarol made three offensive comments to him in front of about 50 of his colleagues, including three of his supervisors. According to Smith, after Pumarol made the first comment, everyone except for African American employees laughed, yet Pumarol made two more comments that (Smith) found offensive.”