NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) -- A man is suing Disney and ABC after claiming to have suffered age discrimination and wrongful termination.
Richard Monihan filed a complaint on June 22 in New York County Supreme Court against Disney Advertising Sales, LLC, and American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., for age discrimination and wrongful termination.
According to the complaint, in 2011 Monihan began his employment with ESPN which was, and remains, a part of Disney Ad Sales' corporate parent, and was initially hired for advertising sales for ESPN.
Monihan was tasked with making sure that the terms and conditions of ESPN’s contracts contained favorable terms and did not potentially expose ESPN to any claims based on privacy and/or data violations by vendors.
In March 2012, Monihan was hired full-time and became Director of Contracts and Operations. In January 2019, Disney merged the sales operations of ESPN, ABC and Freeform, into a new corporate entity called “Disney Ad Sales,” and would soon thereafter add other Disney networks such as National Geographic and FX.
The Vice President in charge of Disney Ad Sales was Megan Morse-Schindler, who was 39 at the time, and began replacing older employees with younger individuals in their 20s and early 30s, the suit claims.
Monihan, who was 58, alleges being subjected to a degrading and hostile work environment where he was no longer desired because of his age. Monihan alleges multiple instances in which he would be told he could not take care of things because of his age, denied meetings and ideas to be heard because he was older and was told that younger people would have better ideas.
On September 11, 2019, Monihan went to Human Resources and made a complaint about how he had been treated. On Sept. 25, 2019, Monihan was told an investigation was being done into the incidents. On Wednesday, March 11, 2020, Sinclair placed Monihan on a Performance Improvement Plan, but then everyone was sent home because of COVID-19, the suit says.
On Sept. 16, 2020, without any warning, Monihan was told that the PIP was being restarted as of Oct.1, 2020, the suit says. Monihan was then told on Dec. 3, 2020, his employment would be terminated Feb. 8, 2021, the suit says.
Monihan seeks a total of $10 million. Monihan is represented by Brian Heller of Schwarz, Perry and Heller, LLP.