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san diegan files multi-million dollar suit
against cingular wireless
{ BY
JONATHAN YOUNG } A Southern
California telecommunications company has filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against Cingular Wireless, claiming breach of
contract, fraud and discrimination based on gender and sexual
orientation.
Sonic TCM,
Inc., which has offices in San Diego, Santa Maria and Riverside,
was contracted by Opus Engineering, a subcontractor of Cingular,
in January, 2004 to provide site acquisition, zoning, architectural,
engineering, construction and development of approximately 176
antenna sites throughout Orange County, according to court documents.
The business arrangement ended in September of that year when
Sonic alleges Opus and Cingular refused to uphold their end of
the contract.
The claim was
filed in October 2004 in the Orange County Superior Court. The
case goes to trial on Dec. 5.
According to
the claim, representatives of Opus threatened to bar Sonic from
future contracts or bid opportunities, including the projects
already granted to Sonic, unless Sonic agreed to exclude Lisa
Marcaurelle, Sonic Vice President and San Diego resident, from
working on the projects. Sonic believes that these threats were
made because Marcaurelle is a female and a lesbian.
Court documents
cite John Kelly and Kevin Herring, both Opus managers, making
derogatory comments about Marcaurelle to John Milisitz, Sonic
President and CEO.
"You can't
bring that bulldog dyke if you want a chance at this project.
Her voice makes me want to throw up," was one comment allegedly
made by Kelly. One of Herring's alleged comments was, "I
thought I made it clear to you that I don't want that lesbian
bitch on my project. You won't get another bid if she shows up
again."
Marcaurelle
said that these comments were never made to her directly, but
to Milisitz and at meetings in front of other Sonic staff members.
"John
Kelly is an interesting character," she said. "To my
face, he's charming, but the second I turn my back, he was calling
me a dyke."
The discrimination
allegation also claims that Opus barred Marcaurelle from project
meetings and refused to allow her to be involved in servicing
Cingular's account in any way. Sonic, in its attempt to keep
their part of the agreement, claims this increased their expenses
and required Sonic to hire two engineers to replace Marcaurelle
on Cingular sites. The allegations combined "decimated"
Sonic, said Andrew Skale, an attorney representing Sonic, and
the company is no longer doing business.
"We are
suing for damages," Skale said. "It's in the amount
that the jury is going to determine Sonic is entitled. It's going
to be in the millions."
The lawsuit
also covers breach of contract and fraud issues. Cingular allegedly
changed the number of sites awarded to Sonic throughout the nine-month
project from 176 to 50, then to 80, up to 120 and then back down
to 85. The price per site also changed, according to court documents.
For example, Cingular dropped the price for the architectural
and engineering service from $25,700 per site to $11,850, the
claim alleges.
The main breach
of contract issue, however, is that Cingular allegedly did not
pay.
"They
just refused to pay," said Marcaurelle.
"They
paid them late and did not pay what they were promised,"
said Skale. "Cingular told them to gear up for about 200
sites, but when it came time to work on those sites they eventually
took them all away."
Cingular's
Web site does advocate the company's commitment to diversity.
"We celebrate
and respect the rich culture of our employees, customers, business
partners and communities in which we do business," it reads
in its employment section.
Cingular also
has a track record of being recognized for its dedication to
diversity, including being recognized as one of the "Top
10 Gay-Friendly Employers In The Country" by The Advocate
magazine, and one of the "Top 50 Companies for Diversity"
by DiversityInc magazine.
Peter Masaitis
of Weston Benshoof, the law firm representing Cingular in this
case, would not answer questions without first consulting with
his client and did not make any comments by press time.
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