An aluminum company in Jackson County and its former vice president of human resources, who worked for the company less than a year, are suing each other in state and federal courts.
Attorneys for Constellium allege fraud and deceit against Kenneth Rogers, who moved to West Virginia from Texas in September 2014 to work for the company.
Rogers, who is black, claims he was discriminated against and forced to work in a racially hostile work environment.
Constellium Rolled Products Ravenswood LLC filed suit in federal court in September against Rogers, who was fired in July. Its complaint alleges that Rogers lied about a lien to persuade the company to buy his house in Texas.
Constellium also accuses Rogers of taking and disclosing confidential information about the company after he was fired.
When Rogers was hired at the Jackson County plant, he had been trying to sell his home in Paris, Texas, according to Constellium's lawsuit.
One of the first things he did at his new job was to develop a "corporate relocation policy," which consisted of Constellium purchasing the out-of-state homes of executives recruited to move to West Virginia, according to the complaint.
Rogers was the first employee to use the policy, the lawsuit states.
While the company was buying Rogers' home, a lien was discovered. Rogers, in turn, executed an affidavit in March testifying that he was not the same person the lien on his house was against in order to facilitate the purchase of his home under the policy, according to Constellium's lawsuit.
The company purchased the home and says it paid Rogers $190,000, which was the difference between his mortgage obligation and the purchase price paid under the relocation policy.
He is not entitled to that money, the company claims, because it was discovered in June that the lien was in fact against Rogers. The lien was discovered when Constellium went to sell the home to a third party but the sale was blocked because of it, according to the company's lawsuit.
The company put $61,000 in an escrow account to try to persuade the title company to issue the title to the purchaser. Constellium claims it has not been repaid that money and says the company is out about $113,000 from dealing with Rogers' home. The company claims Rogers knew about the lien when he signed his affidavit.
Rogers was fired the month after it was discovered his affidavit was allegedly false.
In addition to being reimbursed, the company's lawsuit also asks a judge to require Rogers to return confidential information it claims he obtained while working for the company and also identify all persons he allegedly disclosed the information to.
Rogers has confidential information concerning Constellium's business and legal affairs, according to its lawsuit. He is in possession of and has revealed and threatened to reveal communications between the company and its lawyers in which the company sought and received legal advice related to human resources issues, the complaint alleges.
"In September 2015, Constellium sued Rogers in federal court for fraud and breach of the duty of loyalty. The claims in the complaint Rogers filed in state court in November are without merit and the company will fight them vigorously," Constellium said in a statement provided by Charleston attorney Christopher Slaughter.
Rogers filed his lawsuit in Jackson Circuit Court a month after Constellium filed suit against him.
Besides the company, Rogers' lawsuit also names as defendants, Mark Boone, vice president of human resources for Constellium Netherlands, and Lloyd Stemple, chief executive officer for Constellium Ravenswood.
Rogers' lawsuit doesn't address any of the claims the company's lawsuit made against him, but instead claims he was terminated for standing up against Boone and Stemple.
Rogers accuses Boone of discriminating against employees over age and alleges Stemple forced female employees to work in a hostile environment.
Boone would repeatedly pressure Rogers to hire younger people for manager positions, according to the complaint.
Rogers says he told Boone that it was illegal to discriminate based on age but that his only response was that he would take that under advisement.
Rogers also claims he took action when a former employee, who was allegedly fired for sexual harassment, was allowed back in the plant by Stemple to work around the women who had made the accusations.
Steve Mosser was fired in August 2014 after an internal investigation into accusations of sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment, according to Rogers' complaint.
Mosser was allowed to come back to the plant and work around his accusers when he went to work for a customer of Constellium, according to the lawsuit.
Rogers says he expressed his dissatisfaction with the situation to Stemple but nothing was done.
Rogers says he eventually told Mosser that he had to wait outside and stop entering the plant.
The lawsuit filed by Rogers also claims he heard Stemple shout "those bitches" when the Supreme Court upheld a verdict awarded to two longtime female Constellium employees who were awarded damages for gender discrimination and sexual harassment claims against the company.
Parkersburg attorney Walt Auvil, who represents Rogers, says his client offers "pretty disappointing allegations about how people of color are dealt with and referred to at the very top of the company.
Rogers says that when the head of human resources for Constellium's plant in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, told Boone he didn't want to report to Rogers that Boone removed Rogers from dealing with that location.
He also claims he was discriminated against when it came time for pay raises and subjected to racial and sexual jokes.
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.