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Ruling affirms claim of racism at NJ sub shop

By ANGELA DELLI SANTI | Associated Press Writer

May 8, 2008

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TRENTON, N.J. - An appeals panel has affirmed two black teenagers' claim of race-based discrimination by their Asian-Indian boss at the central New Jersey sub shop where the boys worked their first jobs.

The boys, who are now in college, were awarded $62,000 each for lost wages, pain and humiliation.

Both boys worked at the store part-time after school when they were 16.

Identified only by their initials in court papers, the teens said they heard persistent racial insults while working at a Subway sandwich shop in suburban Lawrence. According to the boys, the manager, Dipen Patel, told one of the young workers, "I own you."

Civil Rights Division Director Frank Vespa-Papaleo found the manager's conduct "egregious," and the two-judge appellate panel agreed.

"Patel did not deny that he made the racist remarks," the judges found.

Vespa-Papaleo determined the slurs were so pervasive that they constituted a hostile work environment and the teenagers' only remedy was to quit their $6.50 per hour jobs months after they started. The appeals court agreed.

"I made them quit," said Leslie Wilborn, the mother of one of the boys, who have been friends since kindergarten and got their first jobs at the same sub shop.

She said she was "shocked" about how the boys were being spoken to, which she learned about when overhearing them talk about it while driving them home after work.

Subway franchise owner Rupesh Trivedi, Patel and their lawyer did not respond to the civil rights complaint or subsequent subpoenas, so Vespa-Papaleo decided in favor of the boys, ruling that the facts they presented were not in dispute.

As a result, Trivedi and the manager were each assessed an additional $10,000 penalty and were ordered jointly to pay $27,000 in attorneys' fees.

Patel is attending college and no longer works at the store, but his father remains a co-owner, according to the Civil Rights Division. A person answering the phone Thursday at Subway said the owner was not available.

The attorney of record for the owner and manager, Arthur Swidler, did not return a message seeking comment.

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