The historic Detroit Club and its owner have been hit with a $6.3 million jury verdict for retaliating against three employees who complained about racist treatment of the club’s Black visitors, often in regards to the dress code.
The federal court jury in Detroit awarded the damages to the three former employees on Thursday, June 25, following a trial that spanned more than a week.
The jury found the Detroit Club and its owner, Lynn Uralli, liable for retaliation that occurred against the employees who made legally protected complaints about racist behavior.
Lawyers for the Detroit Club and its owner didn’t respond to messages seeking comment on Friday, June 26. A lawyer for the former workers said he anticipates that the club will likely appeal to expensive verdict.
The Detroit Club, 712 Cass Ave., is not to be confused with the Detroit Athletic Club, a different organization with a different downtown building.
The case was brought in 2022 by a former Detroit Club desk clerk, Maria Victoria Ferrer, who said she was abruptly fired in April of that year after a few weeks on the job.
Ferrer, who is Latina, submitted internal workplace complaints concerning the mistreatment of a Black couple at the club, as well as an instance where Uralli allegedly referred to another Black couple as “street rats” when they were out of the club’s standard dress code – even though the club was relaxing its dress code that day because of a Tigers game and there were white patrons inside who also were underdressed.
The male half of the couple heard Uralli’s “street rats” remark and approached Uralli about it, and said she had just lost a potential new member, according to court filings. Ferrer then was fired after making a complaint about the remark.
The other two plaintiffs in the case were a Black female bartender and a white male gay bartender.
The female bartender testified to witnessing several instances when Black patrons were asked to leave or denied entry because to their clothes, yet white patrons were allowed in despite wearing similar attire. She was fired after filing the complaints.
The white male bartender said he witnessed multiple instances of Black guests becoming emotional after being harassed or “shaken down” regarding the dress code.
He eventually resigned his employment after Ferrer’s firing, according to court documents, describing in his resignation letter the discrimination that believed he had witnessed and which the club hadn’t properly addressed.
After sharing his resignation letter on Facebook, Uralli threatened him to get him to take the post down, according to court documents, saying that she would “destroy” him and he “would pay for the attempt of defaming (her) business.” She also threatened to have his real estate license go away, court documents say.
The lawyers for the club’s former workers were Jack Schulz of Schulz Law and Herbert Sanders of The Sanders Law Firm.
“The plaintiffs were terminated for the selfless act of standing up against the discrimination of others. They did what was right,” Schulz said in a statement. “Instead of addressing these issues head on, the Detroit Club terminated and threatened the plaintiffs in an attempt to discourage future complaints.”
Uralli and her husband, Emre Uralli, bought the four-story, 1892 Detroit Club building in December 2013 and reopened it in 2017 following extensive renovations.
The original club with the Detroit Club name dated to 1882, but dwindled in size and eventually stopped meeting after the Urallis bought the clubhouse building.
Today’s Detroit Club allows non-member guests to visit its restaurant and bar areas and stay in its hotel rooms.
Contact JC Reindl: 313-378-5460 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on X @jcreindl
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Club slapped with $6.3M jury verdict over racism complaints
Reporting by JC Reindl, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By JC Reindl, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
