Can Mauricia Grant Win Against NASCAR?

The type of lawsuit she has filed — in which Grant cited a pattern of racial and sexual harassment by co-workers and tolerance by managers — is lost more often than won.

“It’s a very fascinating case to the legal community as well as the racing community,” said Jeff Hayes, a Wauwatosa lawyer with 23 years of experience in employee law.

“Any routine case is placed under a microscope and magnified 10,000 times when it happens in the sports world.”

At the time Grant was hired in 2005, she was the only female African-American to work as an inspector in what was then known as the Busch Series.

Grant alleged in a federal suit filed this week that she was routinely the target of slurs and unwanted sexual advances and that her complaints not only went unheeded but ultimately led to her firing in October 2007.

“She cites a couple specific slurs, and you don’t tend to get that,” Hayes said. “So the chance of getting to a jury is very good, and if it survives a motion to dismiss, it will be a stark wake-up call to auto racing.”

“Typical sexual/racial discrimination cases don’t come generally even close to (Grant’s) number,” said James Scott, a lawyer for Lindner & Marsack, a Milwaukee firm that represents employers in workplace suits.

“It has to be a really egregious situation if somebody gets $2 million.”

In about 70% of these types of cases, the employer wins when the case is dismissed, Scott estimated. Another 25% settle and fewer than 5% go to trial.

NASCAR will request dismissal, Scott said. Should the judge rule that the case has merit to proceed, NASCAR could take its chances on a trial or it could settle. How it would proceed depends on its likelihood of winning and its tolerance for bad publicity that could linger for years.

“The crux of this suit is whether NASCAR had the ability to separate the culture of competition from the culture of racism and sexism,” Hynes said.

Whether she wins or not, Mauricia Grant will make sure that it does.

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