Sex Discrimination Suits

For two decades, Marianne Stanley's court was any old ratty gymnasium where basketball was the main attraction. As a two-time All-American guard at Immaculata, and then coach at Old Dominion, Pennsylvania and USC for 16 seasons, Stanley was a fixture in the sport. Now she is playing on a different court. Instead of preparing the Trojans for their Dec. 1 season-opening game against Northern Illinois, Stanley is waiting for the U.S.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. ran into hostile questioning Monday from judges deciding whether the nation's biggest employer must face the country's biggest lawsuit claiming men were favored over women on the job. Two of three judges on a federal appeals panel grilled the retail behemoth's attorney, bringing up facts harmful to the company's defense and faulting him for using "arrogant" language in criticizing the trial court judge. The most forceful of the three, U.S.

Complaining that the pricing policy at a nudist camp in Topanga Canyon takes the shirt off men's backs, a Pasadena man on Wednesday sued the camp for sex discrimination. Alejandro Crespi, 56, alleged that Elysium Fields violates the state's Unruh Civil Rights Act by charging men more than women to cavort in the nude on its secluded seven-acre grounds.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ronald E. Cappai, whose 17 years on the bench included a controversial sex-discrimination case in the 1990s, died Tuesday at the age of 60. A court spokesman said Cappai's family declined to disclose the location or cause of his death. The jurist had been on leave since March 2. Cappai was appointed to the Superior Court in 1984 by then-Gov. George Deukmejian after 12 years as a civil litigator.

Three female members of the Mission Viejo Country Club have filed a lawsuit alleging that the club discriminates against women by making it difficult for them to golf with their female friends. The lawsuit also says that the club illegally bars women from eating at a male-only luxury lounge. "There is absolutely no reason for it," said Michelle A. Reinglass, a Laguna Hills lawyer who filed the lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court on behalf of members Kathleen Kellogg, Marguerite L.

A federal judge today dismissed the core of the nation's largest "comparable worth" lawsuit, a claim that the State of California has deliberately underpaid thousands of women in female-dominated state jobs. U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel ruled that the California State Employees Assn. had failed to prove deliberate sex discrimination in state salaries.

One of four women lawyers in the Pasadena city attorney's office suing the city for sexual discrimination has settled for $75,000 plus a pay raise, officials confirmed Friday. The settlement with Assistant City Atty. Carolyn Y. Williams was approved by the Pasadena City Council on Monday and is much more than the $20,000 the city offered Williams in September. Williams attorney, Joe Hopkins, would not say how large a raise his client would receive but said it would be substantial.

Kohler Co. has agreed to pay $886,500 to more than 2,000 women who were refused jobs because they were considered too short. The plumbing fixture company, based in Kohler, Wis., agreed to settle a Labor Department suit accusing it of sex discrimination for its practice of hiring only workers who were at least 5 feet, 4 inches tall. The rule was intended to make sure employees could handle physical labor, the company said.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ronald E. Cappai, whose 17 years on the bench included a controversial sex-discrimination case in the 1990s, died Tuesday at the age of 60. A court spokesman said Cappai's family declined to disclose the location or cause of his death. The jurist had been on leave since March 2. Cappai was appointed to the Superior Court in 1984 by then-Gov. George Deukmejian after 12 years as a civil litigator.

A sex-discrimination suit against Safeway's 216 Northern California stores has been settled for $5 million, Safeway and lawyers for a group of women announced Friday. The settlement also requires Safeway to set goals for increasing the number of female managers and to change the salary structure that encouraged women to stay in predominantly female departments, said attorney Jack Lee. The settlement is subject to a federal judge's approval. The suit, filed in U.S.

Three female members of the Mission Viejo Country Club have filed a lawsuit alleging that the club discriminates against women by making it difficult for them to golf with their female friends. The lawsuit also says that the club illegally bars women from eating at a male-only luxury lounge. "There is absolutely no reason for it," said Michelle A. Reinglass, a Laguna Hills lawyer who filed the lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court on behalf of members Kathleen Kellogg, Marguerite L.

Kohler Co. has agreed to pay $886,500 to more than 2,000 women who were refused jobs because they were considered too short. The plumbing fixture company, based in Kohler, Wis., agreed to settle a Labor Department suit accusing it of sex discrimination for its practice of hiring only workers who were at least 5 feet, 4 inches tall. The rule was intended to make sure employees could handle physical labor, the company said.

For Lydia Hernandez, the nightmare is always the same. She is running through the old Nabisco plant, desperately in need of a bathroom but unable to find one. She snaps out of a fitful sleep, drenched in sweat and gasping for air. She tells herself it was only a bad dream. But some dreams are hard to shake.

The Supreme Court narrowed the reach of federal civil rights laws in college sports Tuesday, ruling that the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. cannot be sued for sex bias by a female athlete just because it receives support from colleges and universities. On a 9-0 vote, the justices said the civil rights laws apply to schools that receive federal funds, not regulatory bodies that are supported by these schools.

One of four women lawyers in the Pasadena city attorney's office suing the city for sexual discrimination has settled for $75,000 plus a pay raise, officials confirmed Friday. The settlement with Assistant City Atty. Carolyn Y. Williams was approved by the Pasadena City Council on Monday and is much more than the $20,000 the city offered Williams in September. Williams attorney, Joe Hopkins, would not say how large a raise his client would receive but said it would be substantial.

It was the spring of 1993, and Benjamin F. Chavis Jr.'s first official act after taking the reins of the NAACP was to visit Los Angeles--where the eyes of the nation were nervously directed, awaiting a verdict in the federal trial of four officers accused in the beating of Rodney G. King. Chavis was on a mission to broaden the base of the 85-year-old organization, to make it more responsive to the needs of the nation's have-nots.