Attorneys for two United Airlines flight attendants who accuse the company of favoring youthful, white female attendants on its charter flights for the Los Angeles Dodgers have responded to the team’s bid to be removed as a defendant in the case, arguing that the Dodgers indeed were co-employers of the plaintiffs.
The suit was originally filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in October 2023 by Darby Quezada and Dawn Todd, and alleges that United engaged in discrimination by removing the only minority female flight attendants from the Dodgers charter flights and replacing them with “young white thin women who did not have to interview for the highly coveted positions.”
United twice removed the case to federal court on jurisdictional grounds, but each time a federal judge sent the case back to Superior Court. While the case was in federal court, the plaintiffs’ lawyers added the Dodgers as defendants.
The team’s attorney want the Dodgers dismissed from the case, arguing in previous court papers that Quezada and Todd had no employer-employee relationship with the reigning World Series champions and that the plaintiffs exclusively worked for the airline. That argument was disputed in new court papers filed by the plaintiffs’ lawyers on Friday in which they state that a joint employer relationship between their clients and UA and the Dodgers was uncovered by an examination of emails and other discovery.
The newly found information includes a sworn UA discovery response stating that it is the Dodgers who decide which flight attendants will staff the flight crew, according to the plaintiffs’ attorneys, who also cite an email from a Dodgers senior director allegedly ordering the removal and demotion of all minority flight attendants from the Dodgers’ dedicated charter flight crew.
“In sum, under the liberal standards at the pleading stage, the (suit) alleges sufficient facts to state claims against the Dodgers under a joint employer theory,” the attorneys for Quezada and Todd further state.
Quezada, who is of Mexican, Black and Jewish descent, claims she was called the “flight’s maid” because they needed “a Mexican to clean the bathrooms,” was told to stop speaking Spanish with a Dodgers player because “we are in America” and endured antisemitic comments such as “you know Jesus died for you even if you don’t believe” as well as “you don’t look Jewish,” the suit alleges.
Todd, a Black flight attendant with over 17 years of experience at the airline, alleges she suffered retaliation after complaining about the demotion of Black flight attendants, the denial of benefits and perks to Black flight attendants on the Dodgers flights and the racism and ageism she allegedly experienced herself.
Quezada and Todd say they were “abruptly demoted and removed” from the Dodgers’ charter flight program during the 2023 season and replaced by younger, white female flight attendants who were hand-selected without being interviewed.
A hearing on the Dodgers’ dismissal motion is scheduled for July 31 before Judge Gail Killefer.