In a little favor to me, says Susan Crumiller, he [Mann] claimed his attorneys had advised him to disregard the law, which will make discovery extra fun.
NEW YORK, NY – Crumiller filed suit against CollX, a sports card valuation startup, and its founder, Ted Mann, for illegally refusing our client paternity leave, and then firing him during a family emergency for made-up reasons.
Mann calls his young son a “co-founder” of CollX, and features him heavily throughout the company’s promotional materials. Yet, when CollX employee Alexander Ciambriello intended to take paternity leave – which is legally protected and guaranteed in New York state – Mann simply refused.
Mann then rescinded a previously-agreed raise Ciambriello was due, saying he couldn’t justify it “for someone who was about to take so much time off.”
Ciambriello was forced to do the impossible: work full-time while caring round-the-clock for his newborn, recovering wife, and their two-year-old – turning what should have been a joyous occasion into a living nightmare. He lost so much weight that a family member remarked he looked like a prisoner of war. One day, in a state of emergency, Ciambriello did not report to work. Mann promptly fired him, sending him a letter with bogus false accusations.
There is no amount of money that can compensate the Ciambriello family for what it went through. But this lawsuit will force Ted Mann and CollX to face accountability for their illegal, harmful actions – not to mention their shameless hypocrisy. As a society, we should be doing everything we can to support men in their family responsibilities; the gender caregiving gap is one of the biggest factors in perpetuating inequality. As an aside, this case is particularly important to me, as I founded the firm specifically because my own similar experience.
The case was filed in the Northern District of New York; you can review the complaint here. Ciambriello brings claims under New York State and New Jersey anti-discrimination and worker protection laws, and seeks compensatory and punitive damages in amounts to be determined by a jury.
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