A woman claims in a lawsuit that she was forced out of her job as an assistant property manager at an apartment complex after her employer, the John Stewart Co. allegedly refused to take steps to protect her against tenants, who allegedly subjected her to a steady stream of abuse and harassment.
According to the complaint, plaintiff LaShonti Woods had been a property manager at an apartment complex in the 200 block of 6th Street in San Francisco, beginning in 2019.
One resident "would come to Plaintiff’s office to scream at her, call her derogatory names such as “N***** B*tch”, scratch her car, and deflate her tires," plaintiff LaShonti Woods alleges in a complaint filed in San Francisco Superior Court. "The harassment was so bad that Plaintiff got a restraining order against [the resident]."
Another resident "hit Plaintiff with a broken metal tube on Plaintiff’s right lower back and leg," the suit said.
Woods also took out a restraining order against that resident, the suit says.
After that attack, Woods asked her regional manager to remove the tenant from the complex immediately, because her presence was "severely effecting Plaintiff’s mental health, causing her great stress, anxiety, and fear," the suit says.
The regional manager, however, said taking such action was not "feasible," according to the complaint.
The complaint asserts Woods was "further told that the only accommodation she could receive for the severe mental health issues caused by [the tenant's] presence was for (Woods) to stay locked in her office.
"Defendants made no efforts to accommodate Plaintiff, even though they easily could have transferred Plaintiff away from the belligerent residents and/or taken measures to keep her safe from the dangerous tenant," Woods alleges in the complaint.
The lawsuit claims the company's alleged failure to take actions requested by Woods amounts to a violation of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act.
And she alleges the company wrongfully retaliated against her when she was ultimately constructively terminated in 2021.
Woods is seeking damages, including lost wages and benefits, "for emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, humiliation, pain and suffering, injury to reputation, embarrassment, fear, anxiety and anguish."
Woods is represented by attorneys Michael J. Jaurigue and S. Sean Shahabi, of Jaurique Law Group, of Glendale.
Woods v. John Stewart Company et al, San Francisco Superior Court, CGC-23-608604.