LOS ANGELES (CNS) – A woman has reached a tentative settlement in her gender discrimination lawsuit against a Sherman Oaks construction business in which she alleged the company owner told her she was “stepping into a man’s world” by wanting to apply for a drafting position.
Maria de Lourdes Cervantes also contended in her Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that the firm’s owner said the plaintiff’s seriously ill mother should be able to take care of her own toiletries without her daughter’s help.
Her allegations against Van Lokeren Construction Inc. and its owner, James Thomas Van Lokeren, also included harassment, whistleblower retaliation, intentional infliction of emotional distress as well as failure to accommodate and engage in the interactive process.
On Wednesday, Cervantes’ attorneys filed court papers with Judge Daniel S. Murphy, notifying him of a “conditional” resolution in the case with the expectation a request for dismissal will be filed by Aug. 3. No terms were revealed.
In previous court papers, Robin Samuel, an attorney for Van Lokeren Construction Inc. and its owner, denied Cervantes’ allegations and said the plaintiff quit her job because she no longer wanted to commute two hours each way while pregnant.
Cervantes did not experience intolerable working conditions, an adverse employment action or severe or pervasive harassment, according to Samuel’s court papers, which further stated Cervantes gave her notice of leaving her job by text message in late June 2023.
But in her lawsuit, Cervantes, who was hired as the company’s office and project manager in June 2021, alleged her gender and pregnancy made her a target of shunning, belittling and ostracization, which she says stood in “stark difference” to the treatment male workers received in the workplace.
When Cervantes asked Van Lokeren in the fall of 2021 to allow her to assist in architecture drafting, he scoffed and said women “do not have the experience needed to draft,” according to the suit, which further stated that in March 2023 she was denied a drafter job after Van Lokeren rejected her request because of her gender and informed her that she was “stepping into a man’s world,” the suit stated.
However, many male employees were offered many opportunities and resources not provided to Cervantes, as well as higher pay and compensation to men for their work commutes, the suit further alleged.
Cervantes’ mother was diagnosed with a rare degenerative disease in 2022 and the plaintiff asked for accommodations that included occasionally leaving early to care for the woman, but Van Lokeren was disdainful and told Cervantes the ill woman should be able to “wipe her own [posterior] and that she should not have to take care of her mom,” the suit alleged.
After Cervantes tripped and fell over a piece of plywood in the workplace in January 2023, Van Lokeren threatened to fire the plaintiff if she reported her injury to workers’ compensation, the suit further alleged. In June of the same year, Van Lokeren told the pregnant Cervantes to “be more careful next time” when she almost fell down some stairs at work, according to the suit.
Van Lokeren contacted Cervantes on work-related issues when she was hospitalized for a fever and a kidney infection during her pregnancy and Van Lokeren’s conduct toward her after she was released continued to the point he “seemingly asked Cervantes whether she would consider quitting,” the suit stated.
Feeling she had no alternative, a frustrated Cervantes resigned, according to the suit filed in December 2024.