Judge won't pause lawsuit over Coast Inn manager's firing after a workplace injury

A federal judge in Anchorage on Wednesday refused to pause or dismiss a discrimination lawsuit by a former Coast Inn at Lake Hood manager who says the hotel's new operator fired him two days after meeting him, while he was still recovering from a workplace injury.

Charles Seldon, who is African American and was 67 when he lost his job in May 2024, alleges that HANC Hotel, LLC fired him because of his age, race and disability, then hired a younger, less experienced white employee as maintenance manager. HANC says it never employed him.

U.S. District Judge Aaron Christian Peterson's order lets the case go forward against HANC alone. HANC had argued that International Inn, LLC, which leased the hotel to HANC, was Seldon's employer. It asked the judge to halt the case until International Inn was added as a defendant, and to dismiss it if Seldon refused. Peterson found that HANC hadn't shown International Inn needed to be part of the case, and that Seldon hadn't refused.

It was HANC's second attempt to end the case early. In June, the court denied a motion to dismiss, finding that Seldon plausibly alleged HANC made the decision to fire him.

Seldon started at the hotel in January 2022, at 65, as its security, maintenance and safety manager, according to his amended complaint. He says he was seriously hurt in a workplace accident in October 2023. His original complaint says he had six broken ribs, three of them still unhealed when he was fired. He came back on a reduced schedule in January 2024.

HANC, which the original complaint identifies as The Kishan Group of Reno, Nevada, took over the hotel from TDX in May 2024, the complaint says. The new owners met with Seldon on May 7 about his continued employment, the complaint says. When he tried to tell them about his disability and medical leave, an owner "jumped up and stated he did not want to hear it," the original complaint says.

Two days later, HANC's operations manager allegedly fired him. He was told he was "no longer needed" and that the owners viewed him "only as a security manager," the original complaint says. He says he was offered no other job.

HANC tells it differently. It says it leased the hotel from International Inn starting in late April 2024 and didn't exercise its option to buy it until that fall. The lease required International Inn to terminate its employees and pay severance, HANC says, and didn't require HANC to hire any of them.

Peterson wrote that a promise to terminate employees doesn't show who actually made the decision to fire Seldon, or on whose behalf. Another part of the lease made HANC responsible for operating and managing the hotel, he noted, though he said that alone doesn't establish that HANC employed Seldon. "Any damages for HANC's own unlawful conduct can be awarded against HANC," he wrote.

Seldon is seeking damages, reinstatement or front pay to his expected retirement, and an order barring future discrimination. His original complaint put front pay at about 29 months and also asked for punitive damages. Whether HANC employed Seldon, made an unlawful decision or bears successor liability remains unresolved, Peterson wrote.