Trials & Litigation
Federal appeals court throws out bias case over grants for Black-owned businesses
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Cincinnati ruled Tuesday a white commercial trucking business owner lacked standing to bring a discrimination lawsuit challenging an insurance company’s grant contest for Black-owned companies. (Image from Shutterstock)
An appeals court panel ruled Tuesday that a white commercial trucking business owner lacked standing to bring a discrimination lawsuit challenging an insurance company’s grant contest for Black-owned companies because he never applied, the National Law Journal reports.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Cincinnati, in a 2-1 decision, held that Nathan Roberts—the owner of Freedom Truck Dispatch—could not allege that he was subject to racial discrimination because he closed but never submitted his application for the Progressive Casualty Insurance Co. and Circular Board’s Driving Small Business Forward Grant Program.
Roberts argued in vain, according to the story, that he did not submit the application after noticing the race-based eligibility criteria for the program, which offered 10 grants of $25,000 to Black-owned small businesses to help buy a commercial vehicle. But the 6th Circuit said Roberts’ failure to submit the application means that any injury suffered was self-inflicted.
The appeals court said the Progressive Casualty Insurance Co. and Circular Board did not cause Roberts’ injuries.
“Roberts caused them,” wrote 6th Circuit Judge Andre Mathis in the appeals court’s Feb. 24 majority opinion.
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