A former United Airlines employee has hit Marriott with an Illinois state court defamation suit claiming he lost his job because hotel workers in Delaware falsely accused him of violating coronavirus safety policies that didn't exist at the time.
Joshua Ray alleged Monday that he lost the job he had held at Chicago-based United for more than 20 years because employees at the Marriott Courtyard in downtown Wilmington falsely told the airline he was violating the hotel's COVID-19 policies and procedures "even though there were none actually formally in place" when he was quarantining there in April 2020.
Ray's attorney, Michael Leonard of Leonard Trial Lawyers, told Law360 on Wednesday that his client's case "is the type of case that anyone who has ever held a job can immediately relate to."
"No one finds it acceptable for a third party to interfere with one's employment relationship," he said. "It is inexcusable, and usually unheard of. That one might be putting his or her employment relationship in jeopardy based upon what corporate hotel they stay in is troubling."
Representatives for Marriott did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment.
Ray's job at United involved work on international flights to destinations including Mumbai, Dublin and Munich, according to his suit. He had recently returned to the U.S. from an international flight and landed in Newark, New Jersey, when United informed him he had been exposed to the virus, his suit said.
Ray had contracted COVID-19 and checked into Marriott's downtown Wilmington hotel to quarantine, accompanied by a friend who cared for him, according to the lawsuit. At that time, Marriott had not yet implemented any COVID-19 policies at that location, his suit said.
"Even though there was no business reason or other justification for doing so," Marriott employees repeatedly contacted United to interfere with Ray's employment and falsely report that he and his friend had been blatantly disregarding its policies, according to the lawsuit.
In early April, the suit says, a Marriott employee informed United in writing that Ray and the friend staying with him had been wandering around the hotel, and that Ray had been sitting in the hotel's lobby "without even a mask" and violating what Ray says were then-non-existent coronavirus policies. The employee also said Ray and his friend were endangering other workers' and guests' safety "when in fact hey had not in any way," the suit said.
Later that month, after Ray had checked out of the hotel, another Marriott employee wrote to United that he and his caretaker failed to take quarantining instructions seriously, his suit said. But Ray claims that the hotel never gave him and his caretaker such instructions, and that they never violated hotel directions or failed to take quarantining seriously.
The employee also told United that the hotel told Ray and his caretaker twice to stay in their room, that his caretaker asserted the hotel was "acting reckless" and that Ray had "thrown" items, even though none of those things happened, the suit said.
The false statements led United to refuse to let Ray return to work, his suit said. The airline initially suspended him without pay, then eventually fired him.
Marriott's conduct constitutes defamation, a tortious interference with his employment, an unlawfully intentional infliction of emotional distress, and an unlawful public disclosure of private facts, Ray alleged. He also claimed the company's statements unlawfully placed him in a false light.
He is asking the court to award him compensatory damages and any other relief deemed appropriate.
Ray is represented by Michael Leonard and Rebecca Alexander of Leonard Trial Lawyers.
Counsel information for Marriott could not immediately be determined.
The case is Joshua Ray v.
Marriott International Inc., case number 2021-L-005050, in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, Law Division.
--Editing by Peter Rozovsky.
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