John SchroyerConnecticut-based Curaleaf Holdings (TSX: CURA) (OTCQX: CURLF) and its former CEO, Matt Darin, on Friday filed formal responses in federal court, rejecting allegations made by ex-Curaleaf Vice President Khadijah Tribble in a lawsuit that assert she endured sexual harassment, racism and a death threat while employed at the multistate operator.
Curaleaf denied all wrongdoing in its response to Tribble’s amended lawsuit – which she filed in January in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Massachusetts – and Darin for the second time filed a motion asking to be removed from the case entirely due to the fact he lives in Florida.
The company asserted in its response that Tribble, contrary to her claims, was “never a member of Curaleaf’s ‘C-suite’ and was not regularly included in ‘C-suite meetings’ at any time during her employment.”
The company acknowledged that one of its other senior vice presidents, Patrick Larkin, remarked to Tribble during a dinner in Los Angeles, “Have you ever had any Irish in you?” but denied that Darin downplayed the severity of the incident or its sexual nature, as Tribble claimed in her lawsuit. Curaleaf also denied not investigating the incident after Tribble reported it, as she claimed in her suit, but rather asserted that it took “appropriate action” following an investigation.
“Defendant admits that Mr. Darin apologized on Mr. Larkin’s behalf, but denies any allegations inconsistent therewith,” Curaleaf said in its filing.
The company also disputed Tribble’s assertion that she received a death threat from an unidentified Curaleaf vendor, and characterized the message in question as “unprofessional and unpleasant.” The company said it did send the vendor a cease-and-desist letter after Tribble filed a formal complaint with Curaleaf HR about the incident, but specifically denied that it contained a death threat.
“Defendant denies that it ‘dragged its heels in responding to [Plaintiff’s alleged] complaints,’ that it retaliated against her, and that the communication Plaintiff received from a vendor included a threat to her life,” Curaleaf said in its filing.
The company also denied that Tribble was entitled to any bonus that she claimed she was wrongfully not paid upon leaving Curaleaf, and it also contended that she was not terminated, but resigned.
Darin, meanwhile, reiterated the argument his attorneys made in his motion filed in January, which essentially argued that he was not within the court’s Massachusetts jurisdiction because he lives and works almost entirely in Florida, including during his full tenure as CEO of Curaleaf and during all times relevant to Tribble’s lawsuit.
The new motion, filed on Friday with the court, asserts that Tribble’s amended complaint included new allegations against Darin so as to get around the jurisdiction question. That new complaint, Darin’s motion claims, lied about times when he was allegedly in Massachusetts and communicated with her about work issues.
“Many of Plaintiff’s new jurisdiction-related claims are plainly false,” Darin’s new motion argues. “She added multiple additional allegations in a fruitless attempt to cure the jurisdictional deficiencies in her original Complaint. … Darin traveled to Massachusetts just twice during Plaintiff’s employment, and at neither time met or otherwise interacted with Plaintiff during these two brief visits which occurred between 2020 and 2022.”
Both Curaleaf and Darin asked the court to dismiss Tribble’s case.
Another hearing is scheduled in the case for March 18.
Following Green Market Report’s coverage of Tribble’s initial lawsuit last fall, several other women who used to work at Curaleaf came out in support of Tribble and said they had similar experiences while employed at the MSO, which they generally agreed has a “toxic” work atmosphere. At least two other former female employees also filed lawsuits against Curaleaf with similar claims of misogynistic treatment.
