NoCut News reports that ahead of Roy “US$54 Million Pants” Pearson‘s appeal hearing on Oct 22, another Korean-American couple in Hampton, Virginia were ordered to pay US$75,000 after losing a racial discrimination suit after refusing to rent space at their strip mall to a black businesswoman.
Well, close enough — the couple apparently settled for “little more” than US$50,000 but less than US$75,000.
Here’s an English piece on the case:
HAMPTON – A Korean-American couple who own a gas station and strip mall on Big Bethel Road have agreed to settle a race discrimination lawsuit that accused them of refusing to rent space to a businesswoman because she is black.
Ok Keum Kim and her husband, Jung Hyun Kim — who own the Valero gas station and six other shops at the intersection of Saunders Road — paid “a little more” than $50,000 but less than $75,000 to settle the suit in U.S. District Court, Ok Keum Kim said.
The suit, filed a year ago, had asked for $4 million in damages.
Sonya Swenson — a Korean-American woman from Yorktown who had been leasing the shop from the Kims — said she tried to sell her business, Salon Sonya, to Tiffany Sutton, a black woman from Hampton. But when the Kims learned that Sutton is black, the suit alleged, they refused to allow a lease transfer.
The odd thing is, the Kim family claims — reasonably it would seem, at least at first glance — that all they were trying to do is protect another businesswoman — who is also black — from competition:
The Kims, who came to the United States in 1975, countered that they were trying to protect another hairdresser — a black woman they’ve been renting to since 1980. They said they didn’t want to set her up for failure by having her compete with another business for the same customers.
“I’ve been with Mr. and Mrs. Kim for over 25 years,” that hairdresser, Hazel King, 74, told the Daily Press last December, calling the suit “silly” and “wrong.”
“They’ve always been fine to me,” King said. “They’re no kind of racists. No way, no how. Never, never, never.”
Kim said Wednesday that when she told King that she settled with Swenson and Sutton, King cried and said, “What did you do that for?” King was not at work Wednesday, but a barber identifying himself as King’s son confirmed that story.
Kim, however, says her attorney kept telling them to settle, and that: “Everybody was worried about the jury, that the jury might not come out with the right decision.”
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
were ordered to pay US$75,000
Ordered? I thought they settled. $50K to $75K beats $4 million.
after loosing a racial discrimination suit
Loosing? If anyone loosed anything it was the plaintiff who loosed the $4 million lawsuit on the Kims.
Since they were blocking one new black tenant to protect an old black tenant I don’t see how this merits racial discrimination.
Yes. NoCut mistranslated the original piece. Happens.
Neither do I. But then again, Kim was “worried about the jury, that the jury might not come out with the right decision,” which seems to me code for something.
Well, regardless of whether they are racists or not (presumably they are not), the discrimination was indeed based on race. They were fine with having one black-run hair salon next to a Korean-run one, which implies that they thought there could be no competition between the two, due to the mutually exclusive customer base. This would mean that if the prospective lessee had been any race but black, she would have gotten the lease. More importantly, the Kims’ reasoning would be protrayed to the jury as follows: Since black hairdressers could never have any non-black customers, their business can be threatened only by another black hairdresser. I don’t know about you, but if I were a juror, this would make me at least a little disturbed. I know Chris Rock would have a field day would this, harking back to the days of segregation.
What’s sad is that if I had to bet my money on it, I would bet that the Kims are in fact racist — they just happen to like this one person who’s “okay.” That’s just me playing the percentages based on the Koreans I’ve met throughout my life, without knowing anything about the Kims, of course.
The Kims probably tried to save few bucks years ago by not seeking legal counsel and inserting a non-competition clause in their leasing agreements.
Not only would a non-com clause have spared them this financial hit, but would have brought increased rental revenue over the years due to the fact that tenants would have felt more secure at the time of initiating their lease contracts, thus willing to pay a premium for their locations.
This is a standard clause in almost every commercial building in North America. I have no love for lawyers, but everything and everyone has its time and place.
Are they in fact racist? Who knows. However when you examine the crime stats of black crime committed on K-store owners, I call it common sense. Blacks murder scores of Korean store owners every year.
Hey maybe when Moa-Bamma becomes president he’ll expropriate the Korean stores, and give them to the blacks………….
“Spread the wealth around”
As you can tell, ………….I’m down with the struggle !
“They were fine with having one black-run hair salon next to a Korean-run one, which implies that they thought there could be no competition between the two, due to the mutually exclusive customer base. This would mean that if the prospective lessee had been any race but black, she would have gotten the lease.”
No, if a white person was going to open a salon specializing in cutting black hair they also would have been denied. It was about the proposed business not the race of the new lessee. The Kim’s are wrong but it wasn’t racial discrimination.
“The Kims probably tried to save few bucks years ago by not seeking legal counsel and inserting a non-competition clause in their leasing agreements.”
But how do you write that clause? They wanted to have different types of salons in one mall. Can you legally define a black hair salon?
“which seems to me code for something.”
I’ll spell it out. The jury probably was all black. Can anyone tell me what the latest story is on OJ Simpson?
They probably weighed the risks versus settling. Take the risk of what happened to those dry cleaners in Washington (they even won but..), or just pay the settlement and not risk going out of business, bankrupted, and getting harassed.
Ah yes, the cries of ‘racist, racist, racist’. The same phony issue being bandied about by Obama supporters. The owners had a legitimate reason to reject a competing business that would hurt one of its existing tenants. Don’t the owners of any mall have the right to determine what types of shops they have in the mall? The cries of racism is all smoke and mirrors to cover the real issue-government interference in individual lives. Only race-baiters or those who love big government interference in our daily lives could support this bs.
‘Blacks murder scores of Korean store owners every year.’
Not true.
‘Hey maybe when Moa-Bamma becomes president he’ll expropriate the Korean stores, and give them to the blacks………….
“Spread the wealth around”
As you can tell, ………….I’m down with the struggle !’
You sound like an idiot.
#3 timmy
Korea has been singular ethnic country for a long time so I agree with you in that a good number of Koreans are racists. Sadly
But the Kim’s decision here, not to give out the lease, seems to be a business decision. You know they’re gonna lose profit if one of their shops goes belly up.
There do exist Koreans like me who think we are all the same. Surprise surprise!
A lot of people support these various laws until they are actually sued by them.
I have been in a position to make decisions on the employment of others, and I have had to be very careful in case my hiring is considered to be discriminatory. I know of other people that have to write a multiple page report for every non-white person they do not hire for whatever reason.
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