Woman awarded $6.5M in religious discrimination suit

A Sacramento jury agreed that a woman who worked for a now-defunct business office in Nevada City was the victim of reverse religious discrimination and awarded her $6.5 million.

But Michigan-based Kelly Services is expected to appeal the decision reached Friday, which would keep the case tied up in court several more years, the woman's lawyer, M. Catherine Jones of Nevada City, said Sunday.

Life-long Nevada City resident Lynn Noyes, 59, worked for Kelly Services for 10 years in the Nevada City software development and multimedia office. Employees created software used to test Kelly applicants all over the country, Jones said.

Most of Noyes' co-workers belonged to the Fellowship of Friends, a Southern California-based group with a compound in Oregon House, in Yuba County just over the Nevada County line.

Noyes had been passed over for four other promotions prior to the fifth promotion that prompted the lawsuit, Jones said. The previous promotions all had gone to fellowship members, she added.

Jones argued Noyes was denied a promotion to a management position in 2001, despite having a management degree. A fellowship member she contended was less qualified received the promotion instead; her boss, office manager William Heinz, had belonged to the fellowship since 1976, Jones said.

Noyes sued Kelly in 2002, though she continued to work until getting laid off in 2004, Jones said.

Kelly Services investigated complaints in 1999 that the fellowship influenced operations at the Nevada City office, Kelly lawyer E. Joseph Connaughton said.

"They didn't really do anything," Jones said. "Kelly just let Heinz continue to promote his fellowship members."

A nonmember had been offered the promotion first, but turned it down. The person who did receive the promotion was seen as better for moral, Connaughton argued.

The Kelly Services office closed in 2005.

To contact City Editor Trina Kleist, e-mail tkleist@theunion.com or call 477-4230.