Federal Officials Sue Colorado’s Telluride Express for Age Discrimination

San Miguel Mountain Ventures LLC, which does business as Telluride Express in Montrose, Colo., has been sued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for refusing to hire a job applicant because of his age.

According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, Charles Webber was over the age of 75 with more than five decades of commercial driving experience when he sent Telluride Express an application for a shuttle driver position. The next day, Telluride Express denied Webber’s application because it had purchased a commercial auto insurance policy that provided no coverage for shuttle drivers age 75 and older.

The EEOC further charged that Webber met all the qualifications required of younger drivers, having passed a recent Department of Transportation medical exam and having no traffic violations or accidents in the last three years.

In the years since Telluride Express refused to hire him, Webber has worked as a driver with no accidents or citations. The EEOC charges in its lawsuit that Telluride Express knew of, agreed to, and enforced the discriminatory treatment of older applicants in its commercial auto insurance policy, and that the company did nothing to find alternative methods of insuring qualified candidates like Webber.

The EEOC alleges such conduct violates the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). The EEOC sued in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado (EEOC v. San Miguel Mountain Ventures, LLC, Civil Action No. 1:20-cv-00881) after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.

The lawsuit seeks monetary damages for Webber as well as injunctive relief prohibiting Telluride Express from discriminating based on age in the future.

Source: EEOC