A Dallas-based Fortune 500 company has been sued by its former global vice president of human resources, who alleges she was fired after complaining about discrimination and harassment toward female employees.
“Copart is a $35 billion publicly traded company operating more like a Mad Men-era boys’ club where male executives caught with prostitutes at company events are rewarded with multimillion-dollar stock options while women who raise concerns about sexual harassment and gender discrimination are silenced, retaliated against and fired,” the lawsuit against online car auction company Copart Inc. alleges.
Counsel for Copart had not filed an appearance as of Tuesday. The company did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Christine Arnold worked for the company from August 2006 until Oct. 19, 2022, when she alleges she was fired “in retaliation for opposing and complaining about sexual harassment and discrimination.”
The lawsuit brings claims for gender discrimination, retaliation, hostile work environment, sexual harassment and violations of the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act.
Arnold is seeking more than $1 million in damages from Copart, which also operates BID4U, CashForCars.com, CrashedToys, DRIVE Auto Auctions and National Powersport Auctions.
During the 17 years she worked at Copart, Arnold alleges she was “discriminated against and sexually harassed by Copart’s male-dominated leadership.” According to the lawsuit, few women were appointed to leadership positions in the company, which as of October 2022 allegedly had “zero women in the C-suite, only two women on its 11-member board” and only three of its 27 vice presidents were women.
“Indeed Copart was the very last of the S&P 500 companies to have a female board member, and its first and only female C-suite executive in company history was not appointed until 2022,” the suit alleges.
Arnold told the court that she was “inundated with inappropriate and sexually suggestive details about ‘men only’ parties,” was “verbally berated” for opposing discrimination and sexual harassment and was also “forced to accommodate male executives caught with prostitutes at company events.”
In addition to the factors contributing to the hostile work environment Arnold alleges she endured, she also learned that women were paid less than male employees and had been excluded from “substantial stock option grants.”
When she complained about the disparate treatment, she alleges, she was fired. Her firing came despite high ratings on performance evaluations that also included merit increases in pay and bonuses, she told the court.
Arnold alleges she and other women were also excluded from “male-only company-sponsored parties” but that she was expected to “clean up the fallout from such parties,” which included a yacht party in Miami, a so-called “Burn It Down” shooting party at a ranch Copart owns in Celina, Texas, and what she describes as a “superspreader poker night” that occurred during the middle of the pandemic.
“Plaintiff’s work environment was often inundated with inappropriate and sexually suggestive details about these parties,” according to the lawsuit. “Copart further refused to let plaintiff, the highest ranking individual in HR, meaningfully investigate high-ranking male executives accused of sexual and other misconduct.”
“Indeed, it was common practice for Copart’s male leadership to try to hide male-executives misconduct from plaintiff. This included incidents where male executives were seen with prostitutes at company-sponsored events and showed up drunk to company meetings.”
The case, filed April 9, has been assigned to Dallas County District Judge Bridgett N. Whitmore.
Arnold is represented by Rogge Dunn and M. Collin Quigley of Rogge Dunn Group.
The case number is DC-25-05579.