Former GMAC Mortgage Manager Files Bias Lawsuit

SANTA ANA —  A onetime regional executive for GMAC Mortgage Corp. has filed a lawsuit alleging that his employer engaged in racial discrimination in demoting him and reducing his salary.

Dwight Flowers, an African American who rose to area manager overseeing 20 branches in California and Nevada, asserts that GMAC wrongly passed him over for promotion to regional manager, then drastically reduced his position and pay.

Flowers, who filed his suit Thursday in Orange County Superior Court, is now the manager of GMAC’s Lake Forest branch. His base pay was cut from $75,000 to $50,000 and his potential bonuses lowered from $300,000 to $50,000 a year, said his lawyer, Melanie Lomax of Los Angeles.

GMAC’s general counsel, Glen Snyder, said Friday that he could not comment on the allegations because the company has not been served with the lawsuit. Flowers also declined comment.

In his suit, Flowers contends that he was told he was being demoted because of losses suffered in his area and because of a harassment claim by an employee who objected to his management style. The company, after investigating, found no basis for the harassment claim, the lawsuit says.

Besides Flowers, three other area managers also turned in losses for the same period, the suit alleges, but they were not removed from their positions. All three are white, the suit states.

Two months ago, GMAC chose a white man to be regional director, and he also took over Flowers’ old position of area manager, the suit says.