U of M sued for racism

An associate professor at The University of Memphis named three University officials in a lawsuit yesterday, suing them and The U of M for more than half a billion dollars.

Larry Moore, associate professor of accounting at The University of Memphis, sued U of M President Shirley Raines, Dean of the Fogelman College of Business and Economics Rajiv Grover and Provost Ralph Faudree for fraud, professional disparagement, placing him in a false light, slander and libel.

"I'm the happiest I've ever been because I've had to suck up a lot of bad behavior from the system," Moore said. "Now I know the system is rotten, I can take it to court. I love The U of M and I want to see a good system in place here."

Moore said he filed the lawsuit after Grover denied his application for promotion to professor earlier this year. Moore said the administration rejected his application because of racial biases.

Moore is suing the administrators and The University for a combined $551.7 million in punitive damages, plus court costs and actual damages. Judges usually award punitive damages as a determent to defendants, while they award actual damages to compensate the plaintiff.

Just in punitive damages, Moore is seeking $530 million from The U of M, $10.6 million from Faudree, and $5.3 million from Grover and Raines each.

Moore, who said he earns $53,000 a year, is also suing the defendants for $530,000 in actual damages. He based this amount on his continued employment at The University spanning 10 years.

Both Faudree and Grover were contacted yesterday, but said they wouldn't discuss the lawsuit at this time. Raines could not be reached, but a University spokesman said the defendants wouldn't comment on the lawsuit until the case goes through the court system.

The week before classes began, Moore accused the administration of racial discrimination.

"(The U of M) appears to operate under a 1960s form of tokenism," he said.

At a University appeals hearing on March 5, Grover said Moore's application was denied because he did not write a textbook he claimed to have written. Grover said Moore adapted the textbook, titled "The Law of Business," for local use, but was not the primary author, according to a Shelby County Circuit Court complaint filed by Moore Sept. 4.

Moore disputed Grover's claim and said the rejection of his application did not come as a surprise.

"Knowing the people here, I set up a little trap because it's an extremely biased environment," he said.

Moore said the publisher of the textbook in question asked Moore to combine his textbook with another to create a more comprehensive product.

Suspecting that his promotion application would be rejected because of the unoriginal material, Moore said he asked the publisher to include the following words in the textbook's preface: "The first nine chapters are dedicated to issues in the legal environment and are exclusively the work of Larry Moore."

Moore said he suspected racial prejudices played a role in the dismissal of his application.

"That let me know it was totally reckless on his part," he said. "He just looked at my skin color and said I couldn't write a textbook."

Moore said he wants to keep his job at The U of M, despite tensions between him and the administration.

"The University doesn't have to promote me or give me a raise, but they can't take away my national and international reputation for research," he said. "These are multimillion dollar professors and they've stomped me into the ground over a $5,000 a year raise."