Summit Midstream Gets Race Bias Case Tossed After Second Look

Summit Midstream Partners LLC won summary judgment in a race discrimination and retaliation case brought against the energy company by a Black man who said he was passed over for promotions, after a federal court in Texas decided on its own to revisit the issue.

Willie Ray Smith started working for Summit in September 2011 as a compressor operator and was later hired as a treater plant operator. He sued in August 2019, alleging he was passed over for lead operator at the compression plant in favor of a non-Black applicant with less experience. He was ultimately terminated due to ...