Former Elevance Health Employee Gets Redo in Race Bias Lawsuit

A former group underwriter for Elevance Health Inc. got a second chance Wednesday to try her claims that she was let go because of her race.

A lower court incorrectly relied mostly on Elevance’s argument that it had legitimate reasons for laying off Bridget Beckford—the only Black employee targeted in the Richmond, Va., underwriting department’s reduction-in-force—instead of considering whether there were other circumstances giving rise to an inference of discrimination, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit said. In doing so, the trial judge prematurely concluded that Beckford didn’t demonstrate a prima facia case of racial discrimination, ...