Franklin Templeton Denies Bias in Firing After Birdwatcher Furor

A job discrimination lawsuit by a woman who became known as “Central Park Karen” after a video of her confronting and calling the police on a Black birdwatcher should be dismissed as devoid of facts and legal grounds, Franklin Templeton told a federal court in Manhattan.

Amy Cooper sued the financial services giant, CEO Jenny Johnson, and related entities May 25, in a suit that also alleged defamation, negligence, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

She said Franklin Templeton unfairly labeled her a “racist” and then fired her based on an incident a year ago with birdwatcher Christian Cooper after he asked her to leash her dog. The encounter became “international news as a racial flashpoint” and misportrayed her as a privileged White woman after the video was shared to Twitter by Christian’s sister.

But Cooper’s suit attempts to shift the blame for her “perpetuating systemic racism” in an incident for which she immediately publicly apologized, Franklin Templeton said in a motion to dismiss filed Monday. The suit also tries to case Cooper as a victim and vilifies the birdwatcher, despite criminal charges being filed against Cooper, the company said in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York filing.

Those criminal charges were dismissed on the ground that Cooper had “allegedly ‘learned a lot’ through restorative justice classes on racial equity” she took, but it doesn’t appeared to be the case, Franklin Templeton said.

Her suit charges the company and Johnson with race and sex bias, but it includes none of the detail required by federal law, the company said.

Cooper doesn’t allege that similarly situated Black male employees engaged in similar misconduct but kept their jobs, that her job performance was ever criticized in racially or sexually degrading terms, or any other invidious comments were made about White female employees, Franklin Templeton said.

She also didn’t allege that she was replaced “with someone outside of her protected category” or that the sequence of events that led up to her firing “reflected race or sex bias by anyone at the company,” it said.

The sole comparator she cited was fired 18 years before she was terminated and Cooper doesn’t allege how they were comparable, the company said.

Her claim that the company defamed her by portraying her as a racist misses the mark, it said. New York courts have consistently ruled that “racist” and similar terms express an opinion that isn’t subject to a defamation suit “because they lack a precise meaning capable of being proven true or false,” Franklin Templeton said.

Johnson and the company also acted “in the midst of an ongoing national reckoning about systemic racism,” it said.

That context further undercuts Cooper’s defamation claims, as “New York courts have consistently protected statements made in online forums as statements of opinion rather than fact,” Franklin Templeton said.

Cooper’s IIED claim fails because her defamation claims fails, and her negligence claim is precluded by her rights under New York workers’ compensation law, the company said.

Andrea M. Paparella of Salem, Mass., represents Cooper. Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP represents Franklin Templeton and Johnson.

The case is Cooper v. Franklin Templeton, S.D.N.Y., No. 1:21-cv-04692, notice of motion to dismiss 8/9/21.