Lawsuit filed against local theater

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, on behalf of the longtime manager of Allen Theatres in Clovis, filed a lawsuit Monday against the theater group. Abby Parish is alleging Allen Theatres committed age discrimination against him.

Parrish, who’d worked at the Clovis movie theater since 1991, alleges Russell Allen, the president of the company, “forced him to retire in September 2020, and refused to return him to work in March 2021 (after pandemic restrictions were lifted) because he was 72 years old,” according to a news release from the EEOC.

The news release also stated, “while Parrish was employed, Allen Theatres stopped paying for his family health insurance coverage once he reached age 65, according to a discriminatory company compensation policy.”

Parrish could not be reached for comment early this week.

Allen said the lawsuit was unexpected. 

“You’re always surprised when you get accused of something that you don’t believe you did,” Allen told The News on Monday afternoon. 

The lawsuit, filed in Bernalillo County where Parrish now lives, “seeks back pay, including loss of employee benefits, front pay, pre-judgment and post-judgment interest, and liquidated damages as well as appropriate injunctive relief to end the current discriminatory practices, and prevent such alleged discriminatory practices in the future, on behalf of Parrish and a class of aggrieved individuals.”

Allen said it’s been “several months” since he and Parrish last made contact. 

Asked what was said, Allen responded: “It’s not something for a reporter.”

Parrish filed a charge with the EEOC in March 2021 alleging violations of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the lawsuit states. The EEOC investigated the claims and alerted Allen Theatres in April this year that it found “reasonable cause to believe that the ADEA was violated.”

The lawsuit states EEOC investigators interviewed Allen and that he told them “under oath” that he required “Parrish be ‘mandatorily retired’ in September 2020.”

“President Allen testified that his decision to require Parrish’s ‘mandatory retirement’ was because of Parrish’s age, which was 72 in September 2020.”

For Parrish, the lawsuit was filed after nearly six decades in the movie theater industry. 

He started at the Varsity drive-in movie theater in Portales when he was 13 and he managed movie theaters from Carlsbad to Uvalde, Texas, and has been in Clovis “since 1980,” according to newspaper archives.

“It was kind of one of those things that if I tried to explain why I like it you wouldn’t be able to understand. I guess it just gets in your blood. It’s been a fun journey,” Parrish told the Clovis News Journal more than two decades ago. 

In that same article, Allen was complimentary of Parrish saying his “experience in promotions has been very valuable to us.”

No trial date has been scheduled in connection with the lawsuit.

“We have legal counsel, and we will follow the things that need to go forward,” Allen told The News on Monday. “So that’s about all I have to say. There’s nothing else to talk about.”

Allen Theatres operated a chain of movie theaters in New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona when Parrish contends he was forced to retire.