Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. V. Rowing

Appellant, Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corporation ("Wheeling-Pittsburgh"), appeals the Circuit Court of Kanawha County's affirmance of the final decision of the West Virginia Human Rights Commission ("HRC" or "Commission"), which found that Wheeling-Pittsburgh violated the West Virginia Human Rights Act (the "Human Rights Act"), W. Va. Code §§ 5-11-1 to -19, by discriminating against an employee on the basis of national origin. Wheeling-Pittsburgh asserts that the circuit court erred in failing to reverse the action of HRC, arguing that the Commission (1) was barred from acting on the employee's complaint based upon the exclusivity and/or preclusive effect of previous grievance proceedings, (2) erroneously determined that Wheeling-Pittsburgh failed to meet its burden of production; and (3) failed to treat a statement contained in the employee's complaint as a judicial admission. We reject these arguments, and accordingly affirm the decision of the circuit court.