- Being assigned less qualified support staff, adversely affecting her performance.
- Experiencing an unfair increase in workload, seemingly intended to justify negative reviews.
- Being denied management training and promotion opportunities, despite her qualifications.
- Being labeled as “abrupt and confrontational,” a characterization Duncan contends was rooted in the “angry Black woman” stereotype.
- Facing deliberate exclusion from workplace events, such as a team-building lunch and a colleague’s funeral.
Duncan asserts that this pattern of behavior created an intolerable work environment, culminating in her constructive discharge in May 2023.
In November 2024, State Farm sought to move the case to federal court, arguing that Jeanette Nicole Little, a California resident, was fraudulently joined in the lawsuit. Under federal diversity jurisdiction rules, a case can only proceed in federal court if all defendants are from different states. Since both Kymberly Aleem Duncan and Little are California residents, State Farm needed to prove that Duncan had no legitimate legal claim against Little to maintain the case in federal court.
State Farm contended that:
