The 'Boy Is Mine' singer has agreed to pay her former housekeeper $40,000 after the star was taken to court for alleged age discrimination and wrongful termination.
- Nov 25, 2022
AceShowbiz - Brandy is paying her former housekeeper $40,000 after she was sued for age discrimination. Maria Elizabeth Castaneda - who worked for her at the star's Calabasas mansion from September 2002 to February 2022 - filed lawsuit earlier this year, accusing the "Boy Is Mine" hitmaker of denying her proper wages and meal breaks as well as comitting age discrimination and wrongful termination.
In the legal documents, Maria claimed she was "not permitted to take an uninterrupted 10-minute rest break in the morning and an uninterrupted 10-minute rest break in the afternoon, nor was [Maria] permitted to take an uninterrupted 30-minute meal rest break."
The employee - who was paid $125 a day for work including cooking, cleaning, and laundry - was demanding over $250,000 but agreed to settle the dispute for $40,000. According to RadarOnline.com, her lawyers declared, "Lipeles Law Group was able to secure a $40,000 settlement for our client within 6 months of filing the complaint."
But they are also demanding Brandy pay an additional $87,445 for their legal fees because they claim the majority of their firm worked on the case and it took up a substantial amount of time. Their court filing read, "[Castaneda's] counsel only seeks a fair recovery for the time, risk, and effort spent in representing its client and now seeks an award of attorney's fees and costs in the amount of $87,445.89."
"[Castaneda's] counsel is not demanding 100% of the fees it incurred in this lawsuit; only those fees that directly pertained to attorney and paralegal work and only those fees that pertained to the matter upon which judgment was entered. Plaintiff's counsel deleted any fees incurred performing administrative or clerical tasks."
Brandy had denied all allegations of wrongdoing and insisted the housekeeper was an independent contractor, not an employee. The judge has yet to rule on the legal fee request.
