Book club members settle suit over ejection from Napa wine train

Katherine Neal, one of the plaintiffs filing a lawsuit over their ejection from a Napa Valley Wine Train, speaks in front of attorney Waukeen Q. McCoy during a news conference, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015, in San Francisco. The group of mostly black women, members of a book club, settled their lawsuit in April 2016 for an undisclosed amount. less Katherine Neal, one of the plaintiffs filing a lawsuit over their ejection from a Napa Valley Wine Train, speaks in front of attorney Waukeen Q. McCoy during a news conference, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015, in San ... more Photo: Jeff Chiu, Associated Press Photo: Jeff Chiu, Associated Press Image 1 of / 10 Caption Close Book club members settle suit over ejection from Napa wine train 1 / 10 Back to Gallery

A group of mostly African American women, who were kicked off the Napa Valley Wine Train for allegedly being loud and boisterous, have settled their race-discrimination lawsuit for a confidential sum, their lawyer said Monday.

The settlement still needs to be approved by the Wine Train’s governing board. But the women’s attorney, Waukeen McCoy, described the agreement as amicable and said he hopes the case serves as “a learning experience for all businesses” in the need for “diversity and sensitivity training.”

Representatives of the Wine Train did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

How trip derailed

The 11 women, members of an East Bay book club called Sistahs on the Reading Edge, boarded the train in Napa on Aug. 22 for their first trip through Wine Country. They said they were laughing and having a good time, occasionally chatting with other passengers, when a train manager, Anna Marquinn, approached and asked them to lower their voices.

The women said they told Marquinn they weren’t behaving any differently than other passengers. But they said she repeated the warning later, and they were then ordered off the train at St. Helena, halfway through the trip, and were made to march past passengers in all six cars, some of whom “snickered” at them.

Police met them and led them to a van that took them back to Napa. The Wine Train refunded their $62 fares and later apologized and offered them a free trip in the future, which they rejected.

Their lawsuit, filed in federal court in October, said they were singled out because of their race — 10 of the 11 are black. They also said they were libeled in an online message, posted by a company employee on a Facebook account, that accused them of “verbal and physical abuse toward other guests and staff.”

The company quickly deleted the posting. But McCoy said at a news conference after filing the suit that the allegations were widely circulated and generated many hostile comments on social media. As a result, he said, two of the plaintiffs, a bank manager and a hospital nurse, lost their jobs.

Discrimination denied

Wine Train owners denied discrimination and said the train evicts guests for their conduct about once a month.

The book club is still going strong, said plaintiff Lisa Johnson, 48, a writer who lives in Antioch.

“We’re just looking forward to moving on and getting back to reading books,” she said Monday.

The Wine Train, founded 26 years ago by the late Rice-a-Roni executive Vincent DeDomenico, was sold in September to Noble House Hotels & Resorts of Seattle and Brooks Street, a real estate development and investment company with an office in Walnut Creek.