Three former West New York Housing Authority workers have filed an age discrimination and retaliation lawsuit against the agency and Board Chair Gene Martaroney, alleging he created an “increasingly hostile toward older and disabled employees.”
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
Maria Martin, Nancy Ruiz, and Charlene Otha filed a seven-count lawsuit in Hudson County Superior Court on May 26th alleging discrimination, a hostile work environment, unlawful retaliation, as well as aiding and abetting.
“Around 2022, when Defendant Martaroney became the Chairman of the Board at WNYHA, the work environment became increasingly hostile toward older and disabled employees, as well as Black employees,” the lawsuit, filed by Fort Lee-attorney Hannah E. Bacon, says.
“Defendant Martaroney’s stated goal was to force out older and disabled employees by assigning them work duties they could not perform due to their disabilities, cutting their assistance, eliminating their departments, and increasing their workloads.”
They further allege that Martaroney maintained a list of disabled and elderly employees he intended to force disable and employees out of the WNYA, including the three plaintiffs, which is systemic, coordinated, and illegal.
Martin, who was hired at the WNYHA in 1999, earned $45,000 at the time of her firing and has scoliosis, which causes her stenosis, neuropathy, and muscle spasms, according to the suit.
“In June 2021, Maria underwent an operation on her neck and went on a medical leave of absence from June 7, 2021 through April 2022 WNYHA became aware of Maria’s disabilities and medical conditions by virtue of her request for medical leave for this surgery,” the court filing contends.
“Throughout Maria’s leave, WNYHA repeatedly called her to inquire about when she was returning to work, causing her immense stress and delaying her healing. When Maria returned from leave in April 2022, WNYHA abruptly began to criticize her and her work for the first time in her career, telling her that ‘everything she was doing was wrong’ and that she was ‘mean.'”
She then underwent a second neck surgery that required a second medical leave between April 6th, 2023 to September 15th, 2023, and upon return, she was told her roles as a clerk typist and assistant of section 8 housing was given to younger staff.
In turn, she was lift boxes, climb ladders, stand, walk, and bend regularly, none of which were possible due to her disability. When she twice informed Martaroney that she could not before such duties, he allegedly replied “get somebody to do it.”
“The discriminatory nature of WNYHA’s conduct is evidence in the differential treatment of Maria compared to her younger, non-disabled replacements. WNYHA hired two employees to replace Maria (one was approximately 18 years old at the time of hiring and the other was approximately 23 years old),” according to the suit.
“Both replacements had no prior experience in bookkeeping or accounting and neither had any obvious disabilities. These substantially younger, inexperienced, non-disabled employees were given Maria’s original sedentary position, while Maria (a highly experienced, award-winning employee with a documented disability) was relegated to physically demanding work she could not perform.”
Due to the rigorous physical activity associated with her job, Martin’s spine allegedly did not fuse properly, causing her severe pain to this day.
This also led to a temporary medical leave on March 20th, 2024 and she ultimately was forced to retire on June 1st of the same year, incurring approximately $2,000 in health insurance costs ever since that should have been covered via her pension, the suit says.
Ruiz was hired by the authority on September 5th, 1998 and achieved the rank of recertification specialist, which paid $66,000 annually. She suffers from knee arthritis that is severe enough to cause her to walk with a noticeable limp, she said through counsel.
“At Defendant Martaroney’s discriminatory directive, Nancy’s workload doubled, and she was assigned significantly more paperwork and increased physical duties, including cleaning out files and creating folders (tasks that negatively impacted her knees and caused her blood pressure to become ‘sky high’),” the lawsuit claims.
“In April 2022, Nancy’s assistant resigned, and WNYHA refused to hire a replacement, further increasing the physical and administrative burden on Nancy. The denial of assistance was intentional and designed to force her out of her position. Although Nancy asked for assistance, she did not make a formal request for a replacement assistant because WNYHA’s demonstrated hostility made clear that any such request would be futile.”
While Ruiz took a roughly six-week medical leave last summer, she was forced to resign on September 30th, 2025, and shortly thereafter, she was replaced by a woman who was 15 years younger and she was immediately given an assistant, the suit asserts.
Finally, Otha was hired on July 7th, 2000 and worked her way up to a $65,000 salary after attaining expertise in the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program.
“Defendant Martaroney made derogatory remarks to Charlene, including ‘you don’t know s***,’ and made condescending, disapproving remarks about how long Charlene and others had been with the organization,” according to allegations in the court filing.
” … In an effort to put his plain to oust disabled and elderly employees into motion, Martaroney restructured Charlene’s department in 2022, converting it from a two-person operation to a one-person department (with Charlene expected to handle everything by herself) while simultaneously increasing the voucher caseload from 320 to 460 (the 320-voucher caseload was previously handled by two employees, Charlene and another employee).”
Further, the court filing states that Martaroney and another superior, Mayret Leone – who is not named in the suit – advised Otha to give housing vouchers to people who were unqualified, which constitutes housing fraud.
She was forced to resign on August 1st, 2025 and her department was reverted to its previous structure right after that, the suit says.
As a result, the women are seeking compensatory and non-compensatory damages, pain and suffering damages, emotional distress and punitive damages, attorney’s fees, interest and costs of suit, as well as any other relief the court deems just and equitable.
The plaintiffs are also seeking a jury trial.
Counsel for the West New York Housing Authority could not be reached for comment on Friday, though the agency typically does not comment on pending litigation.
