Allred Claims Victory Over Country Club

Attorney and feminist activist Gloria Allred claimed victory over the Newport Beach Country Club on Friday, saying it had agreed to pay $30,000 in cash and credits to settle a sex discrimination suit she filed last year.

“We believe that the club leadership has learned an important lesson about the commitment of women to the concept of equality,” Allred said during a press conference at the club’s main entrance.

But attorneys for the club said they were appalled at Allred’s “provocative” victory statement and threatened to withdraw from the settlement and take the case to trial.

“All (Allred) is attempting to do is save face,” said Ed Connor, lead attorney for the club.

Connor said there has never been sexual discrimination as the suit alleged. “The case was becoming a loser for her law firm,” he said. “She is the one who wanted the settlement. The amount is not even big enough to be a nuisance settlement.”

Allred filed the suit last April on behalf of 28 female club members. They alleged that a club policy adopted in 1986 required a “single lady member” to pay either $3,500 or $8,500 more than male members paid to obtain memberships with advanced benefits.

But club attorneys said Allred distorted the circumstances.

When the club was known as the Irvine Terrace Country Club, regular membership was offered to men and women, and a special membership was offered to single women, Connor said. The so-called “single lady membership” had reduced fees but also reduced benefits, he said.

When the club changed ownership in 1985, both regular and “single lady” memberships were retained. Later that year, however, such sex-based discounts were declared unconstitutional, and the club offered its “single lady” members the chance to buy regular memberships, Connor said.

He insisted that the fee charged to convert a “single lady membership” was based only on the actual market value of the memberships. “This was not sex discrimination,” Connor said.

Allred said the reaction of the club’s attorneys to her victory statement was “off-base” and “sour grapes.”

“If they try to wriggle out of the settlement, we will move to have the settlement enforced,” she said. “I think anyone realizes that $30,000 is a substantial amount of money.”