(Bloomberg) -- Mizuho Bank won dismissal of most claims in a former vice president’s suit accusing the bank of discriminating against non-Japanese employees, but a narrowed case was allowed to proceed in New York federal court.

David Kurtanidze, who worked in Mizuho’s New York office, sued the third-largest Japanese bank for $10 million in August. He claims he was denied promotions and treated differently from Japanese staff despite performing well and having prior experience at US banks like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. 

US District Court Judge Paul A. Engelmayer on Wednesday dismissed New York state-law discrimination, retaliation and contract claims from Kurtanidze’s suit. The judge also narrowed the former banker’s federal-law discrimination claim to the issue of his termination, as opposed to his treatment as an employee, and tossed his federal retaliation claim. 

Megan Goddard, a lawyer for Kurtanidze, said she was pleased with the decision. While some peripheral claims were tossed, the core of the case — “that Mizuho Bank discriminated against Mr. Kurtanidze due to his race, national origin, gender, and caregiver status — is alive and well,” she said.

“This decision in no way limits Mr. Kurtanidze’s prospect for damages awarded by a jury,” Goddard said in a statement. “With regard to the dismissal of his retaliation claims, we acknowledge that, like most employees hoping to keep their jobs and fearful of retaliation, Mr. Kurtanidze was very careful about the way he complained about his treatment to Mizuho Bank.”

Engelmayer said Kurtanidze failed to provide specifics on the discrimination he claims he faced. For instance, Kurtanidze can’t allege that Mizuho failed to promote him or turned down his request for a transfer without describing what positions he applied for and was denied, the judge said.

Kurtanidze said in his suit that much of the bias against him arose after he requested extended paternity leave for the birth of his child in 2019, and that he was eventually fired over the issue in April 2021. The judge also trimmed Kurtanidze’s claims under the Family and Medical Leave Act to actions taken by Mizuho after August 2020.

The judge said Kurtanidze adequately alleged that he faced discrimination as a non-Japanese employee at Mizuho.

Alleged comments by Mizuho managers that Kurtanidze should be “more like a Japanese employee” and that “Japanese employees prioritize work” qualify as “ethnically degrading,” the judge said. “The acquiescence of Mizuho managers to a Japanese coworker’s refusal ‘to listen to [Kurtanidze’s] instructions because of [his] ethnicity,’ reinforces the inference.”

But Engelmayer said that Kurtanidze’s allegation that Mizuho retaliated against him for not speaking Japanese wasn’t tenable under federal law, as he “could have chosen to learn Japanese.”  

Mizuho didn’t respond to emails seeking comment on the decision.

The case is Kurtanidze v. Mizuho Bank, 23-cv-8716, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan.)

(Updates with comment from plaintiff’s lawyer.)

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