A Black woman who was fired as a fitness instructor at the ritzy Fisher Island Club in Miami Beach last year is pressing on with her racial discrimination lawsuit after a judge ruled that some of her claims have merit. For 14 years, Shebah Carfagna, now 66, led the ultrawealthy members of the exc lusive club located in a private island community in America’s richest zip code in her signature “ageless workout” classes and wellness services, along with her partner Nate Wilkins, who also is Black. According to her lawsuit, the first decade of the relationship between her business, Panache Fitness, and Fisher Island Club went well, and she developed a loyal clientele among the club’s members and island residents, while the club treated her with respect. Fitness trainer Shebah Carfagna is suing the exclusive Fisher Island Club in Miami Beach for racial discrimination and defamation. (Photo: Shebah Carfagna Facebook profile) But in 2018, the club’s treatment of Carfagna changed drastically, she says, upon the arrival of a new spa director, Charlotte Prescott, who, along with the trainers and other staff she hired, “embarked upon a discriminatory course of conduct designed to cause significant harm to Carfagna by depriving her of the ability to train her existing clients and obtain new clients.” Fisher Island began directing members away from Carfagna and her partner, who were the only Black personal trainers working at the club, and toward other trainers, she alleges, by having its desk attendants tell club members they were unavailable when they actually were while it did not treat any of the white trainers that way. The club also prevented Carfagna from teaching certain classes, including those involving stationary bicycles, trampolines and water aerobics, by falsely claiming she was not certified to teach them, when she in fact was, the complaint contends. Fisher Island continued its discriminatory and disparate treatment of Carfagna during the pandemic, she says, when it refused to allow her to sub in for her partner when he was not available while allowing white trainers to do so. In 2022, as the club continued to shunt business away from her toward other trainers, Carfagna’s partner sent an email to Prescott informing her that the practice was “both fraudulent and discriminatory.” Prescott said she would “circle back” on their concerns but never did, the lawsuit says. Then the club began to limit Carfagna’s access to studios and fitness equipment needed for fitness classes, often telling her they were unavailable just before a class was scheduled, “in order to maximize the inconvenience to her client and place Carfagna in as negative a light as possible.” She claims the club did not treat any white trainers in this way. Fisher Island Club also repeatedly withheld payments or paid Panache Fitness less than the full amount owed, which club employees explained away as “mistakes” in calculations. Carfagna claims that white trainers did not encounter such issues with payments. Towards the end of her tenure, in late 2023, Carfagna says the club “had its employees work to harm her reputation and standing with Club members by defaming her to others and misrepresenting her skills and the popularity of her classes,” in one instance falsely stating her class had only one attendee when multiple club members were present. She says one employee, Jordaniel Demorizi, a physically imposing man “who served as the club’s ‘muscle,’” often spoke to her “at close quarters and in a manner that was threatening in both tone and substance,” while another employee was “aggressive” and “belligerent,” which created a hostile and intimidating environment for her. Her complaints to management about what she viewed as harassment and racially discriminatory actions intended to harm her fitness business went unanswered, and Prescott took no remedial action, the lawsuit says. Poolside at the Fisher Island Club in Miami Beach. The club, whose wealthy residents have included Oprah Winfrey and Julia Roberts, is accessible only by boat or helicopter. (Photo: Fisher Island Club Unofficial Facebook Page) In April of 2024, Carfagna was called to a meeting with the club’s management and legal counsel and told that the club was terminating her contract. They told her that other trainers had complained about her, that two club members had said she was rude, and that she had violated club policies by providing Zoom classes to club members without the club’s approval. Carfagna insists that the “supposed complaints” about her personality were “made by those competing with her for business at the club” and are “inconsistent with the impeccable reputation” she had established over 14 years, during which she had not been advised of a single similar complaint. The club’s citing her virtual training classes as grounds for termination is “disingenuous,” she argues, as “the club knowingly allows many of its other (Caucasian) trainers to provide private classes and training to Club members by Zoom and offsite.” The club “terminated her because she is a black woman who objected to her mistreatment,” the lawsuit says. The complaint notes that one of the clients who regularly attended Carfagna’s virtual class is Susan Nydick, the wife of a member of the club’s board of directors, Robert Nydick, who paid for the classes, and says this incongruity “confirms that Carfagna’s termination was retaliatory and discriminatory.” Upon learning of Carfagna’s firing, Nydick wrote a two-page email calling Carfagna “one of the best fitness instructors on Fisher Island” and pleading for the club to reconsider its actions and to reinstate her, the complaint says. Other members also sent letters to the club supporting Carfagna, criticizing the club, and imploring the club to rehire her. (In its pleadings, the Fisher Island Club admits it received multiple letters in support of Carfagna). The amended complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in August 2024 by Carfagna, who is suing Fisher Island Club in her individual capacity, included four counts describing how the club had violated federal civil rights law in its treatment of her and her business. The suit claims racial discrimination, retaliation against protected activity (firing a Black woman who complained about discriminatory treatment), retaliation against Panache Fitness by terminating its contract, and violation of equal benefits by defaming Carfagna and damaging her fitness enterprise. All the claims say the civil rights violations resulted in monetary damages, loss of reputation and loss of goodwill in the health, wellness and anti-aging communities, as well as mental anguish and emotional distress, and Carfagna seeks compensatory and punitive damages as recompense. “Ms. Carfagna did not want this fight, and she did not ask for it, but she will not be bullied,” her attorney, Jonathan Minkser, told Axios. “She intends to fully vindicate her rights and hopefully prevent the Club’s management from doing this to others.” Fisher Island Club has denied all of Carfagna’s allegations of discrimination and retaliation and argued in its motion to dismiss filed in September 2024 that she had failed to state a claim because the federal law she cited “must imply an impaired contractual relationship” and that she “lacks contractual rights as a plaintiff who signed a contract on behalf of Panache Fitness” as its president, not in her individual capacity. “She is not a party to the Panache Contract,” the club argued, and in his ruling on the motion in January, a federal judge agreed, dismissing the discrimination and retaliation claims that Carfagna had asserted as an individual. However, District Court Judge Rudolfo A. Ruiz II found that the retaliation claims brought on behalf of Panache Fitness in the lawsuit do “appear to allege sufficient facts to illustrate that Plaintiff, as an employee of Panache Fitness, engaged in a statutorily protected activity when she complained about the diversion of clients and withholding wages from Panache Fitness based on Defendant’s discrimination against Plaintiff,” that the club terminated the contract and took actions against Panache Fitness because of her complaints,” and concluded that “the allegations are sufficient to state a claim.” Ruiz also agreed with the Fisher Island Club’s argument that Panache Fitness is subject to the arbitration clause in the independent contractor agreement that Carfagna signed in 2021. He ruled that her retaliation claim on behalf of her business must be separated from the lawsuit and settled by an arbitrator in the Miami-Dade area. The sole surviving count in the lawsuit centers around Carfagna’s equal protection claim, which alleges that Fisher Island discriminated against her based on her race by committing racially motivated torts (like defamation) “in an effort to deprive her from equal protection of laws or proceedings for the security of persons or property as is enjoyed by white citizens,” as summarized in the Defendant’s motion for summary judgment filed on March 10. Attorneys for Fisher Island argue that her equal benefit claim must fail primarily because “it is only the state that can deny the full and equal benefit of the law … and Fisher Island is not a state actor and its conduct lacks interdependence with the government.” Claims under the Equal Benefit Clause (Section 81 of 42 U.S. Code) are meant to address “state-sponsored discrimination, rather than imposing liability on private actors for purely private conduct,” they contend. The club further argues that there is no contract between the plaintiff individually and Fisher Island, which bars her equal benefits claim, because the law “explicitly protects the right to ‘make and enforce contracts.’ The Supreme Court has held that a direct contractual relationship between the plaintiff and defendant is essential for all claims.” Carfagna counters that she worked full-time six days a week for the club, which set her schedule and controlled how she provided her services and was a de facto at-will employee. The judge has not yet ruled on Fisher Island’s motion to dismiss the remaining count and, thus, potentially end the lawsuit. A mandatory mediation session was held on March 18 between all parties and their counsel, but a settlement was not reached, according to a report filed by the mediator. ‘Will Not Be Bullied’: Black Fitness Trainer Sues Upscale Fisher Island Club In Miami Beach After She Was Allegedly Blocked from Clients Because of Her Race ...read more read less