HUNTINGTON – A Cabell County man says he was given a job at Special Metals, but he says the company didn’t let him start working.
Ethan Crutcher filed his complaint June 16 in Cabell Circuit Court against Huntington Alloys Corporation.
According to the complaint, Crutcher worked for Wooten Machinery for three years. He says he applied for a position with Special Metals earlier this year and was hired. Human Resources representative Heather Gentile told him he’d start working February 17, and he says Gentile told him to quit his job at Wooton Machinery. He was promised a salary of $21 per hour.
But the complaint says the defendant refused to let Crutcher start the job February 17, pushing it back to February 27. But the complaint says he wasn’t allowed to start that day either, and Crutcher says the company has failed to respond to his repeated requests for a start date.
Crutcher says he satisfied the requirements for the position for which he was hired. He was making $16.50 per hour at Wooten Machinery, so he says he has suffered a loss of income.
He accuses Huntington Alloys of detrimental reliance and promissory estoppel. He seeks compensatory damages for all wage and income loss as well as consequential damages for annoyance and inconvenience. He also seeks court costs, attorney fees and any other available relief.
Huntington’s Special Metals facility, often referred to simply as the “nickel plant,” has engineered and processed nickel products since it first opened in 1922. The plant began as a facility of the International Nickel Company (INCO), which was acquired by the Special Metals Corporation in 1998.
Special Metals was acquired by Oregon-based Precision Castparts Corp. in 2006 and now is owned by Berkshire Hathaway after it acquired Precision Castparts in 2016.
Crutcher is being represented by Hoyt Glazer of Glazer Saad Anderson in Huntington. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Gregory Howard.
Cabell Circuit Court case number 25-C-257
