Ousted Plainfield Members Sue Over Discrimination

Sergio Bichao reports on a lawsuit by a married couple ejected from Plainfield Country Club over the club's policies related to women's privileges.

Both husband and wife were involved in club committees, and that's where things went sour.

Former Assemblyman Joseph Garrubbo and his wife, Liza, said they were kicked out of the club this year after they tried changing rules to allow male members’ dues-paying wives full access to club privileges.

More than 95 percent of the club’s full members are male. Their wives are counted as “associate members,” and are denied privileges granted their husbands, including choice tee times and access to the Member’s Grill Room, which members call “the men’s Grill,” the couple said.

The Garrubbos say discrimination should not be allowed because the club, although a private not-for-profit, in fact is a place of public accommodation.

The club, which straddles the Edison, South Plainfield and Plainfield borders, has an 18-hole golf course for members and a nine-hole course — the West Nine — for the public. The West Nine made the club $294,000 last year, according to the lawsuit.

Plainfield hosts the PGA Tour's Barclays again in 2015.