Osama Abdelhamid v. Summit Ridge Energy, LLC

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Virginia
DecidedMay 12, 2026
Docket1:24-cv-01553
StatusUnknown

This text of Osama Abdelhamid v. Summit Ridge Energy, LLC (Osama Abdelhamid v. Summit Ridge Energy, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Osama Abdelhamid v. Summit Ridge Energy, LLC, (E.D. Va. 2026).

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA Alexandria Division OSAMA ABDELHAMID, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) Vv. ) Civil Action No. 1:24-cv-1553 (RDA/IDD) ) SUMMIT RIDGE ENERGY, LLC, ) ) Defendant. ) )

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER This matter comes before the Court on Defendant Summit Ridge Energy, LLC’s Motion to Dismiss the Amended Complaint (the “Motion”). Dkt. 15. Considering the Motion, the Amended Complaint (Dkt. 14), Defendant’s Memorandum in Support (Dkt. 16), Plaintiffs Opposition (Dkt. 23), and Defendant’s Reply (Dkt. 24), the Court GRANTS the Motion for the reasons that follow. I. BACKGROUND! A. Factual Background Pro se Plaintiff Osama Abdelhamid is an Egyptian national and a practicing Muslim. Dkt. 1442. Defendant is a solar energy developer and operator. Jd. 45. Defendant hired Plaintiff as a Contracts Manager to assist the company in improving its contracting processes. /d. {[{ 1, 4. Defendant was aware of Plaintiff's national origin and religion, as it received documentation of

' For purposes of considering the instant Motion to Dismiss, the Court accepts all facts contained within the Amended Complaint as true, as it must at the motion-to-dismiss stage. Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (citing Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007)).

Plaintiff's foreign place of birth during hiring and Plaintiff told Defendant’s leadership about his religious-based abstention from alcohol. /d. { 2. In the first few months of his employment, Plaintiff identified areas for improvement in Defendant’s (1) contract template and (2) platform for managing requests for proposal (“RFP”) and bidder communications. Jd. J§ 13-14, 16. Plaintiff proposed several changes to align Defendant’s practices with industry standards. /d. [J 14, 16. As to the contract template, Mike Dillon, Plaintiff's immediate superior, rejected Plaintiff's proposal for a two-document contract format, noting that he preferred “investors to have everything in one document” and that Plaintiffs proposal was not standard for solar projects. Id. 415. In the alternative, Plaintiff proposed changes to the existing single-document form, but Dillon also rejected that proposal, citing timing pressures and investor deadlines. Jd. Despite these assertions of fixed due dates, Plaintiff did not witness a single instance in which Defendant met those deadlines. /d. Additionally, even though Dillon rejected his proposal, Plaintiff nonetheless created a revised single-document template before he was terminated. Jd. As to the management platform, Dillon approved Plaintiff to explore his proposed platform but instructed that no financial information could be stored in the platform, citing privacy concerns. Id. 4 16. Dillon also refused to provide the platform agreement to Plaintiff for his review, stating that the agreement was handled only by the CEO. /d. Despite Plaintiff noting that this rationale conflicted with standard privacy practices, the restriction remained, which rendered the platform impractical for bidding and pre-award contracting. /d. Dillon later approved Plaintiff's request for a different management platform but not until Plaintiff explained the platform to Steven

Bilheimer—a former peer-turned-supervisor of Plaintiff—who then explained it to Dillon.” Id. q 18. In his first or second month of employment, Plaintiff joined Dillon and Raj Soi—Executive Vice President of Operations for Defendant—on a business trip to Chicago to meet prospective contractors. /d. 417. Plaintiffinformed his colleagues that he abstained from drinking alcohol for religious reasons. /d. Subsequent socializing centered on “alcohol-forward activities (cocktails, ‘Old Fashioned’ kit discussions) and golf/pool parties,” which Dillon favored. Jd. After this, Plaintiff was not invited to attend a contractor dinner. Jd. This dinner was with a contractor who was a close friend of Defendant’s CEO. Id. Despite Plaintiff's role as lead of contractor RFPs and contract terms, and despite Plaintiff having been assigned to draft contracts for that contractor’s projects, only Dillon and Bilheimer attended the dinner. /d. Plaintiff alleges that his exclusion from this dinner impaired his ability to build relationships with bidders as needed for his job and undermined Plaintiffs role. Jd. Dillon also repeatedly told Plaintiff not to alter the daily preconstruction tracking spreadsheet because he needed it in a particular format. /d. 418. When Bilheimer later criticized Plaintiff for using that format, Dillon permitted Bilheimer’s version and faulted Plaintiff. Jd. Plaintiff also alleges that an individual named “Jimmy,” who was hired the same day as Plaintiff, had a Director title but fewer years of experience. Jd. Plaintiff asserts that Jimmy was tasked with a self-performance initiative that never launched during Plaintiff's time at Defendant and often had a “limited workload.” Jd. § 19. Dillon repeatedly directed Plaintiff to assist this individual. Jd. Nonetheless, the individual remained employed. Jd.

? Defendant noted that Plaintiff misspelled Bilheimer as “Belheimer” in the Amended Complaint. Dkt. 16 n.2. Plaintiff appears to have adopted the spelling “Bilheimer” in his Opposition. Dkt. 23. Accordingly, the Court uses “Bilheimer.”

In December 2023, Defendant placed Plaintiff on a Performance Improvement Plan (“PIP”). Jd. 921. At the outset of the meeting, Plaintiff stated that, while he acknowledged a few minor mistakes in documents, those occurred because he complied with Dillon’s and Bilheimer’s specific directions to maintain multiple different templates and to perform manual edits, which Plaintiff had warned would impose an unreasonable, error-prone burden on him alone. /d. Plaintiff further noted that, when Dillon and Bilheimer undertook the same tasks, they were not immune from similar mistakes. /d. Plaintiff was required to sign the PIP without time to review and was never provided a copy during employment or at off-boarding, despite multiple requests. /d. Defendant’s Human Resources (“HR”) later refused to provide a copy, claiming it was a “company/business work product.” Jd. No performance coaching or written feedback followed during the PIP period. /d. In the final days of Plaintiff's employment, Bilheimer sent multiple emails asserting that deadlines were not being met, even though Plaintiff and Bilheimer were speaking daily on morning calls and Bilheimer had directed Plaintiff to reprioritize work. Jd. § 20. Plaintiff alleges the cited deadlines were neither real nor realistic. Jd. One prioritized task, finalizing the review and production of a final draft for a contractor (a task originally assigned to Bilheimer), also went unsigned past the stated due date. Jd. That week, while Bilheimer worked from a desk adjacent to Plaintiff, he observed firsthand that the mandated manual workflow was inefficient and time- consuming; when he attempted to perform the work himself, he requested Plaintiff's assistance to complete it. /d. On February 6, 2024, Defendant terminated Plaintiff for alleged “performance issues.” /d. { 22. HR communications focused on benefits and off-boarding. Jd. Two to three weeks later, HR refused again to provide a copy of the PIP to Plaintiff. Jd.

Plaintiff alleges that Dillon and Bilheimer “knew or should have known of Plaintiff's national origin and religion (from hiring documents and Plaintiff's explicit statements about not consuming alcohol for religious reasons).” /d. § 24.

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Bluebook (online)
Osama Abdelhamid v. Summit Ridge Energy, LLC, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/osama-abdelhamid-v-summit-ridge-energy-llc-vaed-2026.