A Dunkin' Donuts restaurant in Scarborough, Maine is denying claims that a former transgender employee was harassed and wrongfully fired because of his gender identity.

According to the Press Herald, on Wednesday an attorney representing Cafua Management and Exit 42 Donuts, the companies that own and manage the Dunkin' Donuts franchise, said in a court filing that the “defendants did not act with malice or with reckless indifference to any rights enjoyed by [the] plaintiff.”

In July, Kye Hubbard filed a claim in U.S. District Court in Portland against the two companies alleging he was harassed by his co-workers, who “called him names like ‘it,’ ‘he/she,’ and ‘thing’ on multiple occasions,” and then fired for speaking out against the abuse, according to the complaint.

Hubbard worked as a shift leader at the Scarborough Dunkin' Donuts from Feb. 14 2018 until Jan. 25, 2019, when he said he was fired — just days after he informed the company that he’d reported the alleged harassment to the Maine Human Rights Commission, according to local newspaper Bangor Daily News.