Judge gives former Tesla worker a deadline to accept $15 million payout over racism
By Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) – A federal choose on Tuesday gave a Black former elevator operator at Tesla Inc two weeks to resolve whether or not to simply accept $15 million in damages over racial abuse on the electrical automotive firm, far under the $137 million a jury had awarded.
U.S. District Decide William Orrick in San Francisco mentioned Owen Diaz recognized no controlling query of legislation to justify a direct enchantment of the diminished award, which incorporates $1.5 million of compensatory damages and $13.5 million of punitive damages.
Diaz alleged that his colleagues and a supervisor subjected him to a hostile work surroundings that included slurs, caricatures and swastikas in his 9 months working at Tesla’s manufacturing facility in Fremont, California in 2015 and 2016.
A jury had awarded Diaz $6.9 million of compensatory damages and $130 million of punitive damages final October.
Orrick diminished each on April 13, whereas rejecting Tesla’s bid for a brand new trial.
In Tuesday’s order, Orrick mentioned he was “firmly satisfied” that the jury award was extreme, and that permitting a fast enchantment “would additional delay decision of a case that’s already 5 years outdated.”
Attorneys for Diaz didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark. They’d mentioned a query of legislation regarding damages for emotional misery justified a direct enchantment.
Below U.S. Supreme Courtroom precedent, punitive damages sometimes needs to be lower than 10 occasions compensatory damages.
The case is Diaz v Tesla Inc et al, U.S. District Courtroom, Northern District of California, No. 17-06748.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Modifying by David Gregorio)
