A federal grand jury in San Francisco on Monday ordered Tesla Inc must pay about $3.2 million to a former Black employee after the electric vehicle maker was found to have failed to prevent severe racial harassment at its flagship assembly plant in New York. California.
The ruling came after a weeklong trial in the 2017 case of plaintiff Owen Diaz, who in 2021 was awarded $137 million by another jury. He opted for a new damages trial after a judge agreed with that jury that Tesla was liable but significantly reduced the award to $15 million.
Diaz accused Tesla of inaction when he repeatedly complained to managers that employees at the Fremont, California factory regularly used racist language and scribbled, cartoonish swasts. and racist epitaph on walls and work areas.
A jury on Monday awarded Diaz, who worked as an elevator operator, $175,000 in mental distress damages and $3 million in punitive damages designed to designed to punish illegal behavior and prevent it in the future.
Bernard Alexander, Diaz’s attorney, appealed to jurors in a closing statement on Friday awarding him nearly $160 million in punitive damages, while also sending a message to Tesla and major companies. that they will be held accountable for failing to address the issue of discrimination.
“Mr. Diaz’s view of the world has changed forever,” Alexander said. “That’s what happens when you take away one’s safety.”
Tesla’s attorney, Alex Spiro, countered that Diaz was a confrontational employee who exaggerated his claims of emotional distress and said his attorney failed to point it out. any serious, permanent damage caused by Tesla.
“They just threw numbers on the screen like it was some kind of televised game,” said Spiro.
Tesla and Diaz’s attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the verdict. The company said it does not tolerate workplace discrimination and takes workers’ complaints seriously.
Diaz testified last week, tearfully recounting various incidents during the nine months he worked at the Fremont factory. Diaz said the job worried him and strained his relationship with his son, who also works at the factory.
Tesla’s attorneys emphasized what they said were contradictions in Diaz’s testimony and repeatedly pointed to the fact that he did not submit a written complaint to a supervisor. Diaz testified that he had repeatedly complained verbally to managers and discussed his complaints with Tesla human resources officials.
The EV maker is facing similar claims of tolerating racism at its Fremont factory and other workplaces in a pending class action lawsuit by Black workers, a separate lawsuit from the California civil rights agency and multiple lawsuits involving individual workers. The company has denied wrongdoing in those cases.
Diaz sued Tesla for violating a California law that prohibits employers from addressing a hostile work environment based on race or other protected characteristics.
The first jury in 2021 awarded Diaz $7 million in emotional distress damages and a staggering $130 million in punitive damages. The award is one of the largest in employment discrimination cases in US history.
US District Judge William Orrick last year agreed with a jury that Tesla broke the law, but said the award was excessive and cut it to $15 million. The U.S. Supreme Court has said that punitive damages usually cannot exceed 10 times the damages.
Orrick said Diaz had only been at the plant for nine months and did not allege any injury or illness in order to receive a higher bonus.
On Friday, Orrick rejected a petition by Diaz’s attorneys for mishandling. They claimed Tesla’s legal team violated Orrick’s rule about introducing new evidence in the retrial by questioning Diaz and other witnesses about the facts he allegedly made. racist or sexual comments.
Orrick said those questions relate to other incidents that were discussed in the initial trial, and Diaz’s attorney did not indicate that the interrogation influenced the jury. (Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York. Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Matthew Lewis)
