A federal jury has ordered Tesla to pay about $3.2 million to a Black former worker for ignoring his accusations of racial abuse.

Though the jury awarded plaintiff Owen Diaz a seven-figure verdict, his determination to go to trial proved expensive. Two years in the past, a unique jury awarded him $137 million, largely in punitive damages. The decide in that trial, William H. Orrick, later dominated that the award was extreme, and diminished the payout to $15 million. Diaz selected to problem that quantity in a brand new trial—however as a substitute of getting more cash, he ended up forfeiting one other $11.8 million.

Diaz had labored for Tesla as an elevator operator within the firm’s plant in Fremont, California. There, he had repeatedly complained to managers that he had been subjected to racist slurs and encountered racist pictures and epithets on office partitions.

One among Diaz’s legal professionals urged jurors to award Diaz $160 million in damages, partly to ship a message to Tesla and different corporations that they have to be severe about stopping racial discrimination of their workplaces. Tesla’s lawyer, nevertheless, claimed that Diaz was a problematic worker and that his claims of emotional misery have been exaggerated.

The newest case involving Diaz was a retrial of the one in 2021, and Choose Orrick as soon as once more presided. In his directions to jurors, Orrick mentioned their process was to not decide whether or not Tesla was responsible for failing to forestall a hostile work setting; the corporate’s legal responsibility had been “conclusively decided” on the first trial. As an alternative, he informed the jury, its accountability was to find out how a lot cash Diaz ought to obtain. The one-week trial concluded with the jury verdict on April 3.

Tesla can also be going through different lawsuits that allege racial discrimination. Amongst them is a lawsuit filed by 15 present and former Black staff, a case from the state Division of Truthful Employment and Housing, and a number of other lawsuits involving particular person staff.

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