Tesla racial-discrimination trial begins after record judgment was reduced
A Black elevator operator at Tesla Inc. (TSLA) who in 2021 was awarded $137 million by a jury that agreed he was subjected to racial harassment at the automaker's Fremont, Calif. factory, then saw a judge reduce the award to $15 million last year, is back in San Francisco federal court Monday for a new trial. During the original trial, Owen Diaz testified that he was regularly called the N-word and other racial slurs, including by a supervisor, at work. A jury awarded him $130 million in punitive damages and about $7 million in compensatory damages, which the judge reduced to $13.5 million and $1.5 million, respectively. Diaz's lawyers are hoping to increase the payout to their client as they re-argue the case before the same U.S. District Court judge, William Orrick, in a trial that is reportedly expected to last five days. Tesla had urged the judge to reduce the jury award to $600,000, with the company's lawyers acknowledging in a filing that the use of racial slurs in a workplace was "deeply offensive" and "utterly unacceptable."
-Levi Sumagaysay
This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 27, 2023 12:51 ET (16:51 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
, 
, 
Copyright ©2023. All rights reserved.