A Federal Judge Reduces a $137 Million Award to $15 Million in a Tesla Discrimination Lawsuit
A federal judge on Wednesday slashed a jury’s award of $137 million in damages in a racial discrimination case against Tesla Inc. to $15 million, while calling the evidence against the electric-vehicle maker “disturbing.”
U.S. District Judge William Orrick reduced the amount awarded in a October 2021 verdict, calling the $130 million in punitive damages “unconstitutionally large.” He also reduced the amount in compensatory damages from $6.9 million to $1.5 million.
A California jury in October found Tesla guilty of ignoring racial discrimination against a Black worker at the company’s Fremont, Calif., auto plant. The worker, Owen Diaz, claimed that between 2015 and 2016 he was subject to a hostile work environment and racist abuse, including “the N-word and other slurs,” and that his supervisors did nothing to stop the abuse.
