Fakoyejo OlalekanThe $15 million awarded by a United States District, Judge William Orrick, to former Tesla elevator operator, Owen Diaz, has been rejected, with the ex-employee demanding the electric carmaker, owned by Elon Musk, pay more.
In April, Diaz had been granted the sum in form of compensation and damages for what he termed as racial discrimination against him while working for Tesla, after the judge slashed the $137 million the jury concluded on, with Orrick stating that the amount was too high.
October last year, the jury had awarded compensatory damages of $6.9 million and punitive damages of $130 million. Diaz lawyers said the significant cut is based on a systemic bias judges have against jury.
The plaintiff, a Black American, had dragged Tesla to court, accusing colleagues and a supervisor at the company, where he worked for nine months, of using slurs, caricatures and swastikas towards him, making the workplace an hostile environment.
Demanding compensation for the event that transpired during his stay at Tesla, between 2015 and 2016, Diaz lawyer said the jury need to take another look at the situation, a decision that opens the door for a new trial, which the carmaker had asked for, but was previously rejected.
The presiding judge gave Diaz a two weeks ultimatum, between choosing the $15 million or go through a new trial, the former employee chose the latter.
In a brief filing at the federal court in San Francisco, US, on Tuesday, his lawyers said, “In rejecting the court’s excessive reduction by asking for a new trial, Mr. Diaz is again asking a jury of his peers to evaluate what Tesla did to him and to provide just compensation for the torrent of racist slurs that was directed at him.”
