Signage at a Tesla dealership in Sacramento, California, U.S., on Friday, Jan. 21, 2022. Tesla Inc. is scheduled to release earnings figures on January 26. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
A federal jury has granted former Tesla employee Owen Diaz $3.2M in damages in his racial discrimination case, though this number is far lower than he was initially awarded.
AP News reports that Diaz—who is Black—filed a lawsuit against the company back in 2017. The 53-year-old alleged that he was subjected to racial abuse daily during his nine-month stint at the Tesla factory in Fremont, California.
Four years later, Tesla was ordered to pay Diaz nearly $137M, as The Shade Room previously reported.
After about six months, though, U.S. District Judge William Orrick drastically reduced this award to $15M after Tesla appealed the decision.
Rather than accepting this amount, Diaz and his attorney—Lawrence Organ—sought a new trial. However, upon the jury reaching a verdict earlier this week, he wound up earning an even lesser award: $3.2M.
While this is far less than the initial $137M ruling, Organ notes that the amount is “still a big win.”
“If you had just looked at this verdict without knowing the verdict in the first trial, you would say this is a big win. So, it’s still a big win.”
Even with his optimism, Organ’s in the process of trying to secure another trial.
The attorney told AP News that he filed a motion for a mistrial before the $3.2M decision came through, as he accused Tesla’s legal team of prejudicing the jury by improperly casting doubt on Diaz’s character.
Organ says he’ll appeal the latest verdict if his motion for a mistrial is rejected. He also notes that he plans to question why the initial $137M award has been so drastically reduced.
