Photo: AFP
A San Francisco judge decided to lower the $137 million jury judgement for an allegation of racism at Tesla to $15 million, and now the victim has decided to turn down every penny! According to Bloomberg News, attorneys for Owen Diaz, a former elevator operator at Tesla, filed a statement in San Francisco court on Tuesday calling the award decrease unreasonable.
Diaz's lawyer informed the court that he intends to seek a new trial, five years after bringing his original lawsuit against Tesla, which detailed a toxic workplace riddled with racial slurs, swastikas, and racist caricatures.
Diaz sued Tesla due to the abuse he suffered while working at their factory in Fremont, California. Between 2015 and 2016, he claims his coworkers called him racist slurs and a supervisor called him the n-word more than 30 times. Diaz was awarded $137 million by a federal jury in October 2021!
Following the judgement, U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco, lowered the jury payout to just $15 million because he believed the original award was "excessive." Diaz lawyer believes the lower amount will not stop Tesla from repeating the same behavior towards their minority employees and decided to reject the award, triggering a new trial.
Would you take the $15 million or risk a new trial?