Judge: Tesla is answerable to a Black former employee who claimed racism, but payout should be reduced

A federal judge found Tesla Inc. responsible to a Black elevator operator who claimed the electric vehicle maker ignored racial abuse at the factory where he worked on Wednesday, but cut the jury verdict from nearly $137 million to $15 million.

After jurors determined that Tesla subjected Owen Diaz to a hostile environment at Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California, by allowing and failing to stop the prejudice he faced, U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco declared.

Diaz, who worked at the facility for nine months in 2015 and 2016, said other employees called him racist names and drew swastikas and obscenities on the bathroom walls, including the “N-word.” He also said that one of his bosses drew a racist caricature beside him.

Orrick wrote in a 43-page ruling that the evidence “abundantly supported” the jury’s decision that Tesla was responsible for Diaz’s “deep” mental suffering and the company’s “frequently inadequate” disciplinary actions.

Diaz’s compensatory damages were reduced to $1.5 million from the jury’s “excessive” $6.9 million award, and punitive damages were cut to $13.5 million from the jury’s “unconstitutionally massive” $130 million award.

Diaz’s lawyer, Bernard Alexander, said in an interview that his client intends to fight the reduced damages award.

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