US judge reduces $137 mn penalty linked to racial abuse against Tesla

Electric vehicle company TeslaAhas managed to convince a judge to slash the historic $137 million award it was supposed to pay a former employee as part of a racial abuse lawsuit to $15 million.

Electric vehicle company Tesla has managed to convince a judge to slash the historic $137 million award it was supposed to pay a former employee as part of a racial abuse lawsuit to $15 million.

According to the auto-tech website Electrek, last year, a court ruled against Tesla in a case from plaintiff Owen Diaz, who worked at the company's Fremont factory from June 2015 to May 2016 as a contract worker hired by a staffing company, about what was described as "racial abuse".

The jury awarded $6.9 million in damages for emotional distress and $130 million in punitive damages.

 

Diaz claimed he worked in an environment where "daily racist epithets" were common, and he claim Tesla did not do enough to stop it.

Tesla defended itself against the claims and said that the $137 million award was not fair.

Now, it managed to at least reverse the award back down to $15 million.

Though that's not really what Tesla was aiming for, since the automaker's lawyers were pushing to limit compensatory and punitive damages to $300,000 each, the report said.

But that might be the best Tesla can get as Diaz's lawyers are planning to appeal the new judgment that slashed the award down to $15 million, it added.