Photo: Tesla
On October 4, 2021, a jury in San Francisco decided that Tesla was wrong in the way it dealt with racist abuses against Owen Diaz. The court decided the contract worker would receive $6.9 million due to emotional distress and $130 million in punitive damages. Although Elon Musk said Tesla would never dispute a decision if it were wrong – such as in Diaz’s case – the company appealed the decision in a U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
The filing states that the punitive award “simply cannot stand.” Bloomberg Law reported that Tesla also said it would bear no relationship to the actual evidence at trial. On top of that, it would be way more severe than punitive damages awarded in much worse cases.
According to the Arizona State University law professor Michael Selmi, it is not unlikely that the punitive damages are cut in half because they are disproportionately high relative to the emotional distress award the jury granted Diaz. That judgment is another thing Tesla is disputing: the company asked the court to order a new trial about the case.
At this point, Tesla may succeed in saving a few million dollars by alleging that the $130 million in punitive damages are “staggering.” If Tesla reverts the decision, Elon Musk is sure to tweet about it and say that his faith in Justice has been restored or something similar. Despite all that, the reputation damage will demand a lot more to be overturned.
Having a jury set punitive awards “without precedent in U.S. anti-discrimination law” – as Tesla lawyers have stated themselves – already shows that the company is doing very little to prevent racism in its Fremont factory. This is the second case in which the EV maker has been condemned for the same reasons.
Tesla paid Melvin Berry $1 million in one of the rare arbitration cases it lost against former employees. It either wins them or tries to avoid knowing the decision, as it is doing in its case against Cristina Balan.
Balan fought to bring her defamation case against the company to U.S. courts. Tesla won, but the decision no longer has to be kept among the involved people: it can go public, and the Romanian engineer will make sure that is the case.
Apart from trying to dismiss the arbitration, Tesla also did not pay it, which prevented the decisions about the case from being disclosed. For a company that accused Balan of serious crimes, Tesla would be probably the most interested party in fighting until the end to prove the engineer has done everything it claims she did.
According to the Arizona State University law professor Michael Selmi, it is not unlikely that the punitive damages are cut in half because they are disproportionately high relative to the emotional distress award the jury granted Diaz. That judgment is another thing Tesla is disputing: the company asked the court to order a new trial about the case.
At this point, Tesla may succeed in saving a few million dollars by alleging that the $130 million in punitive damages are “staggering.” If Tesla reverts the decision, Elon Musk is sure to tweet about it and say that his faith in Justice has been restored or something similar. Despite all that, the reputation damage will demand a lot more to be overturned.
Having a jury set punitive awards “without precedent in U.S. anti-discrimination law” – as Tesla lawyers have stated themselves – already shows that the company is doing very little to prevent racism in its Fremont factory. This is the second case in which the EV maker has been condemned for the same reasons.
Tesla paid Melvin Berry $1 million in one of the rare arbitration cases it lost against former employees. It either wins them or tries to avoid knowing the decision, as it is doing in its case against Cristina Balan.
Balan fought to bring her defamation case against the company to U.S. courts. Tesla won, but the decision no longer has to be kept among the involved people: it can go public, and the Romanian engineer will make sure that is the case.
Apart from trying to dismiss the arbitration, Tesla also did not pay it, which prevented the decisions about the case from being disclosed. For a company that accused Balan of serious crimes, Tesla would be probably the most interested party in fighting until the end to prove the engineer has done everything it claims she did.
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