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Owen Diaz’s long legal battle against Tesla has officially ended, after both parties agreed to a settlement. Attorney Lawrence Organ, Diaz’s attorney, said CNBC “The two parties reached an amicable solution to their disputes,” but “the terms of the settlement are confidential.” If you’ve been following this case for a while, that means you won’t be able to tell how much Diaz will receive now that the massive $137 million in damages he originally received has been dramatically reduced to $3.2 million.
The former elevator operator famously sued the automaker for allowing a racist workplace, saying he faced discrimination “straight out of the Jim Crow era” as a black individual. He said fellow workers left graffiti of swastikas and racist graffiti, such as those of Enki the caveman, in his workspace and around Tesla’s Fremont assembly plant. Diaz also said that he and other black workers were subjected to racist insults, and that the company failed to address their behavior despite repeated complaints.
In 2021, a San Francisco court ordered Tesla to pay $137 million in damages to its former worker, which was one of the highest amounts awarded to a plaintiff suing on the basis of discrimination. However, during the ensuing appeal hearings, the judge found the amount to be excessive and reduced it to $15 million, although he upheld the original jury verdict. The parties returned to trial after Diaz rejected the reduced amount, but the jury reduced the damages Tesla must pay to $3.2 million. At the time, Diaz’s attorney said he was wrongly attacked by the defense, and that they had already requested a new trial due to misconduct. It appears that the two parties have since agreed to negotiate behind closed doors.
While Diaz’s case is being finalized, Organ is also representing Marcus Vaughn, who has filed another lawsuit against the automaker for racial harassment. Vaughn called Tesla’s Fremont factory a “hotbed of racist behavior” and petitioned the court last year to file his lawsuit. Class action status So he can add 240 black colleagues to his complaint.
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