Expand / Collapse search
☰

Former Tesla worker asks for retrial after jury award drops to $15M

By KTVU Staff
Published  June 29, 2022 11:01am PDT
News
KTVU FOX 2

New trial for damage awards in Tesla workplace discrimination suit

The jury would determine how much Owen Diaz, a former Tesla employee, should receive in damages in his lawsuit over workplace discrimination.

SAN FRANCISCO - A former Tesla worker asked for a new workplace discrimination trial after the judge lowered the jury award from $137 million to $15 million. 

Lawyers for Owen Diaz, a former elevator operator for Tesla, rejected the judge's award in federal court in San Francisco on June 21st, according to Reuters. 

"In rejecting the court’s excessive reduction by asking for a new trial, Mr. Diaz is again asking a jury of his peers to evaluate what Tesla did to him and to provide just compensation for the torrent of racist slurs that was directed at him," his lawyers said.

SEE ALSO: Dublin prison officer made California woman engage in sex acts with cellmate, claim alleges

Diaz sued Tesla in 2017 for racial bias. He claimed that he was repeatedly harassed, and called racial slurs during his nine months at Tesla's factory in Fremont. 

The jury awarded Diaz a total of $137 million of damages last October, one of the largest award in discrimination lawsuits, Reuter wrote. But U.S. District Judge William Orrick lowered the award to $15 million in April. 

Diaz was given two weeks to accept the award or agree to a retrial.