[HN Gopher] Tesla settles with worker who claimed employees told...
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Tesla settles with worker who claimed employees told "welcome to
the plantation"
Author : Veserv
Score : 30 points
Date : 2025-04-20 18:21 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.the-independent.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.the-independent.com)
| Veserv wrote:
| Coming after Diaz v Tesla [1] where Tesla was found guilty of
| racial harassment and discrimination in that same Fremont,
| California plant (as can be seen here on page 3-11 [2]) to a
| degree that the jury deemed it worthy of a $136.9 million award,
| the single largest award in a race harassment case in American
| history [2]. That award was later reduced for procedural reasons
| as it was beyond the maximum limit the law allows. And further
| reduced in a subsequent trial evaluating direct damages due to
| emotional distress and loss of work which, as a matter of law,
| restricted the maximum allowable punitive damages. Despite that,
| the jury found it necessary to award punitive damages in excess
| of the standard maximum of 9:1 [4] which was upheld by the courts
| as, in the words of the judge: "Tesla's conduct was reprehensible
| and repeated"[5] and as such the award in excess of standard
| maximums was "appropriate in light of the endemic racism at the
| Tesla factory and Tesla's repeated failure to rectify it"[6].
|
| [1] https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCOURTS-
| cand-3_17-cv-06...
|
| [2] https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-
| cand-3_17-cv-06...
|
| [3] https://www.civilrightsca.com/key-verdicts/diaz-v-tesla-
| race...
|
| [4]
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Farm_Mutual_Automobile_I...
|
| [5] https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-
| cand-3_17-cv-06... Page 29
|
| [6] https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-
| cand-3_17-cv-06... Page 1 End of Paragraph 1.
| devwastaken wrote:
| fake damage rewards are designed to benefit corps so they can
| cause public outrage in their favor while in reality paying a
| small fraction due to payout limitations.
| milesrout wrote:
| What a ridiculous conspiracy theory.
|
| American civil courts having juries for no good reason is the
| issue. Nobody anywhere else in the world still uses juries
| for civil trials and for this sort of reason.
|
| Damages are compensatory. Allowing a jury to pluck 9-digit
| numbers from thin air to be reduced later is stupid.
| dragonwriter wrote:
| > Damages are compensatory.
|
| No, _compensatory_ damages are compensatory. Statutory and
| exemplary /punitive damages are not compensatory
|
| > Allowing a jury to pluck 9-digit numbers from thin air to
| be reduced later is stupid. tory.
|
| Juries aren't allowed to pick numbers out of the air; on
| compensatory damages, as the finder of fact, the jury
| performs the same function as a criminal jury, it
| determines what facts were proven to the required standard,
| including the amount of harm proven.
| rainsford wrote:
| I was on a civil jury a while ago and it was pretty eye
| opening how the process actually works. I'd say about
| half of the court time was dedicated to arguments about
| proving specific damages and ultimately the result was
| that the jury found in favor of the plaintiff but awarded
| a much lower damage amount than they were asking for
| specifically because they failed to prove that amount of
| harm. The idea of juries plucking random numbers of out
| thin air doesn't even remotely match my experience, or
| reality based on conversations I've had with lawyers I
| know.
| rainsford wrote:
| > Allowing a jury to pluck 9-digit numbers from thin air to
| be reduced later is stupid.
|
| That's not how civil jury trials work. Not only are juries
| specifically instructed that they can't just make up
| damages numbers, but a significant amount of the courtroom
| time will be dedicated to both sides presenting arguments
| for specific damage amounts with detailed justifications,
| expert witnesses, etc. I'm not saying trials never result
| in wonky damages amounts, but the idea that juries
| generally just randomly pick the biggest number they can
| think of is largely a media created fiction.
| milesrout wrote:
| Very strange that you have this all set out and prepared for
| us. It is almost as if this is an organised campaign against
| Tesla and isn't actually about racism at all.
| milesrout wrote:
| Why should Tesla be responsible for what its employee allegedly
| said? How ridiculous.
|
| And why would someone be entitled to monetary compensation
| because someone said "welcome to the plantation"? What happened
| to "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never
| hurt me"? When did people become so psychologically weak? And
| what is the loss that is being compensated?
|
| EDIT: Can people please stop downvoting comments they disagree
| with? If you disagree with someone, upvote them and have a
| fucking conversation. Downvoting and flagging is NOT for
| disagreement.
| dlachausse wrote:
| EDIT: LOL which one of you coded a bot? This comment got
| downvoted as soon as I hit submit.
|
| Rocket man bad because rocket man help orange man. Orange man
| bad because media say orange man Hitler.
|
| That's why you're getting downvoted. Everything even
| tangentially related to Elon Musk is bad now according to the
| side that is disappointed that Trump didn't get assassinated in
| Butler, PA and thinks it's okay to vandalize Teslas and assault
| their owners, and even fire bomb Tesla dealerships.
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(page generated 2025-04-20 23:01 UTC)