A federal judge told Owen Diaz, a former elevator operator at Tesla, that he has two weeks to decide whether he wants to accept $15 million in damages over racial abuse at the automaker’s Fremont, California factory, according to a court filing on Tuesday.
In October last year, a San Francisco federal court jury ordered Tesla to pay the Black former worker $137 million for turning a blind eye to racial harassment and discrimination at Tesla’s EV plant. However, in April, that payout was slashed to $15 million after Tesla challenged the verdict, saying it should only pay $600,000. At the time, U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco reduced both the compensatory damages, from $6.9 million to $1.5 million, and the punitive damages, from $130 million to $13.5 million.
Orrick said in Tuesday’s order that he could find no controlling question of law to justify an immediate appeal of the reduced award. The judge also sa …
