A Missouri Court of Appeals in Kansas City recently exchanged it's own punitive reward amount for one determined by a trial judge, setting a precedent under the Missouri Human Rights Act by awarding a plaintiff $3.75 million in punitive damages.
Federal anti-discrimination laws restrict damages against large companies at $300,000 but the Missouri Human Rights Act did not do so in this case. Since the lawsuit began however, Missouri Legislature has limited punitive damages to $500,000 or five times the amount of compensatory damages, whichever is greater.
Auto parts supplier TNT Logistics of North America Inc was asked to pay $6.5 million in punitive damages to their former employee Kendra Lynn in 2006 by a Jackson County Jury. A judge later ruled that, that amount was excessive and reduced it to $450,000.
TNT argued to reduce that amount to $250,000. The appeals court ruling on Friday said $6.75 million was excessive but that $450,000 in itself was not sufficient. Thus they settled on an amount of $3.75 million noting that the company did not try to correct the actions of its errant supervisor creating a hostile work environment for Lynn. The plaintiff has to accept the decision in three days. Kirk D. Holman, who represents Lynn stated that he was happy with the decision.
In her 2004 lawsuit Lynn alleged that her shift supervisor, Michael Gill, repeatedly made vulgar and sexually graphic comments to her. Her complaints to her superiors about this went unheeded and she was placed on a 2 a.m. shift instead. After working at TNT as an assembly line scanner for 16 months and earning positive evaluations, Lynn was fired in January 2004.
Evidence showed that TNT never interviewed or disciplined Gill that the company had even tried to conceal its handling of Lynn's complaints.
Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com
Federal anti-discrimination laws restrict damages against large companies at $300,000 but the Missouri Human Rights Act did not do so in this case. Since the lawsuit began however, Missouri Legislature has limited punitive damages to $500,000 or five times the amount of compensatory damages, whichever is greater.
Auto parts supplier TNT Logistics of North America Inc was asked to pay $6.5 million in punitive damages to their former employee Kendra Lynn in 2006 by a Jackson County Jury. A judge later ruled that, that amount was excessive and reduced it to $450,000.
TNT argued to reduce that amount to $250,000. The appeals court ruling on Friday said $6.75 million was excessive but that $450,000 in itself was not sufficient. Thus they settled on an amount of $3.75 million noting that the company did not try to correct the actions of its errant supervisor creating a hostile work environment for Lynn. The plaintiff has to accept the decision in three days. Kirk D. Holman, who represents Lynn stated that he was happy with the decision.
In her 2004 lawsuit Lynn alleged that her shift supervisor, Michael Gill, repeatedly made vulgar and sexually graphic comments to her. Her complaints to her superiors about this went unheeded and she was placed on a 2 a.m. shift instead. After working at TNT as an assembly line scanner for 16 months and earning positive evaluations, Lynn was fired in January 2004.
Evidence showed that TNT never interviewed or disciplined Gill that the company had even tried to conceal its handling of Lynn's complaints.
Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com
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