Tesla settles race bias claims by Black former worker after $3 million verdict

Tesla claimed it was not liable for the alleged discrimination and Diaz had argued that the company's lawyers engaged in misconduct warranting a new trial. A different jury in 2021 had awarded Diaz $137 million, one of the largest verdicts ever in a discrimination case involving a single worker.

Tesla has settled a long running lawsuit by a Black former factory worker who claimed he was subjected to severe racial harassment, according to a court filing on Friday, as the electric carmaker faces a series of other discrimination lawsuits. Tesla and lawyers for Owen Diaz, a former elevator operator at the company's Fremont, California assembly plant, did not disclose details of the settlement in the filing in San Francisco federal court.

The agreement ends appeals that both sides were pursuing after a jury last year awarded Diaz $3.2 million

in damages. Tesla claimed it was not liable for the alleged discrimination and Diaz had argued that the company's lawyers engaged in misconduct warranting a new trial. A different jury in 2021 had awarded Diaz $137 million, one of the largest verdicts ever in a discrimination case involving a single worker. But a judge found that the verdict was excessive and ordered a second trial after Diaz refused a lowered award of $15 million.

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