A federal judge has reduced a $3.3 million jury verdict against Yellow Transportation to $669,000 in the racial discrimination case of a black truck driver from Denver.
U.S. District Judge Walker Miller, acting on a request from Yellow to have the verdict reduced or the case retried, determined that the damages awarded by the jury in October 2002 were excessive. Miller issued an amended judgment setting the lower damages this week.
Attorneys for Matthew Antoine, the truck driver, and Overland Park, Kan.-based Yellow declined to comment Wednesday. But both parties agreed to the reduced award in a court filing last week.
Antoine and two other workers at Yellow’s Aurora distribution center sued the company in 1999, claiming they were harassed by managers beginning in 1995.
Antoine claimed the harassment included nooses being hung in the workplace, among other things. He and the others said the company did not respond to their complaints.
A jury found in Antoine’s favor, awarding him $300,000 in compensatory damages and $3 million in punitive damages.
In rulings on Monday and in late December, Miller determined the jury had duplicated certain parts of its award while exceeding reasonable limits in calculating the punitive damages. He reduced the compensatory damages to $69,000 and the punitive damages to $600,000.
The other workers settled with Yellow in 2003.
Staff writer Greg Griffin can be reached at 303-820-1241 or ggriffin@denverpost.com.
