Plaintiff Did Succeed, With Efforts On Other Claims Interrelated.
In State of Arizona v. Asarco, No. 11-17484 (9th Cir. Dec. 10, 2014) (en banc) (published), a Title VII plaintiff primarily alleging sexual harassment claims brought an action against an employer having more than 500 employees. The jury awarded plaintiff $1 in nominal compensatory damages and $868,750 in punitive damages. The district judge reduced the punitive award to $300,000 under a Title VII statutory cap for punitive damages applicable to this particular employer (with the cap getting even lower depending on number of employees). See 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(b)(3)(D). Earlier, in a majority panel decision, the Ninth Circuit found the 300,000 to 1 punitive ratio was too high. However, the matter was heard en banc, with a different result—affirmance of the entire judgment, including an attorney’s fees and costs award to plaintiff to the tune of $350,902.75.
The fee award, a discretionary one, was found appropriate and was no abuse of discretion. The defense claimed that plaintiff had little success, but the Ninth Circuit found all of the work efforts were interwoven with the successful claim and that plaintiff did succeed—plaintiff obtained a close to $900,000 jury punitive award (reduced by law to $300,000), still very good.