SDNY sustains $1.725 million compensatory damages award in hostile work environment case

This hostile work environment case went to trial in the Southern District of New York before Judge Hellerstein. The jury awarded plaintiff $1.725 million for pain and suffering and another $1 million in punitive damages. These damages were spread among two different defendants. The verdict and damages awards are upheld in their entirety.

The case is Pizarro v. Euros El Tina Restaurant, 20 CIv. 5783 (AKH), 2024 WL 837572, issued on February 27. First, the court finds the evidence supports the liability verdict. In order to have the verdict vacated, defendant must show that no reasonable jury would have ruled in plaintiff's favor, and that the jury in this case ruled in plaintiff's favor based on speculation, sympathy, and without sufficient evidence. These motions are difficult to won, and Judge Hellerstein does not give extended discussion on this, noting that the evidence of sexual harassment was "overwhelming" and "no employee is required to experience such harassments, male or female." Nor was plaintiff required to identify a comparator to support her finding gender discrimination under the New York City Human Rights Law, which sets a "treated less well" standard for plaintiffs, far more lenient than Title VII. Defendants did not challenge the verdict under the Title VII, for some reason.

As for remittitur, I note that courts in the Second Circuit group these damages claims under three categories: (1) garden variety, (2) significant, and (3) egregious. The egregious cases generate the highest damages awards, into the seven figures. But trial judges in the Second Circuit freely reduce high damages awards as a matter of course, almost treating them as advisory verdicts as the judges then review the evidence to ensure the damages are in line with prior, comparable cases. For this reason, we have very few million dollar verdicts upheld in the Second Circuit.

But this is one of the successful million dollar verdicts. Judge Hellerstein writes that "cases in this Circuit involving 'egregious' claims of sexual harassment, including those that take place in the workplace, and over several years, have led to similar amounts in compensatory damages when considering adjustments for inflation." Those cases include Turley v. ISG Lackawana, Inc., 774 F.3d 140 (2d Cir. 2014) ($1.32 million); Olsen v. County of Nassau, 615 F. Supp. 2d 35 (E.D.N.Y. 2009) ($1 million); Osorio v. Source Enterprises, Inc., 2007 WL 683985 (S.D.N.Y. 2007) ($4 million on retaliation claim); and Zeno v. Pine Plains Cent. Sch. Dist., 702 F.3d 655 (2d Cir. 2012) (a case I tried and handled on appeal that yielded $1 million for racial harassment without physical assault).

What entitles plaintiff to the large compensatory damages award is that she testified that she was groped and molested on numerous occasions, she feared rape and sexual assaults, and tried to commit suicide after the defendant tried to rape her. This evidence also supports the punitive damages award, including the fact that plaintiff endured a decade-long and worsening pattern of physical and verbal harassment, groping and pinching, exposure to male private parts and masturbation, and an attempted rape.