By Brandon Brown | Cronkite News
WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court Thursday slashed the damages that mining company ASARCO had been ordered to pay a former employee who successfully sued the company for sexual harassment at an Arizona mine.
A divided three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the $300,000 in punitive damages awarded to Angela Aguilar was excessive in comparison to the $1 in nominal damages a jury awarded her.
While the court said ASARCO’s conduct in Aguilar’s case was “highly reprehensible” and merited “the imposition of a very large punitive award,” it said $300,000 was out of line. It sent the case back to district court, where it said Aguilar could accept a lower award of $125,000 or the case could go back to trial.
“It would have been nice to keep the whole thing,” Aguilar’s attorney, Sandy Forbes, said, “but we are pleased.”
Calls to ASARCO and its attorneys were not immediately returned Thursday.
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