Facts

Members of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces filed suit against the Hotel Shangri-La in Santa Monica, claiming that its owner discriminated against them at a charitable event. The Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, a Jewish organization, gathered at the hotel on July 11, 2010. Soon after their party got underway, hotel staff began telling group members to remove their literature and banners, get out of the pool and hot tub, and to stop handing out t-shirts. The employees said they had been following the orders of the hotel's owner, Tehmina Adaya.

A former employee testified that Adaya had repeatedly used profanity and exclaimed that her family would cut off her financing if they learned that a Jewish event was being held at the hotel.

Adaya denied that she had violated the California's Unruh Civil Rights Act, which bars hotels from discriminating on the basis of sex, race, color, or religion. She denied that she ordered the group to halt the event.

Result

The jury awarded the plaintiffs $1.2 million in statutory and compensatory damages as well as $445,000 in punitive damages.