Facts

Plaintiff, Eric Pierce is an African American male who has been employed by the County of Los Angeles as a Senior Custodian Supervisor at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center for 25 years. His lawsuit alleged 16 causes of action against the County of Los Angeles, his immediate supervisor, Leana Anderson, and two of his co-workers, Bertha Gutierrez and Mireya Gurrola. Plaintiff alleged he was subjected to discrimination, harassment and retaliation on the basis of his age, gender, race and disability.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS: Plaintiff alleged he was subjected to multiple adverse employment actions and microaggressions, which included lowered evaluation scores, being instructed to self-monitor (code for "we will not accommodate you"), confined him to his building for years, removed all job duties and placed him for a number of months at a desk without a phone or computer, sent him for freeway therapy to LAC+USC where he was denied reasonable accommodations, and falsely accused him of engaging in threatening misconduct, all in a failed attempt to portray Pierce as the stereotypical "Angry Black Man." Plaintiffs also contended that individual defendants Director of Environmental Services Leana Anderson, Custodian Supervisors Mireya Gurrola and Bertha Gutierrez, and others had created a racial divide within the department and were mistreating and punishing disabled, African American, and older workers including Hispanic workers who complained or refused to segregate from the African American workers.

Settlement Discussions

The County of Los Angeles required plaintiff to resign his employment as part of the pre-trial settlement discussions.

Injuries

Emotional distress, but no economic damages.

Result

The jury after seven weeks of trial awarded Eric Pierce $1,565,000 ($1,250,000 in past, and $315,000 in future emotional distress damages) against the County and Mireya Gurrola. Plaintiff was awarded $122,336 in costs. The jury found in favor of plaintiff on the following claims against the County: disability harassment, failure to accommodate, failure to prevent, but not disability discrimination. The jury found in favor of plaintiff on his gender harassment and intentional infliction of emotional distress claims against Mireya Gurrola. The jury found in favor of defendants on all his race and age-based claims; and his gender-based retaliation and discrimination claims.

Other Information

Plaintiff's motion for attorney fees is currently pending.