Facts

Plaintiff John Earl Campbell was an African American conductor for Amtrak. He worked as a conductor in Oakland and San Francisco from 1998 to 2004. According to plaintiff's counsel, plaintiff's applications for engineer training were repeatedly rejected during this time. According to defense counsel, plaintiff only was rejected once before his employment terminated in 2004.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS:
Plaintiff contended that Amtrak discriminated against him and other African-American employees by failing to provide training opportunities based on race. Furthermore, Amtrak retaliated against anyone who complained of the unfair treatment. When plaintiff complained about race discrimination, Amtrak failed to investigated and retaliated by terminating his employment. Furthermore, Amtrak's general manager frequently used racial slurs with other top Amtrak managers at the Oakland yard.

DEFENDANTS' CONTENTIONS:
Defendants contended that it did not transfer plaintiff to engineer training because of plaintiff's history of serious safety rule violations, not because of his race. Further, defendant terminated plaintiff because plaintiff admitted to committing yet another serious safety rule violation, not because of his race.

Result

Jury verdict for the plaintiff in the amount of $677,000.

Deliberation

2.5 days

Poll

9-0

Length

10 days