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The Worm Turns - Punishing Plaintiffs
Plaintiffs, too, can lose the "my word against your word" battle, and it is worth noting how a lack of documents on the plaintiff's side should affect a company's evaluation of its position and strategy.
Mary Bernard sued Air Express International, a freight shipper, for racial discrimination. Bernard alleged that she was the only African-American among 1,400 employees at Air Express's Miami office. She claimed that she regularly faced discrimination and, as a result, was unfairly denied overtime compensation. She also contended that, eventually, the hostile work environment at the company forced her to resign. After she left, she file a race discrimination lawsuit.
During the trial, Air Express proved - through admissible documents - that Bernard had been paid in the same fashion as similarly situated employees, and that Bernard never made a written complaint to Air Express regarding race discrimination, a hostile work place, or anything else. When push came to shove, Bernard was left with the allegation that she was discriminated against, but she could not prove that she was treated any differently in respect to her pay and, most notably, there was no written evidence that she had ever raised the race issue at any time during her employment.
The result: not only did Air Express win, but it was awarded a $160,000 judgment to reimburse it for its attorney's fees.
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