By Jonathan Stempel
Nov 18 (Reuters) - A federal judge reduced a $237.6 million jury award against United Parcel Service UPS.N to $39.6 million in the case of a Black former driver who accused the package delivery company of workplace bias and wrongful firing.
In a decision made public on Friday, U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice in Yakima, Washington, accepted UPS' request to throw out a $198 million in punitive damages award, finding jurors acted unreasonably in awarding the sum to Tahvio Gratton.
The decision does not affect the jury's $39.6 million award to Gratton for emotional distress, but UPS plans to ask that it be thrown out as well.
Rice found no proof that a UPS supervisor intended to commandeer a probe into whether Gratton touched a female worker inappropriately on a loading dock, resulting in Gratton's October 2021 dismissal after five years of employment.
He also said Gratton was able to tell his side of the story, with assistance from his union.
Gratton said UPS used the loading dock incident, for which he said he apologized immediately, as a pretext for firing him over his complaints about the workplace.
In his lawsuit, Gratton said supervisors at a UPS facility in Yakima frequently passed him over for route assignments in favor of less senior drivers and gave him less desirable trucks and routes than white drivers received.
Gratton also said a younger white supervisor repeatedly called him "boy" and defended using that term by saying: "I'm from the South. That's how I talk."
UPS said on Monday it plans to seek a new trial and overturn the remainder of the Sept. 12 verdict.
Lawyers for Gratton did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The case is Gratton v United Parcel Service Inc, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Washington, No. 22-03149.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
((jon.stempel@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646 223 6317; Reuters Messaging: jon.stempel.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
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