Tahvio Gratton, a UPS driver and resident of Yakima, was granted $237.6 million by a jury that found he had been the victim of discrimination, had endured retaliation, and was fired as a result of his accusations.
The Bellingham Herald reports that the UPS driver in Eastern Washington received the award consisting of $198 million in punitive damages and $39.6 million for emotional suffering.
UPS, on the other hand, has asked U.S. Judge Thomas Rice not to enter the judgment, arguing that the amount is exorbitant and that Gratton has not proven his case. In a federal court document, it stated that it also intended to request a fresh trial or a lower judgment.
While Gratton’s attorney, Dustin Collier, maintains in court documents that Gratton’s firing was the result of discrimination and retaliation, the company claims that Gratton lost his position as a Yakima driver for UPS after it looked into a complaint that he sexually attacked a female employee.
Gratton started working for the delivery business in 2016 and moved to its Yakima center in January 2018. He remained there until his termination in October 2021.
His on-road supervisor allegedly ignored him while being nice to white drivers. Gratton complained that, even though there was a union agreement that full-time drivers should have priority, part-time drivers were assigned routes before him on days when not all drivers were needed.
Gratton said that in April 2018, a younger white manager kept calling him “Boy” while riding with him.
“Move faster, Boy, let’s go!”
“Boy, I told you to hurry!” he exclaimed, according to the lawsuit. When Gratton requested him to stop, the manager said that he was from the South and talked like that, the lawsuit said.
The suit said that as Gratton continued to make complaints about his treatment, he was either given worse job assignments or none at all, even to the point where supervisors had to step in as drivers.
Eventually, he chose the worst routes to gain work but the center management almost gave those routes to another UPS driver to keep Gratton from working, according to the suit.
The lawsuit claimed that when Gratton did drive the mall route—the only one he was permitted to drive—he was also given detours that allowed him to stay on the route until late at night.
According to the lawsuit, Gratton was frequently summoned to the office over the loudspeaker for discriminatory examination. Problems included wearing a sweater and having noticeable tattoos, which were permissible for white drivers.
Other Black employees were discriminated against, assigned more challenging routes, and then scolded for taking too long, according to the lawsuit.
UPS, meanwhile, stated that the evidence offered throughout the four-day trial “comes nowhere close to meeting the demanding standards for punitive damages—let alone the jury’s $198 million punitive damages award.”
UPS also argued that the verdict of $39.6 million for mental distress was disproportionate and should not have been granted.
