Posted on 06/10/2011 12:48:25 AM PDT by Jim 726
A federal jury has awarded a Fairview Heights woman $95 million for the sexual harassment she endured working at Aaron Rents, a Fairview Heights rent-to-own business.
The woman's suit claims that an October 12, 2006, sexual assault by her supervisor capped almost a year of escalating sexual harassment.
The store's general manager, Richard Moore, began by making inappropriate comments and pinching the 20-year-old customer service representative, the suit says. He progressed to groping her, then sneaked up behind her and hit her on the head with his penis sometime during the fall of 2006, the suit says.
On Oct. 12, Moore threw her to the ground, lifted her shirt and masturbated over her as he held her down, the suit says.
The woman had called a harassment hotline in May of 2006, but an investigator never contacted her and one of Moore's supervisors confronted her in front of him, then warned Moore to "watch his back" because of the complaint, the suit says.
Jurors this week found that Moore had assaulted and battered the woman and that Aaron had failed to appropriately supervise him.
In all, jurors awarded $15 million in compensatory damages and $80 million in punitive damages.
An Aaron's Inc. spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
um, another business go bankrupt, and hundreds fired, so one individual can get rich quick
"um" beside the fact that the supervisor had the chance to stop it - etc - she'll be lucky not to end up owing the gov't.
The lawyer, if she's lucky, won't take more that 50%. But the gov't will take taxes on the WHOLE amount, not allowing expenses to be deducted. So in many cases like this, the money all goes to the lawyers and the gov't...
This is ridiculous. If it not apparent that we desperately need tort reform NOW! Then I don’t know when sanity will return to this country.
The store managers and male implicated employee’s actions are deplorable. They should be fired, and a criminal complaint should be filed for which they will be prosecuted.
Her suit against the business should be directly related to wages lost. Compensatory damages should be strictly limited to cost of treatment, loss of wages, any unemployment for a limited period of time and a legal mandated minimum compensatory sum for pain and suffering; say $0 - $50,000, plus all legal costs for her.
Our legal system is BS, and a standing joke compared to other countries that have tort reform in place.
I personally know of some shady aspects of this company anyway. I’m inclined to believe not only the woman’s story, but that (higher) management did nothing about the situation when it started off. Extent of being able to sue a company for it’s employee’s action is up for debate. I for one believe that if corporations (as they have been the last few decades), are reaping all the benefits of being a coalition of individuals, then it’s time they should have all the liabilities of individuals.
No more individuals hiding behind faceless, nameless corporate entities, IMHO, but that too is a broader subject.
Regardless, "letting juries decide," as the trial lawyers like to say, is fine when we have informed juries. But even without an informed jury, even when discussion of the final apportionment of punitive awards is deliberately disallowed in all trial phases, slapping a woman on the back of her head with "wedding tackle" merits $95 million? I could finance, launch and operate a respectable lunar orbiter with that kind of scratch.
"Pain and Suffering?" And this ain't even medical negligence.
And you're saying the lawyers and the government get the award, the plaintiff gets the shaft, so to speak, and the insurance company passes the cost on to non-negligent policy holders?
No, there's no need for responsible civil law reform. Let juries decide, I mean, let uninformed juries decide.
Seriously? So if some politicians have their way, if you hurt my feelings by sexually harassing me, my feelings are worth $95 million. Yet if are a doctor and you maim me, especially under tort reform, I may only be worth somewhere between $250K-$1 million. I will take the sexual harassment. Bring it on.
Sounds more like a sue-to-own business.
I am sure that this will be knocked down on appeal.
People are devious so I could see this scenario:
Go work at some “rich” franchise somewhere. One person agrees to harass the other. Harasee complains to someone higher up that feelings are hurt and promises that higher up a cut of the loot if they ignore the complaint. That manager promises theirs the same. Then sue.
$95 million is worth the gamble and people have done worse for less.
Everyone seems to be against this woman.
I too, do not see whay she didn’t quit long before the guy held her down and whacked off, but maybe she really needed the job badly.
Besides being a Civil suit, where is the criminal charge?
This freak who did this needs to be in jail.
We sure do need tort reform, but I am not sure this is the case that brings it on.Sounds to me like Aarons should have done something for this lady and has to pay through for not doing so.
And whatever the lawyers get is also taxable, but of course, they get to deduct expenses, unlike the plaintiff. So some of that settlement money is actually double taxed.
Indeed. This case sounds more like sexual assault and battery than harassment.
If this lady did everything right, and the company didn’t act, then let them go under. The other females in the company would be out of work, too.
In my company I see more touchy females than males; a few don’t seem to think these laws apply to them, but to men only.
What makes you think that the attorneys fees and costs of litigation would not be deductible from the award to arrive at net taxable income?
Expecting her to quit at a time when replacing any job is difficult doesn’t make sense; I eat a lot of crap at my job (though nobody hit me in the head with their penis or masteurbated on me) because I need the income and health insurance to raise a family. (Great line from Mel Gibson in “The Patriot”: I’m a parent, I don’t have the luxury of principles.)
I understand, It is impossible to place yourself in other people’s shoes.
As a husband and father, I would expect my daughter or my wife to tell me if something like that what was going on at work.
It would be taken care of. Believe me.
I realize some women single and working far from home or some women who do not have a friend or husband to turn to could find themselves locked into a difficult situation.
If someone hit my wife or daughter on the head with his penis, rest assured it wouldn’t happen again.
The supervisor sounds like an Anthony Weiner wanna-be cubed!
If the company allows depraved behavior such as this in their workplace, they deserve to go out of business. In cases such as this one, an all-woman jury would be in order.
this particular case is why these laws were passed in the first place. She followed procedure, and the company refused to intervene...it resulted in her being raped by her supervisor...the award is just, and the company should be shut down by this..another company will pop up to fill the vacuum
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