SAN FRANCISCO — A divided Ninth Circuit panel has rejected the United Parcel Service’s challenge to a nearly $700,000 attorney fee award in a gender discrimination case that resulted in a jury verdict of just $27,280.
U.S. District Chief Judge Claudia Wilken of the Northern District of California had awarded about 36 percent of the $1.95 million in attorney fees sought by lawyers at Kerr & Wagstaffe and The Jaffe Law Firm in San Francisco. But attorneys for UPS at Paul Hastings argued that the award should be cropped further because plaintiff Kim Muniz recovered comparatively little in damages and had not prevailed on most of her claims.
