A $50 million punitive damages award against Lockheed Martin in a former employee’s age discrimination suit is a “miscarriage of justice,” a Camden, New Jersey, federal judge said when she ordered a new trial on punitive damages only.
U.S. District Judge Renee Bumb declined to disrupt the jury’s award of $1.5 million for lost wages and benefits, emotional distress and liquidated damages under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. But she said the $50 million punitive damages award was a shock to the conscience and was not warranted because the plaintiff failed to show that upper management was involved in or indifferent to the discriminatory conduct.
