E-Alert Item: Employer Must Pay Attorneys’ Fees In Bias Lawsuit, Even Though Settlement Offer More Generous Than Jury Award

Willie Greene sued his employer Dillingham Construction N.A. Inc. for racial harassment under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act. A jury awarded Greene $490,000 in emotional distress damages, and the trial court ordered Dillingham Construction to pay an additional $1,025,794 in attorneys’ fees. The company appealed the fee award, arguing that it shouldn’t have had to cover Greene’s attorneys’ fees that were incurred after Greene had rejected a settlement offer–which was more generous than the jury’s damages award–made during the course of mediation. But a California appeals court rejected the appeal and upheld the attorneys’ fee award. The court ruled that in determining the amount of attorneys’ fees to award, courts cannot consider an employee’s rejection of an informal settlement offer made in the course of mediation.