Mo. Supreme Court throws out damages awarded to ex-Pepose worker
Written on February 12, 2010
The Missouri Supreme Court has thrown out $125,000 in damages awarded to a former employee of Pepose Vision Institute of Chesterfield because a juror made anti-Semitic comments.
The high court’s decision requires a trial judge to examine allegations of prejudicial remarks made by one or more jury members and, upon finding said allegations to be true, grant a defendant’s motion for a new trial.
“This court finds that if a juror makes statements evincing ethnic or religious bias or prejudice during jury deliberations, the parties are deprived of their right to a fair and impartial jury and equal protection of the law,” this week’s ruling said.
The landmark ruling makes the state of Missouri one of a handful of states whose courts have addressed the issue of juror bias. There are no state or federal laws that prohibit the expression of prejudicial remarks during jury deliberations.
In 2007, a St. Louis County jury awarded $95,000 in punitive damages and $30,000 in actual damages to Michelle Fleshner, who claimed she was fired in 2003 from Pepose Vision, which was started by Dr. Jay Pepose, because she had helped the U paydayloans.S. Department of Labor investigation of the company’s payment of overtime.
At the end of deliberations, a juror approached defense counsel to report repeated anti-Semitic comments during deliberations, saying another juror described Pepose’s wife as a “Jewish witch” and a “penny-pinching Jew.”
With the state Supreme Court’s ruling, the trial judge must now evaluate these allegations of bias and make a determination about their truthfulness. Should the judge find them to be true, a new trial must be ordered.
“This ruling is a great victory for all of the people of Missouri. It says that our justice system will not tolerate bigotry,” Jay Pepose said. “It was a painful, costly process for us, but we knew we could not walk away and leave it to others to fight for social justice.”
Armstrong Teasdale represented Pepose Vision. An amicus brief was also submitted by Bryan Cave on behalf of the Anti-Defamation League of St. Louis.
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