Jury awards fired FedEx saleswoman from Tarrant County $365 million in punitive damages
A jury in U.S. District Count in Houston in late October found that FedEx Corp. improperly handled a racial discrimination complaint from an employee who lives now in Tarrant County.
Beyond compensating Jennifer Harris, who filed a lawsuit against the package delivery company after she was fired, the jury determined that a FedEx human resources department investigation was flawed to the degree that the panel should punish FedEx and deter other businesses from following the same course.
The amount the jury concluded was necessary to demonstrate that: $365,000,000.00.
The jury found that Harris did not prove by a preponderance of the evidence that FedEx would not have terminated Harris but for her race. It found that she proved under the same standard that the company would not have retaliated against her but for her claim of racial discrimination. It returned the verdict and award on Oct. 25.
A FedEx spokesperson wrote in a statement that the company would appeal.
“FedEx does not engage in or tolerate retaliation. We followed our protocols for performance management with Ms. Harris and are confident that we acted properly regarding her termination,” the spokesperson wrote.
FedEx hired Harris in 2007 in an entry-level sales position. It promoted her six times and asked her to move to FedEx’s headquarters in Memphis, then to Houston. Harris and her team were among the company’s top performers, according to the lawsuit.
“Ms. Harris eventually bumped up against FedEx’s discriminatory ceiling.,” Brian Sanford and Elizabeth Sanford wrote in the lawsuit. The Dallas-based attorneys represent Harris.
On March 8, 2019, Harris’ supervisor, Michelle Lamb, who is white, asked Harris to take a demotion, according to the lawsuit. Lamb did not make the same request of “other similarly situated persons who were not African American.”
Harris reported discrimination to FedEx on March 11, 2019.
Lamb assessed that Harris’ work was unacceptable, according to the lawsuit. Lamb invented a performance problem by “sabotaging Ms. Harris’s commission structures, even though Harris’s performance continued to be exceptional.,” the suit stated.
On Aug. 23, 2019, Harris again reported discrimination and retaliation after Lamb did not assign a customer in Harris’ district to Harris.
FedEx “conducted a sham investigation” of Harris’ claims and terminated her on Jan. 7, 2020, according to the lawsuit.
Harris performed “as good or better than her peers,” Harris’ lawyers wrote. “The difference is she is Black.”
Lamb belittled Harris to Harris’ peers, according to the lawsuit. When Harris reported racial discrimination, another white FedEx employee told Harris to not worry about it and said, “Just go on with your job, it’ll all blow over,” the suit stated.
Beyond the punitive damages, the jury awarded about $2 million in compensatory damages.
