SAN
FRANCISCO, June 19, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Stanford
Health Care patient testing technician Qiqiuia Young filed a
100-page lawsuit against Stanford
University and Stanford Health Care alleging a series of
acts of racial harassment and discrimination that began with her
co-workers threatening to, and then dressing as the Ku Klux Klan at
the Stanford Cancer Center and detailing multiple instances of the
"N" word used in the workplace at Stanford Health Care.
Ms. Young also alleged retaliation for her reports
of race harassment, and for her association with Stanford University physicians who reported race
harassment on her behalf, as well as whistleblower retaliation for
Ms. Young's voluminous reports of patient safety issues at Stanford
Health Care.
Ms. Young, whose grandparents were Civil Rights leaders in
Oklahoma, where she was born,
says, "I couldn't turn a blind eye to what people were doing. I had
to speak out. And when I did, they tried to silence me."
The day after Ms. Young filed her lawsuit, Stanford University Dean Lloyd Minor and Stanford
Health Care CEO David Entwistle sent
an email to over 22,000 people that, on March 28, 2024, a California jury found defamed Ms. Young by
falsely implying that she was dishonest in her reports of events of
racism or patient safety issues.
At trial, Dr. Iris Gibbs,
Stanford University School of
Medicine's former Associate Dean of Admissions, who, like Ms.
Young, is also an African-American woman, testified about her
concern about the accountability of leadership at Stanford
Medicine, and says, "As a principled person with empathy, I have
been deeply concerned that the top people in this organization
appeared to believe it was okay to single out an employee after
reporting such claims of heinous racially discriminatory treatment.
I believed it was an abuse of power, and in my role as one of
the highest-ranking Black leaders at Stanford Medicine at the time,
I felt it was my responsibility to speak up and hold leadership
accountable. I have suffered the consequences."
After a seven-week trial, the jury found that Ms. Young was
subjected to racial harassment, discrimination, whistleblower
retaliation, and defamation.
It awarded Ms. Young $6 million
against Stanford Health Care for her emotional distress from the
alleged racial harassment, discrimination, and
retaliation, and for the harm to Ms. Young from Stanford Health
Care's failure to prevent those alleged unlawful
acts.
The jury awarded Ms. Young an additional $5.4 million against Stanford Health Care for
defamation, and found that Stanford Health Care acted with malice,
oppression, or fraud against Ms. Young. As a
result, the jury awarded an additional $3
million in punitive damages to punish Stanford Health Care
and deter further such alleged conduct.
The jury found that Stanford
University was not Ms. Young's joint employer and awarded
Ms. Young $5.6 million against
Stanford University for defamation.
This amount includes $2 million in
punitive damages to punish Stanford
University after the jury found that in publishing the
alleged defamatory statement, Stanford University, too, acted with malice,
oppression, or fraud against Ms. Young.
Stanford University and Stanford
Health Care petitioned the trial court for a new trial and to set
aside the jury's verdicts.
On June 13, 2024, the trial court
conditionally reduced the jury's verdict to $10 million while upholding the jury's decision
to award $2 million in punitive
damages to punish Stanford University
and $3 million in punitive damages to
punish Stanford Health Care.
"My client is a hero," says Lara
Villarreal Hutner, Ms. Young's attorney. "She's a current
employee at Stanford Health Care who's had the courage to shine a
light on the racism and patient safety issues she's
alleged and reported and to stand up against
oppression for daring to speak truth to power. Ms. Young is
grateful to all the Stanford faculty
who have supported her and to the hardworking jurors who saw the
truth. It's been a nearly decade-long battle of David versus
Goliath. And she's won."
Ms. Young's trial team includes Lara
Villarreal Hutner, Rachel M.
Pusey, Brian C. Coolidge, and
Amanda Arnall of Villarreal Hutner PC (www.vhattorneys.com), and
Elizabeth "Lisa" M. Peck, Mythily
Sivarajah, Kevin Schwin, and
Julia Venturini of Peck-Law,
Employment & Civil Rights (www.peck-law.com).
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content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/jury-awards-20-million-verdict-in-race-harassment-case-involving-ku-klux-klan-related-threats-at-stanford-medicine-cancer-center-302176270.html
SOURCE VILLARREAL HUTNER PC