$185M awarded in AutoZone gender suit

SAN DIEGO  —  A San Diego federal jury awarded $185 million in punitive damages against AutoZone Stores after finding that the company retaliated against a pregnant manager, eventually demoting her and firing her.

The three-woman, five-man jury also awarded Rosario Juarez $872,000 in compensatory damages, for lost wages and emotional stress.

It is believed to be the largest employment law verdict for an individual in U.S. history.

“This was a message sent to AutoZone to make sure they understand they cannot be doing this to females and pregnant women out there,” said Juarez, a San Ysidro resident and single mother of two. “That we are capable of doing the same work as a male would be able to do.”

AutoZone spokesman Ray Pohlman said in an email that the company plans to appeal.

The lawsuit, initially filed in San Diego Superior Court in 2008, outlined a corporate structure that resisted promoting women into management positions and made light of anyone who complained about it. AutoZone operates about 4,000 stores across the U.S. and abroad, with about 400 of them in California.

According to the lawsuit, the philosophy was summed up by the vice president for western operations during a visit to a store staffed by a female manager and other women. He allegedly took the district manager aside and said: “What are we running here, a boutique? Get rid of these women,” the lawsuit states.

Juarez, 43, was hired at the National City store in 2000 as a customer services representative and was promoted to parts sales manager in 2001. She later asked to be promoted to store manager, but said her efforts were frustrated by a “glass ceiling” that prevented women from rising in the ranks. The lawsuit states that district managers were directed to stop promoting women and to start getting rid of females already holding such positions.

She said she was promoted in 2004, but only after complaining to the human resources department.

When she became pregnant in 2005, her boss continually suggested she step down because she couldn’t handle the responsibilities of the job while with child, the suit says. She refused. According to the complaint, the harassment continued once she gave birth to her son, and she was demoted to parts sales manager in 2006.

According to court records, attorneys for AutoZone claim she was demoted for poor performance, noting that she needed improvement in many areas and was not meeting expectations.

In her new position, Juarez said she was asked to work extra-long hours, ordered to redo work for no reason and was humiliated and yelled at in front of co-workers. She said her complaints about the situation went nowhere.

She filed her lawsuit in 2008. A month after she gave her deposition, she was fired.

The company claimed she was terminated over $400 in missing register money. In a trial this month, the loss prevention officer who handled the investigation into the missing cash testified that she never suspected Juarez of wrongdoing and that the company was targeting her. The officer has filed a gender discrimination lawsuit of her own against AutoZone.

One of Juarez’s lawyers said an AutoZone district manager testified that he was offered a promotion if he fired all the women in his stores.

After two-weeks of testimony, the jury on Friday unanimously held AutoZone liable on all counts, including gender/pregnancy discrimination, retaliation and failure to prevent harassment.

On Monday the jury awarded Juarez $185 million, concluding the punitive phase.

Charles Moore, one of Juarez’s attorneys, said the jury heard evidence from an AutoZone chief financial officer that the company generates about $20 million a week in excess cash, after all operating expenses and the like are paid, and that money had been going to a massive stock repurchase program.

Juarez had been seeking $160 million in punitive damages — eight weeks of that cash — but the jury awarded her closer to nine weeks, Moore said.

Juarez, who has an 8-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter, said the past eight years have been rough, emotionally and financially.

“It’s been very hard, very stressful. There were times I couldn’t find a job. I had to go sell burritos and Mexican cheese,” she said. She acknowledged the case could possibly last a few more years on appeal.

“We’ll just hang in there like we have so far and make sure justice is made,” she said.

Juarez’s lawyers — Moore and Lawrance Bohm — have won two other employment lawsuits against AutoZone in California. In 2010, a district manager was awarded a $1.5 million verdict on allegations that the company failed to accommodate his sleep apnea condition. The reward was reduced to about $255,000 on appeal, and AutoZone is still appealing that amount. Also in 2010, another district manager claimed to have been fired in retaliation for reporting harassment and discrimination. The punitive damages in the $1.3 million verdict were later reduced to $675,000.

The verdict beats the $167 million award in 2012 in the wrongful termination of a surgical aide at a Catholic hospital in Sacramento County — a case also tried by Bohm. That award was later reduced to $82.3 million and then settled for an undisclosed amount.