Ex-Starbucks manager awarded $25.6 million in suit over firing after 2018 arrests of 2 black men
Trending
CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) -- Jurors in a federal court in New Jersey have awarded $25.6 million to a former regional Starbucks manager who alleged that she and other white employees were unfairly punished by the coffee chain after the high-profile 2018 arrests of two black men at one of the chain's Philadelphia locations.
Shannon Phillips won $600,000 in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages on Monday after an eight-member jury decided after five hours of deliberation that race was a determinative factor in Phillips' firing, in violation of federal and state anti-discrimination laws, Law360 reports.
In April 2018, a Philadelphia store manager called police on two black men who were sitting in the coffee shop without ordering anything. Phillips, then regional manager of operations in Philadelphia, southern New Jersey, and elsewhere, had nothing to do with the arrests but lost her job less than a month later after objecting to another white manager being placed on leave amid the uproar, according to her lawsuit.
The company's rationale for suspending the district manager, who was not responsible for the store where the arrests took place, was an allegation that black store managers were being paid less than white managers, according to the lawsuit. Phillips said that argument made no sense since district managers have no input on employee salaries.
The lawsuit alleged Starbucks was instead taking steps to "punish white employees who had not been involved in the arrests, but who worked in and around the city of Philadelphia, in an effort to convince the community that it had properly responded to the incident."
During closing arguments on Friday, Phillips' lawyer Laura Mattiacci told jurors that the company was looking for a "sacrificial lamb" to calm the outrage and show that it was taking action, Law360 reported. Picking a black employee for such a purpose "would have blown up in their faces," she said.
Starbucks denied Phillips' allegations, saying the company needed someone with a track record of "strength and resolution" during a crisis and replaced her with a regional manager who had such experience, including navigating the aftermath of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, Law360 reported.
"A peacetime leader is very different from a wartime leader," Starbucks attorney Richard Harris said during his closing arguments, Law360 reported. "These were turbulent times. Starbucks needed someone to show strength and resolution."
Phillips' attorney, however, cited earlier testimony from a black district manager, who was responsible for the store where the arrests took place, who described Phillips as someone beloved by her peers and worked around the clock in the wake of the arrests.