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Violation Tracker Individual Record

Company: Ralphs Grocery
Current Parent Company: Kroger
Penalty: $6,550,000
Year: 2002
Date: July 29, 2002
Offense Group: employment-related offenses
Primary Offense: employment discrimination
Secondary Offense: sexual harassment
Violation Description: In this case, which dragged on for more than a decade, the original verdict in the trial court awarded $3.8 million in damages to six women who alleged that they had been subjected to a sexually hostile work environment at a Ralphs store in Escondido, California. The trial judge threw out that award and ordered a new trial. In 2002 another jury awarded $30 million in punitive damages but the judge said that unless the plaintiffs accepted a lower amount he would order a new trial. Two of the six plaintiffs accepted a total of $4.5 million in punitives plus the $300,000 they had been awarded in compensatory damages. In 2006 a state appeals court ruled that the damages for the other plaintiffs should be six times their $250,000 in compensatory damages, which amounted to a total of $1.75 million.
Level of Government: state
Action Type: private litigation
Court: Superior Court of State of California, County of San Diego
Civil or Criminal Case: civil
Case ID: N72142
Case Name: Gober v. Ralphs Grocery Co.
Private Lawsuit Resolution Type: settlement
HQ Country of Current Parent: USA
HQ State of Current Parent: Ohio
Ownership Structure of Current Parent: publicly traded
Major Industry of Current Parent: retailing
Specific Industry of Current Parent: retail-supermarkets
Source of Data: (click here)
Source Notes: If an online information source is not working, check the Violation Tracker Data Sources page for an updated link.
Current parent company note: Parent-subsidiary relationship is current as of the most recent revision listed in the Update Log.