Judge Cuts $12 Million Award to Conn. Man in GE Job Bias Case

October 25, 2007

A federal judge has cut $5 million from a more than $12 million jury award that found General Electric discriminated against and illegally fired a chief engineer.

Fifty-three-year-old Hemant Mody of Avon, Conn. never saw any of the award. Mody died in April of this year following a heart attack. Shortly after that his wife died.

Mody worked in General Electric’s Plainville facility. He invented products and received eight patents.

Senior U.S. District Judge Warren W. Eginton did cut the punitive damage award, but said the company still should pay a substantial amount of money.

Eginton says the evidence supports the jury’s finding of a “significant degree of reprehensible conduct.”

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Information from: Connecticut Post, http://www.connpost.com