95 million verdict in gross conduct case

A national retail employer Aaron Rents, Inc. recently lost a suit (complaint here) involving allegations of assault, battery, negligent hiring, negligent retention, negligent supervision, negligent investigation of a sexual harassment claim, negligent repair, intentional infliction of emotional distress, retaliation, sexual harassment. The allegations of the complaint provide an excellent checklist of what to consider and avoid in responding to employee harassment complaints. The allegations are enough to outrage a lot of potential jurors. Seems the 20 year old female plaintiff was subjected to months of unwanted attention from her store manager and gifts that were accompanied by inappropriate requests, one allegation involves the store manager. One alleged incident involved the manager sneaking up behind her as she was sitting on the floor and banging his penis on her head. Another allegation involved the manager grabbing her, throwing her to the floor, pulling up her shirt to expose her chest and masturbating to ejaculation on her chest. When plaintiff complained her complaints were not adequately investigated and she was retaliated against according to the allegations of the suit. Various legal caps may reduce the jury award to $43 million.