Jury awards $1 million in court case about racial discrimination in Beaverton

(JANUARY 27, 2023) Earlier this week, a Multnomah County jury awarded $1 million to Rose Wakefield. The court concluded that she suffered racial discrimination at a gas station. 

Wakefield had stopped at Jacksons Food Store in Beaverton on March 12, 2020. First, nobody came to her car to help her. So she asked the attendant for help. He said, "I'll get to you when I feel like it." Wakefield then went inside the store. She asked an employee there to help her. That employee helped Wakefield with gas. That employee gave Wakefield the company's phone number in order to make a complaint about the attendant. Wakefield started to leave. She said that she asked the attendant why he wouldn't help her. She said the attendant replied, "I don't serve Black people."

Wakefield's lawyer told the jury that Wakefield had called the company to complain. However, the company did not record the call. The company did not make any notes about the racial discrimination, either. Later, Wakefield called a regional manager. Again no notes were made, and the message was erased.

"The attendant was never questioned by the company about the racist comments," said Wakefield's lawyer, "and was disciplined only for failing to serve customers in the order of their arrival."

The attendant's lawyer said that Wakefield was lying. However, the company fired the attendant only a month after the incident after filling his file with notes about small problems, such as talking on his cell phone. There were no records of problems before the incident with Wakefield.

The award includes $550,000 of punitive damages. "Punitive" means as punishment. The jury wanted to punish the gas station for the bad behavior if its employee.