Judge shrinks $10 million jury award to Novant exec fired because he’s a white man

In October, a federal jury in Charlotte awarded $10 million in punitive damages to a former top Novant Health executive who claimed he had been fired because he is a white male.

Now a federal judge has taken most of that money back, citing a federal law that caps damages in Title VII workplace discrimination cases at $300,000.

However, U.S. Magistrate Judge David Cayer of Charlotte still ordered the Winston-Salem-based hospital chain to pay David Duvall some $4 million in damages, lost pay and interest.

Duvall, Novant’s former vice president of marketing and communications, said he lost his job in July 2018 due to the company’s efforts to diversify its top leadership.

His attorney, Luke Largess of Charlotte, told The Charlotte Observer on Monday that he and his client were disappointed but not surprised by the judge’s decision to use the federal cap on punitive damages.

Yet, Largess still described the reduced award as one of largest employment law judgments in North Carolina history, which included millions in lost and future earnings for Duvall as well as the largest amount of punitive damages allowed under the law.

Novant has said it will appeal.

“The reduction of the punitive award by $9.7 million is a significant step in the right direction,” the company said in a Friday statement.

“As David Duvall conceded under oath at trial, our (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) program was properly implemented during the time of his employment. As such we believe an appeal is warranted.”

In a post-trial motion, Novant had asked Cayer to throw out all punitive damages and to set aside the jury’s verdict. The judge refused, writing in his final order that Duvall had been terminated “under circumstances from which reasonable jurors could conclude resulted because of his race and gender.”

In addition to the $300,000 in punitive damages, Cayer ordered the company to pay more than $2.6 million in back pay and interest and close to $1.1 million in future salary and benefits. The $4 million judgment does not include legal fees and expenses, which Cayer will decide at a future date.

Novant had called for $180,000 in back pay for Duvall but no money for so-called “front pay.”

Lawsuit: 2 women hired

Duvall sued the hospital chain in 2019, claiming he had been the victim of reverse discrimination when he was fired without warning just before his fifth anniversary on the job as part of Novant’s years-long effort to diversify its top jobs.

Duvall, who worked in Mecklenburg County, accused Novant of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits race and gender discrimination in the workplace.

“While the goal of achieving diversity in leadership has recognized value, terminating high performing employees with no justification or purpose other than to achieve diversity constitutes an adverse employment action based on race and/or gender,” his lawsuit claimed.

The company, one of the Carolinas’ largest private employers, hired two women to assume Duvall’s duties — one of them Black, the other white, Duvall’s lawsuit claimed.

White men serving as Novant’s chief legal officer, medical group president, chief information officer, patient experience officer and president of the company’s Haymarket Medical Center in northern Virginia also were fired and eventually replaced by a woman or a member of a minority group, the lawsuit claims.

Health care executive says he was fired because he’s white, North Carolina suit says

Largess said in October that the jury award demonstrated that “employers must be sure that the steps they take to advance diversity in the workplace, even with the best of intentions, stay within the confines of the law.”

In court filings, Novant cited what it described as Duvall’s poor leadership skills and his steadily diminishing role after he began delegating many of his responsibilities to two assistants.

Cayer pushed back, writing in his order that none of the cited reasons for Duvall’s firing had been documented by the company. Other justifications had been contradicted during the trial, he said.

Based on the evidence, the judge concluded, the jury could “reasonably infer” that Duvall’s immediate supervisor understood federal anti-discrimination laws but “was willing to terminate a white man in order to advance diverse candidates and promote (Novant’s) clearly stated goal to promote diversity and inclusion.”

Novant primarily serves the Carolinas, Virginia and Georgia and has a massive presence in Charlotte. At the time of Duvall’s firing, Novant had nearly 30,000 workers and operated on nearly $5 billion in revenue and a net income of $94 millio

Health care executive says he was fired because he’s white, North Carolina suit says