On November 12, 1997, the California Supreme Court agreed to review this case following the filing of WLF’s initial brief urging it to review and reverse a court of appeal’s decision that awarded an unprecedented $17 million of compensatory and punitive damages in an employment discrimination case. In doing so, the court of appeal rejected the 33-page decision and order of the trial court that Hughes Aircraft Company did not discriminate, or at least deserved a new trial. The court of appeal also ignored a previous California Supreme Court ruling in the same case to apply the proper legal standard in reviewing the trial court’s original ruling. In its brief, WLF argued that the California Supreme Court should review and reverse the court of appeal and reinstate the trial court’s order; otherwise, free enterprise will be increasingly subject to the “lottery”-like system of civil justice.
