Jury Awards $20 Million Verdict In Race Harassment Case Involving Ku Klux Klan-Related Threats at Stanford Medicine Cancer Center

SAN FRANCISCO, June 19, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Stanford Health Care patient testing technician Qiqiuia Young filed a 100-page lawsuit against Stanford University and Stanford Health Care alleging a series of acts of racial harassment and discrimination that began with her co-workers threatening to, and then dressing as the Ku Klux Klan at the Stanford Cancer Center and detailing multiple instances of the “N” word used in the workplace at Stanford Health Care.

Ms. Young also alleged retaliation for her reports of race harassment, and for her association with Stanford University physicians who reported race harassment on her behalf, as well as whistleblower retaliation for Ms. Young’s voluminous reports of patient safety issues at Stanford Health Care.

Ms. Young, whose grandparents were Civil Rights leaders in Oklahoma, where she was born, says, “I couldn’t turn a blind eye to what people were doing. I had to speak out. And when I did, they tried to silence me.”

The day after Ms. Young filed her lawsuit, Stanford University Dean Lloyd Minor and Stanford Health Care CEO David Entwistle sent an email to over 22,000 people that, on March 28, 2024, a California jury found defamed Ms. Young by falsely implying that she was dishonest in her reports of events of racism or patient safety issues.

At trial, Dr. Iris Gibbs, Stanford University School of Medicine’s former Associate Dean of Admissions, who, like Ms. Young, is also an African-American woman, testified about her concern about the accountability of leadership at Stanford Medicine, and says, “As a principled person with empathy, I have been deeply concerned that the top people in this organization appeared to believe it was okay to single out an employee after reporting such claims of heinous racially discriminatory treatment. I believed it was an abuse of power, and in my role as one of the highest-ranking Black leaders at Stanford Medicine at the time, I felt it was my responsibility to speak up and hold leadership accountable. I have suffered the consequences.”

After a seven-week trial, the jury found that Ms. Young was subjected to racial harassment, discrimination, whistleblower retaliation, and defamation.

It awarded Ms. Young $6 million against Stanford Health Care for her emotional distress from the alleged racial harassment, discrimination, and retaliation, and for the harm to Ms. Young from Stanford Health Care’s failure to prevent those alleged unlawful acts.

The jury awarded Ms. Young an additional $5.4 million against Stanford Health Care for defamation, and found that Stanford Health Care acted with malice, oppression, or fraud against Ms. Young. As a result, the jury awarded an additional $3 million in punitive damages to punish Stanford Health Care and deter further such alleged conduct.

The jury found that Stanford University was not Ms. Young’s joint employer and awarded Ms. Young $5.6 million against Stanford University for defamation. This amount includes $2 million in punitive damages to punish Stanford University after the jury found that in publishing the alleged defamatory statement, Stanford University, too, acted with malice, oppression, or fraud against Ms. Young.

Stanford University and Stanford Health Care petitioned the trial court for a new trial and to set aside the jury’s verdicts.

On June 13, 2024, the trial court conditionally reduced the jury’s verdict to $10 million while upholding the jury’s decision to award $2 million in punitive damages to punish Stanford University and $3 million in punitive damages to punish Stanford Health Care.

“My client is a hero,” says Lara Villarreal Hutner, Ms. Young’s attorney. “She’s a current employee at Stanford Health Care who’s had the courage to shine a light on the racism and patient safety issues she’s alleged and reported and to stand up against oppression for daring to speak truth to power. Ms. Young is grateful to all the Stanford faculty who have supported her and to the hardworking jurors who saw the truth. It’s been a nearly decade-long battle of David versus Goliath. And she’s won.”

Ms. Young’s trial team includes Lara Villarreal Hutner, Rachel M. Pusey, Brian C. Coolidge, and Amanda Arnall of Villarreal Hutner PC (www.vhattorneys.com), and Elizabeth “Lisa” M. Peck, Mythily Sivarajah, Kevin Schwin, and Julia Venturini of Peck-Law, Employment & Civil Rights (www.peck-law.com).