On March 3, 2009, a federal jury in Oakland issued a verdict for $677,000 in favor of John Earl Campbell, an African-American Conductor, against his employer, Amtrak for race discrimination. The nine person jury unanimously found that Amtrak refused to select Mr. Campbell for engineer training in July 2004 because of his race, and fired him in September 2004 because of his race.

Mr. Campbell worked as a Conductor in Oakland and San Francisco between 1998 and 2004. His applications for engineer training were repeatedly rejected by Amtrak during that time. Mr. Campbell proved that he was a victim of Joe Deely, Amtrak’s General Manager, whose reign of bigotry began in Oakland in 1993. Numerous witnesses testified about the frequent use of racial slurs by Deely and other top Amtrak managers at the Oakland Yard under Deely’s supervision. One former supervisor testified that Mr. Deely told him when discussing Mr. Campbell that it was his job to “keep them in their place.”

Amtrak claimed that it refused to promote Mr. Campbell because of his disciplinary record. Amtrak also claimed that it had a “three-strikes” policy which justified its decision to deny Mr. Campbell the opportunity to train as an Engineer, and to later fire him. In fact, Mr. Campbell proved that he did not have three (3) rule violations on his record, and that Caucasian employees with way more than “three-strikes” received light discipline, if any, continued to be employed and in one case, were promoted. One Caucasian Conductor had six (6) rule violations on his record, including three (3) final warnings. Another Caucasian Conductor had five (5) rule violations and was still working.

Price And Associates represented Mr. Campbell through the trial, and presented evidence to show that the disparity in Amtrak’s decision to even charge a rule violation in the first place was rampant, and that African-Americans were unduly singled out for harsher discipline on matters that were glossed over for non-African-American employees. The jury awarded Mr. Campbell $676,916 for compensatory damages, including $297,716 for back pay, $259,200 for front pay and $120,000 for non-economic damages. In successful post-trial motions, Price And Associates argued that Mr. Campbell should be reinstated to his position with full seniority. The Court agreed and Mr. Campbell returned to work at the Oakland Yard in December 2009.

Mr. Campbell will be forever grateful to Price And Associates for giving him his life back!!