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Former Los Angeles Times sports columnist T.J. Simers was awarded more than $15 million by a Los Angeles jury Monday in a second trial over claims that he was discriminated against based on his age and disability.
Simers, currently 68, was awarded $15.4 million in noneconomic damages in his Los Angeles Superior Court suit accusing the paper of discriminating against him in 2013 based on his age and a neurological condition, his attorneys said in a statement.
Although Simers was awarded about $7 million following his first trial in 2015, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William A. MacLaughlin sliced that award after he found insufficient evidence to support the jury’s conclusion that Simers was forced to quit his job.
But the judge also found that Simers had supported his claims of age and disability discrimination and ordered a new trial on all damages since it wasn’t possible to figure out how much of the jury’s initial noneconomic damages award was tied only to Simers’ discrimination claims. California’s Second Appellate District upheld Judge MacLaughlin’s decision in January 2018.
