SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A federal jury on Tuesday awarded more than $105 million to a pair of gravel mining families in a lawsuit alleging that Sacramento County put them out of business to favor a bigger rival.
The jury deliberated for a day and a half after the one-month trial before deciding to award $30 million in compensatory damages to Jay Schneider and $75 million to Joseph and Yvette Hardesty, the Sacramento Bee reported (https://bit.ly/2nz1bu5). The families ran a joint mining operation.
The lawsuit alleged that county officials shut down their mine because of political pressure by their much bigger rival, Teichert Construction, and jurors agreed with the plaintiffs.
Three individual county officials were also ordered to pay punitive damages in the case.
A county resource manager was also ordered to pay $1 million, a since-retired senior planner to pay $750,000 and the chairman of the board of supervisors at the time to pay $25,000.
Gregory P. O’Dea, the attorney representing the county, says he plans to appeal the awards, and hopes they’ll be immediately overturned by the trial judge in post-trial motions.
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Information from: The Sacramento Bee, https://www.sacbee.com
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