MovieChat Forums > North Country (2005) Discussion > Damages

Damages

posted 18 years ago by blaircam
1 reply | jump to latest

Ok, I'm aware that this is based on a true story.
I am also aware that it happened in the 1980's so things may have been a bit different back then.
I am also aware that this is a movie so not everything have have been quite the same in real life...
however...
it seems to me that if what the movie showed represented even close to what was actually happening in real life that this would have been a prime candidate for massive punitive/exemplary damages.
But the blurb at the end of the movie said the damages awarded were modest!
It seemed that the action was heard by a judge sitting without a jury - this may have been a factor.
Can anyone tell me why the damages were so modest?

[–] stormmm40 18 years ago

This might help to understand why .. from wikipedia.org

A liability trial began in December 1992 in front of Judge Richard Kyle in St. Paul, Minnesota, and six months later, he ruled that the company should have prevented the misconduct. The company was ordered to educate all employees about sexual harassment.

Patrick McNulty of Duluth was named special master a few months later to oversee a trial that would determine the amount of money owed to the women in damages. The retired federal magistrate permitted lawyers from the mine company to obtain medical records of all of the women for their entire lifetimes. Ahead of the trial, which took place in Duluth in mid-1995, the plaintiffs endured long depositions that explored their personal lives in great detail.

McNulty expressed a great deal of skepticism in delivering his report in 1996, going so far as to call the women "histrionic." After revealing various personal details about the plaintiffs, he awarded each of them an average of $10,000. However, the judgement was appealed, reversed in December 1997 by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. A new jury trial was ordered.

On December 30, 1998, just before the trial was set to begin, fifteen women settled with Eveleth Mines for a total of $3.5 million. One of the original plaintiffs, Pat Kosmach, died partway through the case on November 7, 1994.