'The Price is Right' Lawsuit Ruling Overturned; Brandi Cochran to Go Back to Court?
The "Price is Right" lawsuit ruling that awarded $8.5 million to former model Brandi Cochran has been overturned by a judge in California. Cochran brought the lawsuit against the producers of the game show after reportedly being harassed and mistreated while pregnant.
Cochran said she was later forced to resign because she was so badly mistreated for being pregnant. Once she announced she was pregnant with twins, Cochran explained, the producers allegedly began taunting her about her weight gain, eating habits, and then took her off of the show's website.
After giving birth to twins, one of whom was stillborn, Cochran said she was not rehired when she returned to work. She took the case to the California courts and was awarded an astonishing a total of $8.5 million in compensation and punitive damages.
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"The evidence established that Defendants discriminated against Plaintiff, terminating her on the grounds of her prior pregnancy and complications. The evidence is sufficient to support the verdict," the judge said at the time.
"I hope my case will help other women in the same situation," Cochran told Fox News after the verdict was announced.
Now, though, Cochran will not see any of that $8.5 million because the jury "did not receive proper instructions before making its decision," Fox News reported. Judge Kevin Brazile allegedly made the mistake of failing to inform the jury that discrimination is not a "motivating factor/reason" for termination but a "substantial motivating factor/reason."
"The instruction error cannot be considered harmless. Of central importance to the case was the weight given to discriminatory intent and whether that intent need only be of a mere motivating factor or a substantial factor. Given this central dispute, the failure to give the proper instruction regarding substantial factor cannot be considered harmless, and a new trial must be granted," Brazile wrote in the ruling.
There has been no response from Cochran, who has to decide whether she will seek a retrial in the hope of getting her money back. However, her lawyer, Carney Shegerian, told Fox News he thought he could "get triple or quadruple" the original ruling's amount of money.
