Jury Awards $1 Million to Woman Who Was Told, ‘I Don’t Serve Black People’

A woman in Oregon was awarded $1 million in damages this week after a jury found that she was discriminated against when a gas station attendant told her he didn’t “serve Black people.”

The decision by the jury in Multnomah County, which came after a four-day civil trial, included $550,000 in punitive damages.

Greg Kafoury, a lawyer for Rose Wakefield, the plaintiff, said his client felt “vindicated” and was looking forward to putting this case behind her.

“This company deserved to be publicly humiliated just as they had publicly humiliated my client by calling her a liar in court for four days when she had been telling the truth,” Mr. Kafoury said in an interview on Saturday.

In March 2020, Ms. Wakefield, 63, of Portland, stopped for gas at a Jacksons Food Store in Beaverton, west of Portland.

But when she pulled into the station, Ms. Wakefield noticed she was being ignored by the attendant, who served multiple white customers who arrived after her. She then asked the employee, identified as Nigel in the lawsuit, when she would be helped. “I’ll get to you when I feel like it,” he told her, according to a news release from Mr. Kafoury.

Oregon is one of two states, along with New Jersey, where it’s illegal in most areas for drivers to pump their own gas. (It’s allowed in certain rural counties in Oregon.)

Ms. Wakefield then went inside the store to talk with a manager, who “offered no assistance,” according to the lawsuit. Eventually, another employee from inside the store pumped the gas for Ms. Wakefield.

As she was about to leave, Ms. Wakefield asked the attendant why she had not been served. The employee replied, “I don’t serve Black people,” according to a news release from her lawyer.

Shortly after leaving the gas station, Ms. Wakefield called Jacksons Food Stores to complain twice and was largely ignored, according to her lawyers. The attendant was never questioned about the matter, they said.

The attendant was fired about a month after the encounter after being written up numerous times for talking on the cellphone, the release said.

Jacksons is owned by PacWest Energy, which was also named in the suit.

Cory Jackson, the president of Jacksons Food Stores, said in an email that there was a “zero-tolerance” policy against discrimination and pointed to employee trainings meant to “best serve all of our customers with dignity and respect.”

Mr. Jackson said the company disagreed with the verdict.

“After carefully reviewing all facts and evidence, including video surveillance, we chose to take this matter to trial because we were comfortable based on our knowledge that the service-related concern actually reported by the customer was investigated and promptly addressed,” Mr. Jackson said. “As such, we respectfully disagree with the jury’s ruling because our knowledge does not align with the verdict.”

Lawyers for the company and for the store manager, who was named in the complaint, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.