The Bank Manager should receive $2.4 million after a jury found that the Bank in new Jersey, where she worked, the client was able to harass her.
According to Damara Scott, she quit her job in PNC Bank in Glen ridge six years ago, when a customer followed her and told her lewd words, and then grabbed her buttocks and touched his groin to her body when she tried to sit in his car.
Scott argues that her assailant was a wealthy client who was sexually harassed African American women who worked in the branch and that the Bank did nothing with this — before or after the attack.
Client, 77-year-old Patrick Pignatello, was arrested and charged with criminal sexual contact after an incident on 20 October 2013. He died of a heart attack before the trial.
«The jury found that PNC failed to provide a safe workplace for Ms. Scott, said Nancy Erika Smith, one of the lawyers of Scott. We hope that PNC will now take steps to eliminate harassment throughout the company.»
During the trial it turned out that Pignatello was a history of harassment of Bank employees and customers. One witness reported that when he was introduced to a mortgage representative, instead, to shake her outstretched hand, he embraced her and laid his head on her chest.
He also made inappropriate sexual comments to female employees, asking them: «are you Going to serve me today?»
The Bank, based in Pittsburgh, plans to appeal the verdict, saying that «mistakes were made by the court.»
