Jury: Boat dealer condoned sexually hostile work environment

SEATTLE — A Tacoma jury has awarded a former boat salesman $800,000 after finding his managers bullied him relentlessly and exposed him to a sexually hostile work environment, and then fired him when he complained.

The Seattle Times reported Thursday that the jury in U.S. District Court awarded Gregory Corliss $500,000 in general damages and levied $300,000 in punitive damages against Larson Motors; its founder, Robert Larson Sr.; his son, Robert Larson Jr.; and general manager Edwin Devi.

Devi was Corliss' supervisor while he worked at the dealership in Fife in 2013.

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Documents described a pressured "frat-like" sales environment that involved crude jokes and pranks, including a game in which male workers ran around hitting one another in the crotch.

Attorney Gregory Hendershott, who represented the Larsons, wrote in an email that they "respect the process, but believe the jury got the result badly wrong."

Associated Press