Jenson v. Eveleth Taconite Co.

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Lois E. Jenson v. Eveleth Taconite Co. was the first class-action sexual harassment lawsuit in the United States, filed in 1988 on behalf of Lois Jenson and other female workers at the EVTAC mine in Eveleth, Minnesota on the state's northern Mesabi Range, which is part of the Iron Range. The case was documented in the 2002 book Class Action and a 2005 fictionalized film version, North Country.

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[edit] Facts of the case

Jenson first began working at the site in 1975 and along with other women, endured a continuous stream of abhorrent behavior from male employees, including sexual harassment and stalking. In October 1984, she mailed a complaint to the Minnesota Department of Human Rights [1] outlining the problems she experienced. In retaliation, her car tires were slashed a week later. The state requested that Ogelbay Norton Co.[2], a Cleveland, Ohio-based part-owner of the mine, pay US$ 11,000 to Jenson in damages, but the company refused.

The next year, the case was filed in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis. Class-action status was requested at the time, and granted three years later in late 1991 by Judge James Rosenbaum. Jenson quit working at the mine about a month afterward, in January 1992. She was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder a short time later.

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.

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