Employee's $400,000 Jury Verdict Against Urine- Testing Lab Is Upheld
Ishikawa v. Delta Airlines, Inc., 343 F.3d 1129 (9th Cir. 2003)
Yasuko Ishikawa, a Delta Airlines flight attendant, was terminated for failing a drug-detection urine test. Because the test had been performed negligently and had no validity, Delta rehired Ishikawa and paid her her lost income. Ishikawa also sued LabOne, the urine-testing laboratory, for negligence, and the jury awarded her $68,000 in economic and $332,000 in non-economic damages. As a defense, LabOne argued that the federal Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act of 1991 and the related FAA regulations preempted Ishikawa’s state-law negligence claim. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed, holding that federal law did not preempt Ishikawa’s claim.
