A Los Angeles judge has granted a motion for a new trial overturning a previous verdict awarding $8.5 million to a former "Price is Right" model who sued the game show for pregnancy discrimination, the Associated Press reports.
On Tuesday, Judge Kevin Brazile said he did not properly instruct the jury in a 9-3 decision last year that awarded model Brandi Cochran a whopping $8.5 million, City News Service reports, adding that Brazile based his ruling on new legal guidelines from the California Supreme Court.
Cochran sued the producers of FremantleMedia North America and The Price is Right Productions. In November, she won the case after convincing the jury she was discriminated against after becoming pregnant and was then not allowed to return to the show.
Cochran claims that when she got pregnant in 2007 she tried to hide the pregnancy from co-workers because she was concerned about any possible consequences. But when she could not hide her pregnancy anymore, she says the show's producers gave her less work leading to increased stress and health related issues to her and her baby, The Hollywood Reporter reports. After delivering the baby, Cochran wasn't allowed back.
Cochrain has worked on the show for eight-years, working along side both Bob Barker and Drew Carey.
A state Supreme Court decision about jury instruction however will bring the case back to court, Brazile says, adding that he failed to issue instructions to the jury to decide whether the pregnancy discrimination claim by Cochran was a "substantial motivating factor/reason" in the producers' decision not to have her return to the show.
"The instruction error cannot be considered harmless," Brazile wrote in the ruling. "Of central importance to the case was the weight given to discriminatory intent and whether that intent need only be of a mere motivating factor or a substantial factor. Given this central dispute, the failure to give the proper instruction regarding substantial factor cannot be considered harmless, and a new trial must be granted."
A FremantleMedia North America spokesperson did not comment about the judge's ruling.