“She is the hero of her own story,” says attorney Tom Kayes of Loevy + Loevy.
On February 18, following a seven-day trial, a federal jury in Los Angeles sided with a young woman who testified she had been sexually harassed by her onsite property manager, and awarded her $2.8 million in compensatory damages.
The young woman, whose name is being withheld to protect her privacy, came to America to attend college in Los Angeles. Just eight months after arriving in the country, she and a roommate rented an apartment in the Wilshire Berendo Towers, an 84-unit building in the heart of Koreatown. The property was managed by Beverly Hills Properties, LLC, and the on-site manager was a man named James Shin.
The lawsuit alleged that Shin began sexually harassing the young woman almost immediately, first with inappropriate comments, then with unwanted advances and touching, and finally with an attempt to obtain sex in exchange for help paying rent and help with a pending eviction.
“I am so proud of her. Coming forward in any way is a difficult step for survivors of any kind of sexual harassment or abuse. Coming forward and then overcoming all the obstacles to get to and win a civil trial against a well-resourced opponent takes a lot of guts. She is the hero of her own story,” says attorney Tom Kayes of the civil rights law firm of Loevy + Loevy. “She had the courage and determination to face those responsible in court and help make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else.”
The defendants at trial were Shin’s employer, Beverly Hills Properties, and the building’s owner, the Sterling Family Trust. The Trust owns more than one hundred buildings throughout the Los Angeles area, all managed by Beverly Hills Properties.
The team at trial were Loevy + Loevy lawyers Tom Kayes and Maggi Carfield and paralegal Fernanda Ponce.