Paletz

INTRODUCTION

Defendants Tehmina Adaya and Indus Investments Inc., doing business as Shangri-La Hotel, appeal from the jury’s verdict finding that Defendants discriminated against Plaintiffs in violation of the Unruh Civil Rights Act. The litigation arises out of Defendants’ refusal to provide services at a hotel event to the individual Plaintiffs because they were Jewish. Plaintiff Platinum, an event promoting company, also sued Defendants for contract and tort causes of action related to the event. Defendants assert many grounds on appeal regarding sufficiency of the evidence, improper evidentiary rulings, standing, inconsistent verdicts, duplicative recovery, jury instruction errors, and improper apportionment of attorney fees awards. We affirm the jury’s verdict awarding actual damages and statutory penalties under Unruh as it is supported by substantial evidence and any evidentiary concerns raised by Defendants were harmless error. We reverse the duplicative award of punitive damages stemming from intentional infliction of emotion distress. We reverse and remand the court’s award of attorney fees to the extent that it abused its discretion in unreasonably apportioning…