California's civil rights commission may not award damages for emotional distress or other personal harm caused by job discrimination, the state Supreme Court ruled today. The 5-2 ruling eliminates the Fair Employment and Housing Commission's ability to order damages for bias victims who commonly suffer no losses in salary but sue for the trauma and humiliation caused by employers' mistreatment. Those victims of sexual or racial harassment could still go to court and sue for a full range of damages. But suits are available only to those who can afford a lawyer. The court said the commission was authorized only to order back pay and reinstatement for wrongfully fired employees and to require employers to take steps to prevent future discrimination. In a separate decision today, the court said discrimination victims were not required to file claims with the state before suing in court. The rulings come three years after the court prohibited the same commission from awarding punitive damages in flagrant cases of job discrimination. In that time, the Legislature has passed bills establishing the commission's authority to award both kinds of damages, but Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed them. Today's ruling was based on an interpretation of current state law and left open the possibility that the Legislature could pass a new law allowing the commission to award damages. But the opinion by Justice Edward Panelli hinted that unlimited damage awards by the commission, even if authorized by state law, might be found unconstitutional as a violation of the right to a jury trial. A jury in a court case ``is in the best position to determine just compensation for emotional and mental distress,'' Panelli wrote. The ruling overturned a $20,000 damage award by the commission to Rose Brown, a secretary for the Peralta Community College District in Oakland. She claimed she was fired in April 1981 for refusing sexual advances by an administrator at Laney College.
