Napa Wine Train lawsuit settled out of court

The 11 women from a book club evicted from the Napa Wine Train have accepted a settlement out of court, after alleging that train staff's actions were racially motivated.

The Sistahs on the Reading Edge book club made international headlines in August 2015 after they were escorted off the Napa Valley Wine Train, allegedly for laughing and talking too loudly.

The 11 women, 10 of whom were African American, were led through five carriages of the train before being met by police officers when they disembarked.

The women subsequently filed a lawsuit claiming $11m in damages for racial discrimination, with two of the members claiming in The San Jose Mercury News that the incident caused them to lose their jobs.

Details of the settlement between the two parties have not been released.

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The Napa Valley Wine Train, which has since come under new ownership, has not commented on the settlement, following a request from Decanter.com.

At the time of the incident, wine train chief executive Anthony ‘Tony’ Giaccio said, ‘The Napa Valley wine train was 100 percent wrong in its handling of this issue’. It also hired a crisis management PR consultant to handle the situation. Giacco also promised staff would have diversity training in light of the incident.

The incident caused widespread anger on social media with #laughingwhileblack trending across the globe and other people commenting on racial discrimination they have experienced.

Napa Valley Wine Train was bought jointly in September by Noble House Hotels & Resorts and Brooks St.