A federal appeals court on Monday overturned a lower court and dismissed a national origin discrimination lawsuit filed by a former manager of Lebanese descent against Ford Motor Co. and two supervisors, ruling there was insufficient evidence against them.

A jury in U.S. District Court in Detroit had found that Faisal G. Khalaf had been subject to retaliatory demotion by Ford and a supervisor, retaliatory placement on a performance enhancement by another supervisor, and retaliatory termination by the company, according to the ruling in Faisal G. Khalaf, Ph.D. v. Ford Motor Company; Bennie Fowler; Jay Zhou.

The jury awarded Mr. Khalaf $15 million in punitive damages against Ford, as well as $1.7 million in pension and retirement losses and $100,000 in emotional distress damages. The district court reduced the punitive damages award to $300,000 and denied the defendants’ motion for judgment or a new trial.

A three-judge appeals court panel unanimously held the lower court had erred in denying the defendants’ motion for judgment as a matter of law and reversed its ruling.

Although statements made by Mr. Khalaf’s subordinates could have been offensive to him, “none of these alleged incidents of disrespect demonstrates that his subordinates made any comments because of Dr. Khalaf’s Lebanese origin or Middle Eastern ethnicity, as required for him to prove a hostile work environment,” the ruling said.

“Therefore, we determine that Dr. Khalaf failed to introduce sufficient evidence to allow a reasonable jury to find the requisite discriminatory animus from his subordinates based on race or national origin,” the ruling said.

“The alleged comments of Dr. Khalaf’s subordinates regarding his ‘writing and understanding’ of English, do not rise to the level of hostility based on national origin” to trigger Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, the appeals panel said in reversing the district court’s judgment and remanding the case for entry of a judgment in the defendants’ favor.

A Ford spokeswoman said in a statement, “The unanimous ruling by a panel of three federal appellate judges completely vindicates Bennie Fowler, Jay Zhou and Ford Motor Co. Ford has always maintained that the jury’s verdict was deeply flawed and unjust.  After methodically and fairly reviewing the evidence presented at trial, the appellate court correctly ruled that judgment should be entered in favor of Mr. Fowler, Dr. Zhou and Ford.”

Mr. Khalaf’s attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.