Wal-Mart has been sued more than 70 times across the country on behalf of hundreds of thousands of current and former employees for tampering with time cards and not paying its employees for lunch and other breaks. Yesterday the appeals court of Pennsylvania upheld a jury's decision that Wal-Mart was guilty of violating the law in not compensating their workers. The judge also ruled that Wal-Mart should pay more than $62 million in statutory liquidated damages. That brings sum Wal-Mart owes to over $186 million.

Here's an excerpt from The Legal Intelligence article:

A Philadelphia judge has affirmed a $185 million award against retail titan Wal-Mart in a class action alleging underpayment of Wal-Mart employees as part of an opinion written for an appeal now pending with the Pennsylvania Superior Court.

Common Pleas Judge Mark I. Bernstein's opinion under Pennsylvania Rule of Appellate Procedure 1925(a) said the appeals court should affirm a jury verdict finding over 186,000 current and former Pennsylvania Wal-Mart employees were not properly compensated for off-the-clock work and missed rest breaks between March 19, 1998, and May 1, 2006.

The jury found that Wal-Mart employees were owed $1,462,910.35 in damages for off-the-clock work and $27,715,964 for rest break violations between March 19, 1998, and Dec. 31, 2001, and $1,031,430 for off-the-clock work and $48,258,111 for rest break violations between Jan. 1, 2002, and May 1, 2006, Bernstein wrote in his opinion from Wednesday.

Bernstein also said that the Superior Court should affirm his judgment that Wal-Mart should pay $62.2 million in statutory liquidated damages, $10.2 million in prejudgment interest, $33.8 million in statutory attorney fees and $11.9 million in nonstatutory attorney fees.

The total judgment against Wal-Mart now stands at $187,648,589.11.