Just in time for Christmas, a jury handed out a gift to the Walton family: it has to pay up for breaking the law. Again.

Jury slaps Wal-Mart with $172M ruling
A California jury orders the retail giant to pay $172 million to workers denied lunch breaks.

(CNN) – Jurors in Oakland, Calif., Thursday awarded $172 million to thousands of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. employees after deciding that the world’s largest retailer violated state law by denying lunch breaks, a court spokesman said.

Jurors in Alameda County Superior Court awarded $57 million in actual damages and $115 in punitive damages in the class action lawsuit filed in 2001.

Jessica Grant, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, spoke to Reuters after the ruling. “What was compelling for the jury was that we put a lot of evidence before them of memos by Wal-Mart from seven years ago that concluded they had been breaking the law,” said Grant.

“Instead of taking steps to solve the problem, Wal-Mart concealed it.”