Who knows, maybe one or more of the jurors had been badly treated by an airline (quite likely) at some stage and this was payback time. They might have assumed Southwest was insured, and one or more of the jurors had been badly treated by an insurance company (quite likely) and this was payback time. One way of looking at it is that it's the fear of payouts like these which keep corporations more honest that they might otherwise be.
Southwest flight attendents are some of the best and friendliest out there, a bit of a shame Southwest got landed with this. As for USA airline first class being worse than BA economy, utter nonsense. Southwest economy class has better seat pitch than BA economy, and far better customer service - and Jet Blue economy class is even better still. A US carrier short haul first class seat is better than a BA economy seat in all ways, and even better than a BA club Europe short haul seat.