Ohio Supreme Court to decide on damages awarded to child sex-abuse victims

By Randy Ludlow
Columbus Dispatch
December 15, 2015

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/12/15/ohio-supreme-court-damage-caps.html

Ohio Supreme Court

The girl was 15 years old when she was raped twice by her pastor during a counseling session in 2008 at Delaware Grace Brethren Church in Sunbury.

Church officials knew the pastor twice had been previously accused of sexual misconduct with teen-age girls, but did not investigate or document the incidents.

A Delaware County jury subsequently found the church negligent and awarded the girl $3.5 million in damages for her pain and suffering.

But, since the judgment was at odds with a state law capping the amount of non-economic damages, a judge reduced the award to the maximum $350,000.

The Ohio Supreme Court was asked on Tuesday to declare the limit on damages unconstitutional when applied to child sex-abuse victims, saying it deprives them of adequate compensation for a lifetime of mental trauma.

“It’s irrational and arbitrary,” said Columbus lawyer John K. Fitch, who represents the woman and her father. “The state has no legitimate interest ... in protecting those who would rape a child” or cover up for a predator, he said.

The tort-reform law passed by legislators in 2005, and upheld as constitutional “on its face” by the Ohio Supreme Court in 2007, deprives childhood-rape victims of due process and equal protection under the law, Fitch argued.

The law overlooks that sexual abuse typically results in more emotional damage than physical harm, yet restrains the awards victims can receive, he said.

William Curley, a Columbus lawyer representing Grace Brethren Church, told the justices that their previous ruling trumps the arguments made by Fitch’s clients. Lawmakers capped non-economic damages in a move billed as benefitting businesses and insurers in restricting potential losses in civil lawsuits.

Justice Terrence O’Donnell asked Fitch if his arguments would not better be addressed to the General Assembly in seeking to have the law changed rather than asking the court to resolve the issue and “legislate from the bench.”

Fitch also asked the court to rule that his client suffered from two occurrences of rape so she could collect $350,000 in pain-and-suffering damages on each of the two counts of sexual battery of which the pastor was convicted.

The church argues that it was one occurrence since it happened in a short amount of time.

An appellate court upheld the reduction of non-economic damages in the case, but said the victim was entitled to seek the recovery of punitive damages and that damages should be apportioned between the church and the pastor.

Brian L. Williams, 53, was convicted of two counts of sexual battery in 2008 and sentenced to eight years in prison. He is scheduled to be released on July 13.

Fitch said his now 22-year-old client fears the dark and being alone and struggles in dating relationships with men. She needs long-term treatment for post-traumatic-stress disorder, chronic mild depression and alcohol abuse, he said.

The church counters that the woman’s injuries are not comparable to catastrophic physical injuries on which there are no damage caps. She graduated from high school, attended college, received good grades and sought little counseling after her rapes, it says.