$360 Million Verdict for Three Patients Abused by Cumberland Hospital Director
After trial: A judge reduced the September 2024 jury verdict from $360 million to just over $241 million. More than 40 plaintiffs in the broader Cumberland Hospital litigation reached a confidential settlement in August 2026, ending the six-year case.
Won by Breit Biniazan.
A Richmond Circuit Court jury awarded $360 million to three former adolescent patients who were sexually abused by Dr. Daniel Davidow, the medical director of Cumberland Hospital for Children, during what he called routine femoral pulse exams.
What happened
Cumberland Hospital for Children and Adolescents, a behavioral health facility in New Kent County, Virginia, operated by Universal Health Services, admitted teenagers in psychiatric and behavioral crisis. Those patients passed through a medical intake process controlled by the facility's medical director, Dr. Daniel Davidow. Three former patients alleged Davidow used those examinations as cover for sexual abuse, inappropriately touching them under the guise of checking femoral pulse readings.
The civil case, filed in 2020 in Richmond Circuit Court with plaintiffs identified by initials, expanded into a broader action representing more than 40 former patients who made similar allegations. Plaintiffs argued the hospital's corporate owners knew of documented concerns about Davidow and kept him in his position anyway. Davidow denied all allegations. A criminal trial in April 2024 ended in his acquittal on four felony charges before a judge, a result that did not bar the civil proceedings.
The Richmond Circuit Court civil trial opened September 9, 2024, and ran three weeks. The Breit Biniazan team, led by Kevin Biniazan alongside co-counsel Scott Perry and Lee Floyd, presented evidence that hospital leadership had received warning signs about Davidow's conduct and failed to act. Jurors deliberated roughly seven hours before returning a verdict on September 27, 2024.
The jury awarded $120 million per plaintiff: $20 million in compensatory damages, $40 million in punitive damages, and $60 million in treble damages under the Virginia Consumer Protection Act, for a combined $360 million. Defendants moved for a new trial and challenged the consumer-protection theory. In June 2025, the Richmond Circuit judge denied both motions and upheld the verdict in substance, but applied Virginia's statutory cap on punitive damages, reducing each plaintiff's punitive award to $350,000. That adjustment brought each plaintiff's recovery to approximately $80.35 million and the combined total to just over $241 million. Pending claims by more than 40 additional former patients remain against the same defendants.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Virginia Lawyers Weekly: Sex abuse victims sue behavioral health facility's owners, operators; $360 million verdict (Mar. 31, 2025)·Archived copy
- 2.WTVR CBS 6: jury delivers verdict against Cumberland Hospital and Dr. Davidow, Sept. 27 2024·Archived copy
- 3.Minnesota Lawyer: Jury awards $360M to patients alleging abuse, Nov. 2024·Archived copy
- 4.WTVR CBS 6: judge upholds verdict in Cumberland Hospital case, June 2025·Archived copy
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