$8 Million Verdict for Disabled Man Who Died in Oklahoma Group Home, Judgment Stood at $7.2 Million
After trial: Reduced by apportionment, not a cap. The $4,000,000 actual-damages verdict was entered at $3,200,000 for Renaissance's 80 percent share of fault, and the $4,000,000 punitive award was entered in full, for a $7,200,000 judgment.
Won by Harris & Coffey, PLLC.
Mitchell Boles was 51, profoundly disabled and dependent on constant supervision. He had lived about 40 years at the state's Southern Oklahoma Resource Center in Pauls Valley. When Oklahoma closed its institutions he was moved in January 2014 to a group home in northwest Oklahoma City run by Renaissance Management Group, and he died there. In October 2016 an Oklahoma County jury found the operator negligent, put 80 percent of the fault on it, awarded $4,000,000 in actual damages and then $4,000,000 in punitive damages. The judgment was $7,200,000.
What happened
Mitchell Boles, Mitch to his family, was profoundly disabled and needed constant supervision. For about 40 years he lived at the Southern Oklahoma Resource Center in Pauls Valley, a state-run institution. In 2012 Oklahoma decided to close it, and in January 2014, at 51, he was moved to a group home in northwest Oklahoma City operated by Renaissance Management Group of Tulsa.
He died there.
His sister, Shannon Adams, sued Renaissance for wrongful death as personal representative of his estate and on behalf of their parents, Joyce and Maurice Boles, in the District Court of Oklahoma County, No. CJ-2014-5408. Renaissance brought in the Oklahoma Department of Human Services and its Developmental Disabilities Services Division as third-party defendants.
The case was tried over a week in October 2016 before Judge Dixon. The jury began deliberating on a Friday, came back on Monday, October 10, and returned a unanimous verdict for the plaintiff: Renaissance 80 percent at fault, the other defendant 20 percent, actual damages of $4,000,000. The court entered judgment for $3,200,000 in actual damages, Renaissance's share. The trial then moved to a second stage on punitive damages. The plaintiff rested without further evidence, the defense put on its case, and the jury returned $4,000,000 in punitive damages.
That made the judgment $7,200,000 against Renaissance Management Group.
Paul Harris and Kevin Coffey of Harris & Coffey in Oklahoma City represented the family. Renaissance said it was disappointed in the verdict but respected the process, and that it intended to work with the family's lawyers to resolve the matter.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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