$134 Million Verdict for Childhood Sexual Abuse Survivor Leads Ohio Supreme Court to Strike Damages Cap
After trial: In December 2022 the Ohio Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that Ohio's statutory cap on noneconomic damages is unconstitutional as applied to child sexual-abuse survivors with catastrophic psychological injuries, reversed the appeals court, and reinstated the full $134 million jury verdict. Defendant Roy Pompa is serving life without parole for the underlying convictions, so the judgment against him individually is likely largely uncollectable.
Won by The Fitch Law Firm.
A Cuyahoga County jury awarded $134 million to a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, and the Ohio Supreme Court later struck down a statutory damages cap as unconstitutional when applied to child victims of intentional criminal acts.
What happened
Roy Pompa sexually abused a girl beginning when she was eleven years old, drugging her before assaults and recording the incidents over roughly eighteen months. He was criminally convicted in 2007 on 93 counts, including 17 counts of rape and 5 counts of kidnapping, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The survivor, Amanda Brandt, filed a civil lawsuit in 2018.
At trial in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, The Fitch Law Firm attorneys John Fitch and Kirstin Peterson presented evidence of the severe and lasting psychological harm Brandt had suffered: chronic PTSD, anxiety, nightmares, periods of homelessness, and suicide attempts. The jury returned a verdict of $134 million, comprising $14 million in noneconomic damages for abuse occurring before April 6, 2005, $20 million in noneconomic damages for abuse occurring after that date, and $100 million in punitive damages.
The post-2005 portion became the legal flashpoint. Ohio's 2005 tort reform statute, R.C. 2315.18, capped noneconomic damages at $250,000. The trial court applied the cap and reduced the $20 million award to $250,000. Brandt appealed on constitutional grounds, but the Eighth District Court of Appeals affirmed the reduction in March 2021.
The Ohio Supreme Court accepted the case and, in December 2022, reversed in a 4-3 decision. The majority held that the damages cap violated the Ohio Constitution as applied to a child victim who sustained permanent and severe psychological injuries from intentional criminal sexual conduct. The court reinstated the full $20 million noneconomic damages award, bringing the enforceable judgment back to $134 million.
The ruling did not strike down the cap categorically. It held, on an as-applied basis, that the constitution prohibits the legislature from limiting compensation for this category of harm to a fraction of what a jury found necessary. The $100 million punitive damages award and the $14 million for pre-2005 abuse were never subject to the cap and remained intact throughout the appellate proceedings.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Brandt v. Pompa (2022)
- 2.Brandt v. Pompa (2021)·Archived copy
- 3.Court News Ohio (Supreme Court Public Information Office)·Archived copy
- 4.Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY Network Ohio (Laura Bischoff, March 28, 2022)·Archived copy
- 5.Ohio Capital Journal (Jake Zuckerman, Nov. 1, 2021), republished on News5Cleveland·Archived copy
More proven verdicts from The Fitch Law Firm
All The Fitch Law Firm proven verdicts →A Delaware County jury awarded more than $3.6 million to a teenager who was raped by a pastor at Grace Brethren Church of Delaware, Ohio, whose leadership had ignored prior documented warnings about the man's conduct with minors.
Related Ohio verdicts
Ellen Relkin served as court-appointed co-lead plaintiffs counsel in the DePuy ASR hip implant MDL, helping negotiate a $2.5 billion settlement for roughly 8,000 patients who required revision surgery after the metal-on-metal device failed.
After nearly 30 years of litigation, Markovits Stock and DeMarco secured a $742 million-plus-interest settlement for approximately 23,000 Navistar retirees whose healthcare and life insurance benefits had been repeatedly reduced.
Cory Watson's Jon Conlin, a co-lead lawyer on the plaintiffs' steering committee, helped drive DuPont and Chemours to a $670.7 million global settlement resolving about 3,550 C-8 water-contamination cancer and injury claims.
A federal jury found CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart liable for creating an opioid public nuisance in northeast Ohio, leading to a $650 million abatement judgment, the first of its kind against pharmacy chains in U.S. history.