$28.2 Million Verdict for Wyoming Woman Brain-Injured by Carbon Monoxide
After trial: Reduced on appeal. The jury returned $3,000,000 compensatory, cut to $2,700,000 for Lompe's 10 percent fault, plus $25,500,000 punitive, and on April 1, 2016 the Tenth Circuit vacated the punitive award against Sunridge and reduced AMC's from $22,500,000 to $1,950,000.
Won by The Spence Law Firm.
A federal jury in Wyoming awarded Amber Lompe $28.2 million after carbon monoxide from a faulty furnace caused permanent brain injury at her Casper apartment, a verdict that stood as one of the largest personal-injury awards in Wyoming history before the Tenth Circuit reduced the punitive component on due-process grounds.
What happened
In February 2011, Amber Lompe was a 20-year-old college student living at the Sunridge Apartments in Casper, Wyoming. Carbon monoxide leaking from a malfunctioning furnace in her unit silently filled the apartment, poisoning her before she could escape. She survived, but the exposure left her with permanent brain damage that impairs her memory, concentration, processing speed, attention, and ability to multitask.
What made the case particularly damning was what the defendants already knew. Trial testimony showed that a Sunridge maintenance employee had suffered carbon monoxide poisoning at the same complex in October 2009 and was sent to a hospital emergency room. Despite that incident, tenants were never warned, and roughly half the apartments lacked working carbon monoxide detectors when Lompe was poisoned two years later.
The Spence Law Firm attorneys G. Bryan Ulmer III and Tyson E. Logan brought the case in federal court against Sunridge Partners LLC, the apartment owner, and Apartment Management Consultants (AMC) of Salt Lake City, the property management company. Over a three-week trial, they presented evidence of a pattern of indifference: a known hazard, no warning, no corrective action, and inadequate detector coverage across the property.
In December 2013, the jury found both defendants liable and returned a verdict of $28.2 million, broken down as $2.7 million in compensatory damages and $25.5 million in punitive damages. U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson upheld the award post-trial, finding the damages 'significant, but not shocking or unconstitutional.' The National Law Journal ranked it among the Top 100 Verdicts of 2013.
On appeal, the Tenth Circuit issued its ruling on April 1, 2016. The court vacated the $3 million punitive award against Sunridge entirely, finding insufficient evidence to support punitive liability for the owner. It also reduced AMC's punitive award from $22.5 million to $1.95 million, applying a roughly 1-to-1 ratio of punitive to compensatory damages and holding the original figure grossly excessive under the Due Process Clause. With compensatory damages of $2.7 million and reduced punitive damages of $1.95 million against AMC, the total recovery after appeal was approximately $4.65 million. Lompe's compensatory damages for her permanent cognitive injuries remained intact.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Insurance Journal (AP): $28M Verdict Upheld in Wyoming Carbon Monoxide Case·Archived copy
- 2.ABA Journal: Punitive verdict for carbon monoxide poisoning was 'excessive and arbitrary,' 10th Circuit says·Archived copy
- 3.Casper Star-Tribune: Casper woman awarded $28.2M in carbon monoxide poisoning case
- 4.Casper Star-Tribune: $28.2M carbon monoxide verdict not a 'runaway verdict,' judge rules·Archived copy
- 5.Lompe v. Sunridge Partners LLC, 818 F.3d 1041 (10th Cir. 2016): Justia court opinion·Archived copy
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