Top Individual California Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements

$2.28 Billion Verdict for Woman Raped by Her Stepfather From Age 5 to 14 in Lake Elsinore

A Riverside County jury awarded $2.28 billion on April 25, 2023, to a woman identified as Jane Doe who was sexually abused by her stepfather from age 5 until she was 14, at the family's Lake Elsinore home and at events and property of the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The stepfather, who had pleaded guilty in 1997 to lewd acts with a child under 14 and served three years in state prison, admitted the abuse at deposition, then skipped the first day of jury selection and withdrew his answer rather than face a bench warrant. The church settled for $1 million and the mother for $200,000 before trial. The verdict, $836 million in compensatory damages and $1.44 billion in punitive damages after three days of deliberation, is one of the largest ever returned for a single survivor of childhood sexual abuse.

After trial: The defendant withdrew his answer and did not defend the trial, and no appeal has been reported. The Los Angeles Times called the award largely symbolic and unlikely to be paid in full, since he was the only remaining defendant; a church and the mother settled before trial. See more

$4.9 Billion Verdict Over Chevy Malibu Fuel Tank Fire

A Los Angeles jury ordered General Motors to pay $4.9 billion after a 1979 Chevrolet Malibu's rear-mounted fuel tank ruptured and burned six occupants in a rear-end crash, the largest US personal-injury verdict at the time.

After trial: The punitive award was cut to $1.09 billion after trial, about $1.2 billion in total, and the case settled confidentially while the appeal was pending.

$966 Million Talc Verdict Against Johnson & Johnson for a Mesothelioma Death, Punitive Award Vacated

On October 6, 2025, a Los Angeles County jury ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $966 million to the family of Mae K. Moore, a mother of three who died of mesothelioma in December 2021 at age 88 after decades of using the company's talc-based Baby Powder and Shower to Shower. The award comprised $16 million in compensatory damages and $950 million in punitive damages, reported at the time as the largest talc-mesothelioma verdict ever returned against Johnson & Johnson. On March 13, 2026, the trial judge, Ruth Ann Kwan, vacated the entire $950 million punitive award, finding the malice showing insufficient, while leaving the $16 million compensatory judgment intact. Both sides have said they will appeal. Dean Omar Branham Shirley tried the case for the Moore family, and this page documents it as part of the public record.

After trial: The $950 million punitive award was vacated by the trial court in March 2026; $16 million in compensatory damages stands and cross-appeals are pending.

$198.17 Million for the Family of Two Brothers Killed in a Westlake Village Crosswalk

A Los Angeles County jury ordered Rebecca Grossman and former Major League pitcher Scott Erickson to pay $198.17 million for the deaths of two brothers, ages 11 and 8, struck in a marked crosswalk near their home.

After trial: The verdict is against two individuals: Rebecca Grossman, who was driving the SUV that struck the boys, and Scott Erickson, found liable for racing alongside her. Grossman is serving 15 years to life in prison for her 2024 murder conviction in the same crash, and whether the family can collect against her disputed, unverified net worth remains unclear; no appeal outcome had been reported as of this research.

$115 Million Verdict Against Former Stepfather Who Sexually Abused a Girl From Age 6 Into Her Twenties

On September 16, 2025, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury found Joseph Ruffalo, an 85-year-old former music manager and 1980s film producer, liable for sexual battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress against his former stepdaughter, A.Z., who testified that he abused her from 1991, when she was six, until 2007, when she was 22. The unanimous jury deliberated two hours and forty minutes and awarded $85 million in compensatory damages and $30 million in punitive damages. A.Z. had reported the abuse to police in the United States and Britain without result; Ruffalo was never charged. Her mother was a co-defendant and resolved the claims against her before trial. Ruffalo told the jury he could not pay.

After trial: The defendant testified at the punitive phase that he could not pay and had no assets to speak of. As of September 2026 no post-trial ruling or appeal has been reported, and entry of judgment and the status of post-trial motions are not confirmed.

$900 Million Verdict for Employee Raped by the Owner of FilmOn

On June 17, 2024, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury unanimously awarded $900 million, $100 million compensatory and $800 million punitive, to a former employee of Alkiviades "Alki" David's companies who was sexually harassed and raped by him between 2016 and 2019. Liability had already been established before trial, so the jury sat only on damages, and the defense table was empty. In September 2024 the trial judge ruled that the award shocked the conscience and conditionally granted a new trial unless the plaintiff accepted $90 million, $10 million compensatory plus $80 million punitive. David filed a notice of appeal at the end of September 2024 and has said publicly that none of the women who have won verdicts against him will ever be paid.

After trial: On appeal. In September 2024 the trial court cut the award from $900 million to $90 million ($10 million compensatory plus $80 million punitive) unless the plaintiff accepted, and David filed a notice of appeal around September 30, 2024. See more

$125 Million Verdict for Man Paralyzed by Drunk, Sleepless Driver in Oxnard

Francisco Briones, 21, was turning left on a green light on his way to a 5 a.m. warehouse shift in Oxnard on March 23, 2013, when Christopher Zink, drunk at 0.14 percent, awake for 24 hours and asleep at the wheel, ran a red light at about 50 mph and hit him. Briones' C4-5 vertebrae ruptured and he was paralyzed from the neck down. Zink pleaded guilty to felony DUI causing injury and went to prison for seven years; his insurer, Nationwide, had refused a timely policy-limits demand. On January 22, 2016, a Ventura County jury found Zink 100 percent at fault, found malice, and awarded $125,168,202, half of it punitive damages. The court rejected Zink's Proposition 213 motion to strip the pain-and-suffering award but reduced the judgment post-trial to about $85 million.

After trial: Reduced. The court denied the motion to eliminate the noneconomic damages and reduced the $125,168,202 verdict post-trial to approximately $85 million (Daily Journal, 2016). See more

$368.6 Million Ford Explorer Rollover Verdict

In June 2004 a San Diego jury ordered Ford Motor Co. to pay $368.6 million to Benetta Buell-Wilson, a San Diego mother of two left paralyzed when her 1997 Explorer rolled four and a half times and the roof crushed onto her neck. It was Ford's first trial loss in an Explorer rollover case after a long string of defense verdicts. The trial court cut the award to $150 million, the Court of Appeal reduced it to $82.6 million in 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court sent it back after Philip Morris v. Williams, the Court of Appeal reimposed the $82.6 million in 2008, and the Supreme Court declined review in late 2009, when the award stood at about $87 million with interest. Dennis Schoville of Schoville & Arnell was lead trial counsel. The firm is no longer in active practice, and this page documents the case as part of the public record.

After trial: Reduced on appeal: the Court of Appeal cut the $368.6 million verdict to $82.6 million ($27.6 million compensatory and $55 million punitive) and reimposed it in 2008 after a Supreme Court remand. The Supreme Court denied review in December 2009, when the award stood at about $87 million with interest.

$60 Million Judgment for Three Taekwondo Athletes Abused by Coach Marc Gitelman

A Los Angeles judge awarded $60 million to three female taekwondo athletes who were sexually abused by their coach for seven years, a case that later prompted the California Supreme Court to hold that national sports governing bodies owe a legal duty to protect athletes from abuse.

Bill Cosby Held Liable for a 1972 Assault: $59.25 Million Verdict for Donna Motsinger

A Los Angeles County jury found Bill Cosby liable for drugging and sexually assaulting Donna Motsinger in 1972 and awarded her $59.25 million, including $40 million in punitive damages, the largest civil judgment Cosby has faced.

$58 Million Verdict for Construction Worker Burned Over 75% of His Body in Caterpillar Scraper Fire

A Los Angeles jury awarded $58,137,361 to a construction worker who suffered third-degree burns over 75 percent of his body when a defective O-ring on a Caterpillar scraper caused flammable hydraulic fluid to spray onto a hot engine, producing what was then the largest single-plaintiff personal-injury verdict in California history.

$1.04 Billion Roundup Verdict for Livermore Retiree With Brain Lymphoma

Alberta Pilliod, a retired teacher and school administrator from Livermore, sprayed Roundup on the couple's properties for nearly 30 years and was diagnosed in April 2015 with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in her central nervous system, which recurred in her brain in 2016. On May 13, 2019, an Alameda County jury awarded her about $37.2 million in compensatory damages and $1 billion in punitive damages, alongside a separate award to her husband. Judge Winifred Smith reduced her judgment to $56,005,830, the Court of Appeal affirmed in August 2021, and the California Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court both declined to disturb it.

After trial: Reduced and paid. The jury's $1.0372 billion award was reduced by the trial court to a $56,005,830 judgment that she accepted. See more

$55.4 Million Verdict Against Continental General Tire for Tread Separation That Left Driver Quadriplegic

A Los Angeles jury found a manufacturing defect in a General AmeriTech ST tire whose tread separated on the highway, rolling a Ford Taurus and leaving its driver quadriplegic, and awarded $55.4 million to her and her parents.

After trial: Continental General Tire moved to set the verdict aside and said it would appeal, calling several of the trial court's evidentiary rulings wrong and prejudicial. No public record of how those motions or an appeal were resolved has surfaced, so what was ultimately paid is not known.

A CRST Big Rig Drifted Across Route 14, and Two Brothers Won $53.7 Million

A Los Angeles County jury awarded $53.7 million to two brothers left with traumatic brain injuries after a CRST big rig crossed the center line on State Route 14 and hit their car head-on.

$52 Million for One Survivor in Verdict Against Union School District Over Teacher Abuse

A Santa Clara County jury awarded $65 million to one of two plaintiffs, $102.5 million in total, against Union School District after finding it failed for years to act on repeated warnings about music teacher Samuel Neipp's sexual abuse of students at Dartmouth Middle School.

After trial: The jury awarded this survivor $65 million, all for pain and emotional distress, and found the district 80 percent responsible. The teacher was not a defendant, so under California's Proposition 51 the district owes its share, $52 million. See more

$3 Billion Philip Morris Verdict for a Lifelong Marlboro Smoker

In June 2001, after a nine-week trial, a Los Angeles jury awarded Richard Boeken, a Topanga man dying of lung cancer after four decades of smoking Marlboros, $5,539,127 in compensatory damages and $3 billion in punitive damages against Philip Morris, then the largest verdict ever won by an individual smoker. The trial court reduced the punitive award to $100 million, Boeken died in January 2002 at 57, the Court of Appeal cut the award to $50 million in 2004, and the judgment became final when the U.S. Supreme Court declined review in March 2006. Michael J. Piuze tried the case; he died in 2020, and this page documents the case as part of the public record.

After trial: Reduced post-trial to $100 million in punitive damages, then to $50 million on appeal; final when the U.S. Supreme Court declined review in 2006. See more

$49.8 Million Verdict for Brain-Injured Kingsburg Man After Paramedic Removed Breathing Tube During Transport

A Fresno County jury awarded $49.8 million to a Kingsburg mortgage broker left in a permanent vegetative state after an American Ambulance paramedic dislodged his breathing tube during transport and could not restore his airway.

Jury Awards $48.8 Million to Pedestrian Left Comatose by L.A. Sanitation Truck

A Van Nuys jury held the City of Los Angeles responsible for catastrophic injuries to a pedestrian struck inside a marked Encino crosswalk by a city sanitation truck.

$47.5 Million Settlement for Boy Crushed by Rotten Tanoak at San Mateo County Campground

A 12-year-old's catastrophic injuries from a rotten campground tree produced a $47.5 million pretrial settlement against San Mateo County, PG&E, and their contractors, reportedly the largest single-plaintiff personal injury settlement in California history.

Road Rage Chase That Killed Torrance Teen Ends in $61.7 Million Jury Verdict

A Los Angeles County jury awarded the parents of a 16-year-old baseball player $61,768,000 after finding that Darryl Hicks and Tung Ming, two drivers who chased each other at 80 to 85 mph through Torrance, ran a red light and struck the family's minivan, killing the boy and seriously injuring his father. The December 2023 verdict split fault 95 percent to Ming and 5 percent to Hicks and included punitive damages against both men. Both drivers had already been convicted of felony vehicular manslaughter. The trial court later cut the jury's non-economic damages award 20 percent and entered an amended judgment against Ming of $47,410,000 in April 2024, which Ming has appealed.

After trial: Reduced and on appeal. The trial court cut the non-economic award by 20 percent, entering an amended judgment of $47,410,000 plus costs and interest on April 26, 2024. See more