The State - News from June 21, 1988

Despite winning a jury verdict, the Westin-St. Francis Hotel agreed to pay $400,000 to a 19-year-old quadriplegic who lapsed into a cocaine-induced coma after checking into the San Francisco hotel in 1984. Terms of the unusual settlement called for the hotel to pay Jenny Morgan $4 million if the Superior Court jury verdict came back in her favor and $400,000 if the verdict went in favor of the hotel, said Steven Fabbrow, Morgan’s attorney. Morgan’s original suit sought $12 million in damages. Hotel lawyers could not be reached for comment. Morgan was 15 in 1984 when she checked into a $230-a-day suite with a man 25 years her senior and a heavy cocaine user, court testimony disclosed. Four days later, she was found comatose and suffering major brain damage from a cocaine overdose. Fabbrow said both sides retained the right to appeal the jury verdict. He said he will appeal based on what he contends was the judge’s allegedly mistaken instruction to jurors.