Christian Still Feels ‘Vindicated’ Despite Award Cut in Hudson Case

Marc Christian said Saturday that despite a Superior Court judge’s decision to reduce the award in his suit against Rock Hudson’s estate to $5.5 million, he still feels “vindicated” by the award.

A jury had awarded Christian, Hudson’s former lover, $21.75 million in punitive and compensatory damages against Hudson’s estate and Mark Miller, the late actor’s personal secretary, deciding that Christian suffered extreme emotional distress after learning that Hudson had hidden the fact that he had AIDS.

On Friday, Judge Bruce R. Geernaert reduced the award of compensatory damages from $14.5 million to $5 million, and the punitive damages from $7.25 million to $500,000.

“I’m very pleased,” Christian said Saturday. “The punitive award would have been nice if it stayed at $1 million. But I think the judge did us a big favor because it reduced the other side’s causes for appeal.”

At the end of the five-week trial in February, Christian said he brought the suit because people have a duty to tell their sexual partners that they have AIDS.