$1 Punitive Awards Given in Abuse Case

A Superior Court jury on Monday awarded $1 apiece in punitive damages to two sisters who alleged that for 18 years they had repressed memories of their father’s sexual abuse.

The token amount caps a total of $1.15 million in compensatory damages awarded by the same jury on March 29 against the father, John R. Phillips, 60, of Rancho Santa Fe. That award has been called one of the largest jury verdicts involving a recovered-memory sexual abuse case in Southern California.

The attorney who represented LaDonna Wilson, 36, and her half-sister, who did not want to be identified, said Monday that they were satisfied with the outcome of their lawsuit, despite the paltry punitive awards.

“They gave us a substantial amount of damages in the underlying case,” attorney R. Richard Farnell said of the jurors. “I think they felt that sent the message that needed to be sent.”

Farnell said jurors indicated in court that a larger award might limit the plaintiffs’ chances of collecting.

“They said that they didn’t want the case to go on, on appeal, for years,” said Farnell, who asked for punitive damages in the case but did not suggest an amount.

“As a practical matter, the amount of money that they awarded originally for compensatory damages is going to be sufficient to take care of LaDonna and” her half-sister, he said. “As far as collecting it, I would anticipate that if they had given much more we wouldn’t have been able to collect it.”

Phillips, the owner of J.R. Phillips Co., which manages mobile home parks throughout California, is Wilson’s stepfather and her younger half-sister’s biological father.

The women, both of Lake Forest, said they sued Phillips to help them deal with the psychological trauma they say they suffered.

Farnell said the sexual abuse began when each daughter was about 5 years old and continued until one was 12 and the other was 18. The memories started returning when Wilson began having anxiety attacks, one of which caused her to be hospitalized, Farnell said.

The trial lasted about eight weeks, and jurors deliberated only three hours before awarding the initial $1.15 million.

San Diego attorney Gerald Blank, who represents Phillips, said his client “adamantly denies ever having sexually abused any child at any time. He never sexually abused the plaintiffs and strongly disagrees with the verdict.”

Blank said he will file a motion for a new trial, based largely on the judge’s denial of a request for a special hearing to consider the admissibility of expert testimony on repressed memory. The phenomenon is controversial.

“There is a significant issue regarding the repressed memory testimony, and we felt the judge made a prejudicial and legally erroneous ruling in the case,” Blank said.

Blank, who spoke to jurors after Monday’s punitive award, said jurors “felt that their initial verdict was sufficient and appropriate. I think [the $2 punitive award] was symbolic. I think they felt that he has been punished enough. In fact, that’s what they told us.”