Swindled Family Won’t Receive Damages
A jury that determined a New York lawyer had swindled a Mexican American family out of the riches of Padre Island for decades said Wednesday the aging lawyer doesn’t owe punitive damages.
The verdict was reached after three days of deliberations.
Last week, the all-Latino jury agreed that Gilbert Kerlin, 90, cheated the Balli family out of the island’s oil profits after he bought the land. The jury awarded the 300 Balli heirs who sued $1.1 million for compensation and attorney fees.
The Balli family had asked for $25 million of Gilbert Kerlin’s $68.3-million fortune.
“We already won and money was never the issue. We need to put this haunting past behind us,” said Rebecca Gomez Sexton, a plaintiff in the case.
The Balli heirs sold their stake in the tropical island to Kerlin in 1938. An ancestor inherited the island from his uncle Padre Nicolas Balli, who received it in a 1765 Spanish land grant and for whom the island was named.
Kerlin agreed to share the oil riches but the relatives said they never heard from him again.
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