Knox parents fight $750K cap on jury awards after son’s death
KNOXVILLE — Cathy Roberts wishes she could stop talking about her son’s death.
“It’s an emotionally exhausting journey to continue to tell our story,” the grieving mother says. “It’s mentally exhausting to share our son with strangers, share our grief.”
But her plea to Tennessee leaders — let a law fade away that usurped a jury’s right to decide awards in civil lawsuits — keeps falling on deaf ears, she told Knoxnews.com
“We could have walked away … and quietly gone on about our lives,” she said. “We can’t. … This law targets real victims who have suffered real harm. The juries have been taken out of the equation. We believe juries, not special interest groups, should decide what restitution should be paid.”
Caps law used as shield
Cathy Roberts, 56, and her husband, Bobby Roberts, 63, are Knox County business owners whose son, Trent, died in 2013 at the age of 24. Investigators laid blame for his death — and that of seven others — on a Hankook Tire the manufacturer knew was defective.
Based in South Korea but with American headquarters in Nashville, Hankook found legal protection in the Tennessee Civil Justice Act of 2011.
The legislation limits, or “caps” in legal parlance, damages companies face — no matter what a jury rules — for bad behavior or corporate irresponsibility that causes or leads to injuries, psychological harm or death. It was touted by insurers and pro-business lobbyists as a way to lure businesses to Tennessee.
The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals struck down the law in December as unconstitutional. The court ruled the state legislature has no right under Tennessee’s Constitution to usurp the authority of juries to punish civil wrongdoing with punitive damages.
Tennessee Attorney General Herbert S. Slatery III sought a new hearing, but the court refused. The Tennessee Supreme Court, which had never ruled on the constitutionality of the caps law, late last month announced it plans to weigh in, using a Nashville federal case as the backdrop.
Slatery, though, is continuing his fight against the 6th Circuit ruling. One day after the state Supreme Court made public its plan to decide the matter, Slatery turned to the nation’s highest court. He is now trying to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to smack down the 6th Circuit — a federal appellate court — for meddling in what he terms a states’ rights issue.
The U.S. Supreme Court has not said whether it will take up the case.
‘Voice for the citizens’
Confronted with the caps and mounting legal bills, the Robertses wound up settling their lawsuit against Hankook last year. They’ve been campaigning against the law ever since – not on their own behalf – but for what Cathy Roberts calls the “unintended victims.”
“We just feel like who’s going to be a voice for the citizens who become the unintended victims of this law,” she said. “We’re business owners. Businesses that move here because of these caps, is that the kind of business we want to attract?
“Our focus is getting our voice out there so the public realizes this law is on the books,” she said. “Some day that could impact their lives directly. Other people are going to go down that path we walked. We just want to make that path easier. It’s hard enough to lose a child or be hurt because of bad business practices. A jury should decide (damages).”
The Robertses wrote Slatery in March, asking for a chance to tell their story and urge him to let the caps law fade away. They’ve reached out to Lt. Gov. Randy Mcnally and a host of other East Tennessee legislators for help. “We’ve yet to have anyone rise up to help,” she said. Samantha Fisher, spokeswoman for Slatery’s office, said Slatery has compassion for the Robertses but must defend state law.
“The Attorney General has the duty to defend the laws of the State of Tennessee as passed by the democratically-elected representatives of the people of Tennessee,” she wrote. “We are sorry for the Roberts’s loss and understand their position; however our obligation remains.”
Cathy Roberts said she is hopeful the Tennessee Supreme Court will strike down the law when it takes up the case of Jodi Mcclay.
In that case, Jodi Mcclay, a California resident, stopped by a Hudson News shop in the Nashville airport in 2006 to buy bottled water before boarding her flight. When she closed the cooler door, a 5-foot-long board that had been leaning against the bottom of the cooler fell, crushing her ankle, court records show.
A federal district court jury ruled in Mcclay’s favor. But Hudson News invoked the damages cap. U.S. District Judge Eli Richard, who was presiding over the case, then asked the state Supreme Court to determine the constitutionality of the law, and the court has now agreed.
Roberts said she won’t stop fighting — or talking about her son’s death — until the caps law is gone.