Former Dodger Scott Erickson is seeking a $14 million offset from the damages award assessed against him during a jury trial stemming from a traffic collision in which his former girlfriend, philanthropist Rebecca Grossman, struck and killed two boys crossing a Westlake Village street in 2020.
In court papers filed Thursday with Judge Huey P. Cotton in advance of a July 17 hearing, Erickson’s attorneys say the $14 million represents a partial pretrial collective settlement reached between Grossman and Nancy Iskander and her surviving son, Zachary, just before the wrongful death civil suit trial began.
“Because Nancy and Zachary claimed that Erickson and Rebecca Grossman were jointly liable for the … same, unitary harms must be offset by the amount of those settlements,” Erickson’s attorneys argue in their court papers.
Anything else would result in an impermissible double recovery, according to Erickson’s attorneys’ pleadings.
The lawsuit, filed in January 2021, alleged Grossman and Erickson had cocktails on Sept. 29, 2020, before engaging in a speed contest along Triunfo Canyon Road. The suit contended the race ended when Grossman’s vehicle struck brothers Mark and Jacob Iskander, ages 11 and 8, in a crosswalk at about 80 mph in a 45 mph zone.
Jurors awarded the Iskander family $176 million in compensatory damages and also ordered Grossman to pay $21 million in punitive damages and Erickson $1.17 million.
In their court papers, the Iskander attorneys contended the 62-year-old Grossman tried to flee and likely would have succeeded had her vehicle not automatically shut down due to it sensing the massive impact that had just occurred.
The Grossman Burn Foundation co-founder then lied to law enforcement about her speed and how much she had to drink, and contended she did not know why her airbag suddenly deployed despite her vehicle sustaining massive front-end damage, the Iskander attorneys further state. Grossman and Erickson have blamed each other for hitting the boys.
Grossman is serving a sentence of 15 years to life in prison. In March, a panel of the Second District Court of Appeal upheld the criminal case conviction. Grossman was found guilty Feb. 23, 2024, of two counts each of second-degree murder and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one count of hit-and-run driving. The state Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to hear Grossman’s further appeal.
Grossman’s husband, Dr. Peter Grossman, is a renowned plastic surgeon whose father, Dr. Richard Grossman, founded the Grossman Burn Center in West Hills.
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