A judge Friday reaffirmed his decision ordering a complete new trial of a lawsuit by an actress who won $17.3 million from Donald Sterling related to a fire at one of the billionaire’s apartment buildings.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William MacLaughlin said he was not convinced by arguments by attorney Brian Henri, who represents plaintiff Robyn Cohen, that he should set aside his new-trial order and reinstate the jury’s liability and damages verdict in the reduced amount of $8.18 million.
“I ordered exactly what I intended to order and it was affirmed by the Court of Appeal,” MacLaughlin said. “If you wish to go back to the Court of Appeal, Mr. Henri, please do so.”
In a separate ruling, MacLaughlin said both sides can conduct the traditional pretrial sharing of information known as “discovery” so long as it does not cover the same ground covered before the first trial.
Sterling’s attorneys state in their recent court papers that they want to take the depositions of firefighters who responded to the scene of the blaze to get their opinions about whether the fire alarm system was operable. They also want to depose other tenants of Cohen’s building and further assess her claims she will continue to suffer emotional distress from her experiences.
MacLaughlin set a retrial for next April 11, but said the date is flexible.
Cohen said she lost most of her personal property in the Sept. 28, 2009, fire and maintained that the building had an inadequate fire detection system.
In March, a three-justice panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected arguments by attorneys for Cohen that MacLaughlin erred when he ordered a complete new trial of the case except for her claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress, which he dismissed.
In December 2012, a jury found Sterling liable to Cohen for breach of contract, breach of the warranty of habitability and intentional infliction of emotional distress and awarded her $2.3 million in compensatory damages.
The panel also found that Sterling and his employees at the West Hollywood property acted with malice toward Cohen, triggering a punitive damages phase of the trial in which she was awarded an additional $15 million. Both sides appealed.
—City News Service