On the third day of jury deliberations following a two-month trial, the parents and widow of Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs reached a settlement Friday of their wrongful-death lawsuit against the Major League Baseball franchise over Skaggs’ 2019 overdose in a Texas hotel room.
The details of the settlement were confidential.
Skaggs’ widow, Carli, filed the lawsuit along with the pitcher’s parents, Debbie Hetman and Darrell Skaggs, against Angels Baseball, alleging wrongful death stemming from the narcotics the 27-year-old received from then-team communications director Eric Kay, who was later convicted of federal drug charges and sentenced to 22 years in prison.
Skaggs was found dead in a hotel room while on a road trip with the team July 1, 2019. Kay was convicted in federal court in Texas of providing the fatal dose of fentanyl to Skaggs and was sentenced to 22 years in prison.
“The Skaggs family has reached a confidential settlement with Angels Baseball that brings to a close a difficult six-year process, allowing our families to focus on healing,” the Skaggs family said in a statement after the settlement was announced in court. “We are deeply grateful to the members of this jury, and to our legal team. Their engagement and focus gave us faith, and now we have finality. This trial exposed the truth and we hope Major League Baseball will now do its part in holding the Angels accountable. While nothing can bring Tyler back, we will continue to honor his memory.”
The Angels released a statement saying, “The death of Tyler Skaggs remains a tragedy, and this trial sheds light on the dangers of opioid use and the devastating effects it can have. Throughout the course of court proceedings, both parties searched for a path to a mutually agreed upon resolution and a confidential settlement has been reached.”
The jury foreman told reporters jurors were just starting to discuss punitive damages when they “heard the knock on the door” to suspend deliberations as the attorneys renewed settlement discussions. Plaintiffs’ attorney Rusty Hardin told reporters settlement discussions failed in August, but the Angels “came to us” on Thursday to discuss a resolution.
The request to discuss a settlement came a day after jurors sent a note to the judge asking about punitive damages.
The plaintiffs contended in their lawsuit that the team knew or should have known Kay was providing drugs for Skaggs such as the narcotic painkiller oxycodone. The plaintiffs also alleged he was providing drugs to at least five other players and that Kay had his own substance abuse issues. The suit argued the team was negligent in its supervision of Kay and by keeping him on the payroll.
The team argued that Kay was not acting “within the scope of his employment” with the club, while denying it was negligent in the way it handled Kay’s employment. Angels attorneys also contended that Skaggs was “comparatively negligent” through his substance abuse problems.
During his closing argument of the trial, plaintiffs’ attorney Daniel Dutko focused on Kay’s struggles with drug addiction and his actions dispensing pills to seven players on the team as the primary cause of Skaggs’ death.
“We believe Tyler Skaggs should be alive today,” Dutko said. “We wanted the truth to come out. The same cannot be said of the Angels.”
He accused team officials of “gaslighting” the jury and argued that even after repeated problems and drug rehab stints for Kay, the team ignored what he was doing.
Angels attorney Todd Theodora argued there was no evidence the team’s policy makers like President John Carpino or chief financial officer Molly Jolly knew about the drug abuse, but when they did learn of it they immediately moved to fire Kay.
“Tyler was a part of the Angels family,” Theodora said. “His passing is and was a tragedy.”
But Skaggs died “doing the things we teach our children and grandchildren not to do — don’t do drugs,” he said.
Theodora said a defense expert diagnosed Skaggs as a “severe drug addict” based on “sustained use of opioids” from 2013 through 2019.
Theodora argued that Skaggs was the ringleader in the drug usage of several teammates in the clubhouse. Skaggs would direct teammates wanting the pills to Kay, who did not push pills, Theodora argued.
After they were released from the case, several jurors told reporters they had a wide range of opinions on the percentage of liability between the team, Kay and Skaggs.
“The last thing we were working on” was the percentage of punitive damages, said the jury foreman, who only shared his first name of Richard.
“We were hoping to be done by lunch,” Richard said. The settlement agreement was announced just before the jury would have gone to lunch at noon.
“It was a relief to be honest,” Richard said of the settlement, noting how difficult it was to be away from his family so much.
Another juror, Tanya Josephs, said, “We’re all mentally exhausted” by the volume of evidence they had to consume in two months of testimony.
When they started deliberations, four jurors sided with the plaintiffs, four were with the defense and the others were “50-50,” the jury foreman said.
Eventually the jurors split on both sides drifted toward the plaintiffs, the foreman said.
The discussion on punitive damages centered on sending a message to the team that officials needed to reform its human resources department.
“I felt the Angels needed to know they were at fault for this partially,” the jury foreman said. “They needed to do better.”
The jurors also had an impasse on Skaggs’ potential future earnings, and they had to figure out how much to calculate agent fees and expenses. The jury foreman said the future earnings portion of the award would have been between $60 million and $80 million.
The jury foreman said it appeared to him that Kay was “acting in the scope” of his duties by supplying the pills for players, since he was also fetching theater tickets and arranging tee times for them.
The jury foreman said the punitive damages range would have likely been between $10 million to $20 million.
The testimony from the team’s human resources department was damaging to the defense, the jury foreman said.
“What Eric Kay was doing was not right,” he said. “They should have known.”
Also, it appeared that the informal way that Kay’s boss, Tim Mead, handled issues was also a factor, the jury foreman said.
“The relationship between Tim Mead and Eric Kay crossed the line from employer to friends,” the foreman said.
He noted how they joked about the womanizing and cocaine use by one player.
“I can’t imagine saying anything remotely like that” to a supervisor, the jury foreman said.
The non-economic damages for the loss of a loved one ranged between $5 million to $15 million, the jury foreman said.
“I had the Angels at 50%, Kay at 35% and Skaggs at 15%” for liability, the jury foreman said.
Juror Darryl Kinson said he felt Skaggs was more liable.
“I felt Tyler was a big league pitcher who should have been taking care of himself,” Kinson said.
Kinson did not believe that Skaggs died just from the fentanyl pill alone and said there was a “cumulative effect” from drug abuse. Kinson put the liability at 50% for Skaggs, 25% on Kay and 25% for the Angels.
Juror Eddie Rivera also felt Skaggs bore more responsibility. He said the liability was 60% for Skaggs, and 20% each for the team and Kay.
Hardin disputed the Angels’ contention that Skaggs was a drug addict. He said Skaggs was “wrongly called an addict.”
Hardin told reporters Skaggs’ widow and parents are “delighted this is behind them.”
The amount of a jury award or settlement was secondary to protecting Skaggs’ reputation, Hardin said.
“It’s always for them about Tyler, his legacy,” Hardin said.
Pointing to Skaggs’ wife and mother, Hardin said, “These two women get super duper credit because they have stuck with this.”