Prescription Drug, Discrimination Cases Highlight 2011 in L.A. Civil Courts

The Indiana Pacers' owner and his wife had a lot to be happy about in Los Angeles civil court in 2011, as did a young man who suffered a severe skin disorder after taking the pain reliever Motrin and

But a Hollywood producer and a former Laker great who later became an executive for the rival Los Angeles Clippers had little to smile about after verdicts in cases involving them. In December, Pacers owner Herb Simon and his wife, Miss Universe 1988 Bui Simon, were vindicated when a jury rejected a claim by the former manager of the couple's Santa Barbara home, Barbara Du Jacques, that she suffered emotional distress from supervising domestic employees she alleged were illegal aliens.

The Simons, who live most of the time in Malibu, also were cleared of any wrongdoing in two earlier trials, one before a judge and the other a jury, concerning wage claims brought by two nannies and a driver for the couple. One of the nannies also alleged she was fired when she became pregnant.

While the Simons walked out of court clear winners, Jon Peters, co- producer of Superman Returns, was ordered by a jury to pay more than $3 million to his former personal assistant, Shelly Morita, who said he sexually harassed her. The two sides later reached a settlement of various post-trial issues and Peters agreed not to appeal.

In October, a jury awarded $48.1 million to Christopher Trejo, a Westchester man who acquired an unsightly skin problem from taking Motrin. He maintained the analgesic, made by McNeil Consumer Healthcare, did not have adequate warnings regarding potential side effects. Trejo, now 22, took the drug to alleviate aches and pains from playing soccer in his native Honduras in 2005. His mother, who lived at the time in Los Angeles, bought the ibuprofen product here and sent it to the Central American country intending it to be used by another relative.

But another jury rejected a couple's argument that one of Eli Lilly and Co.'s top-selling drugs was responsible for the death of their 20-year-old son, who developed diabetes-related symptoms and ballooned to nearly 300 pounds before his death in 2007. Randy and Eiko Tadai, now divorced, said their autistic son, Cody, was prescribed Zyprexa for more than a year for aggressive behavior by his Little Tokyo-based physician, Dr. Koichi Ishikawa.

who said a male nursing assistant at Encino-Tarzana Medical Center sexually abused her as she prepared to go home after surgery. Most of the money consisted of punitive damages. Her assailant, nursing assistant Ramon Rodas Gaspar, was profiled on Fox television's America's Most Wanted in 2008 and 2009 and remains a fugitive. Another favorable plaintiffs' verdict was reached in favor of the husband-and-wife owners of an El Segundo ad agency.

Yoshi and Clara Goh Hayakawa said the Pentel companies, makers of the HyperG gel pen, stole their idea to target sales at college students instead of working professionals and to stage a contest as part of the marketing campaign. A jury that included celebrities Lorenzo Lamas and Anna Maria Horsford ordered the Pentel companies to pay the Hayakawas $33 million. Pentel maintained the HyperG marketing campaign was developed internally.

In July, Mary Cuthbertson, the mother of a blind Compton man who was killed when he mistook a gap between Metro Blue Line trains for a door, was awarded $17 million in her wrongful death lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Her 48-year-old son, Cameron, died in 2009 when the train moved forward after he accidentally stepped into the space between the second and third cars. She maintained the lack of barriers on the train platform or between the cars was to blame.

Metro lawyers maintained the man contributed to his own demise by misusing his cane while guiding himself along a Blue Line platform. The agency also appealed the verdict. In August, a jury ordered Philip Morris USA Inc. to pay $12.8 million to Dylan Boeken, the 19-year-old son of a man who died of lung cancer from smoking Marlboro cigarettes.

The verdict came a decade after the young man's father, Richard Boeken, won a $3 billion award against the tobacco giant. He died seven months later of lung cancer, and his June 2001 award was later cut to $55 million. Meanwhile, David Martin Jr., a railroad switchman from Whittier, won $4.9 million against BNSF Railway Co. for an on-the-job injury that he says could result in amputation of his right foot. The accident was largely attributable to a breakdown in radio communications between Martin and his engineer, John Franks, according to the suit.

While he was familiar with victory from running up and down basketball courts for many years as one of the NBA's best-ever forwards, Elgin Baylor was unable to get a win in a court of law. A jury in March rejected his age discrimination case against his the Los Angeles Clippers. He alleged the organization forced him out of his job as general manager when he was in his 70s, but lawyers for the franchise maintained he walked off the job and ignored an invitation to return to the same post.

In February, a judge in a non-jury trial denied an $18 million claim that the president of Chabad of California Inc. said had been promised him by the late philanthropist Roland Arnall before the donor's March 2008 death at age 68. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mary Ann Murphy found insufficient evidence that Arnall made the pledge to Rabbi Boruch Shlomo Cunin for the construction of a Chabad educational center. Cunin maintained the pledge later became the obligation of Arnall's widow, Dawn Arnall.

In September, former Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Darren Hager was awarded $4.5 million by a jury that found he was fired for exposing alleged drug-related corruption within his department. Hager, who was honored for his work in fighting drug dealers in the Antelope Valley, maintained he lost his job in retaliation because he told his boss that another deputy, Richard Engels, was possibly linked to both narcotics activity and to the disappearance of one of their colleagues, Jonathan Aujay.

In October, a jury rejected a negligence lawsuit brought against Chatsworth-based Brendan Vacations Inc. by three people attacked and robbed by bandits during a 2007 African nature walk, including a pregnant woman who was shot and lost her fetus. The panel disagreed with plaintiffs Rg Lutz and his wife, Jacqueline, of Redondo Beach, and his boyhood friend, Raymond Mollica of Long Island, N.Y. They maintained the shooting could have been prevented had one of their tour guides, Herman Kiriama, been properly trained and not escalated the situation by trying to prevent the robbery.

By BILL  HETHERMAN, City News Service