WA State Reinstates $98.5M Verdict In Wrongful Death Suit

WA State Reinstates $98.5M Verdict In Wrongful Death Suit

Introduction

According to court records, a Washington state appeals court has restored the $98.5 million verdict given to the parents of a girl who was killed in 2020. 
 
Following the murder-suicide in which their son-in-law and two grandchildren were involved in February 2012, the parents filed a lawsuit against the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) in 2013. 
 
When their father assaulted the boys with a hatchet while the grandkids were at a supervised visit, the social worker was barred out. After setting the home on fire, their father, who was a suspect in the boys' mother's abduction, committed suicide. 
 
The father had previously been granted supervised visitation privileges with his boys by a judge in Washington. The girl's parents filed a wrongful death case against DSHS, claiming that the state's incompetence contributed to their grandsons' deaths at the hands of their son-in-law.
 
A Pierce County jury found the state DSHS negligent in 2020, and as a result of that decision, $98.5 million was awarded to the two boys' estates. In an effort to uphold the damage award and avoid being held accountable for its acts that led to the boys' deaths, the state later challenged the judgment and filed its own appeal.
 
According to court filings, Division II of the Washington State Court of Appeals upheld the jury's initial culpability decision that DSHS was careless and fully reinstated the jury's damage award.
 
When the family was residing in West Valley City, Utah, in December 2009, the daughter was reported missing when she failed to arrive at work. Her husband insisted on his innocence and said that the night his wife vanished, he went camping with the family's small sons at midnight in the bitter cold. 
 
The woman's husband was never accused of being responsible for his wife's disappearance, but newly released records claim that officials discovered the woman's blood on the floor next to a freshly cleaned sofa that had two fans set up to blow on it. Additionally, investigators discovered the woman's life insurance policies and discovered that, around 10 days after she vanished, her husband had submitted papers to withdraw funds from her retirement account. Her remains have never been located.
 
After the mother vanished, her husband and the two young sons relocated to Puyallup, Washington, where they remained with his father, who was subsequently accused and found guilty of voyeurism in a separate case. 
 
However, as a result of that conviction, both sons were given guardianship. The woman's parents fought with their son-in-law over who should have custody of the kids. The father was permitted by a state judge to have supervised contact, and it was during one of those sessions that he killed the kids by locking the social worker out.