$1.85M Award in #TheyLied Lawsuit Over False Accusation of Rape

The award consisted of $1.5M compensatory damages and $350K punitives.

From the Smithfield Times (Stephen Faleski) Friday:

Virginia Beach lawyer Roger Hinde, 64, alleged in a 2022 lawsuit against 62-year-old Ana Meyers, also spelled "Myers" in other court documents, that the two met in August 2021 via the online dating website match.com and became engaged later that year.  Hinde's lawsuit accused Meyers of "malicious prosecution" and "defamation and slander" for having gone to a magistrate days after the couple split up in May 2022 and taken out four felony warrants accusing Hinde of rape and three counts of sexual battery….

A background check Hines arranged on Meyers, according to his complaint, revealed her as the alleged owner of multiple properties and assets under a number of aliases and holding companies across the nation. By May 10 of that year, according to Hinde's complaint, Meyers had denied knowledge of the property and aliases that had turned up in Hinde's background check, and "made false claims that she suddenly did not feel safe with" Hinde, prompting him to offer to move out….

[When Hinde returned to collect his belongings], according to Hinde's complaint, … Meyers [struck] him and [threw] his phone to the ground. Court records indicate an assault and battery charge against Meyers resulting from the May 21, 2022, incident ended in a deferred disposition, which allows criminal defendants to avoid a conviction if they complete probation or community service. The rape allegation came a day later.

There are more details in the article. Thanks to James Creigh for the pointer.

Comments

[Lee Moore]

So Hinde gets $1.5m compensatory damages and $350,000 punitive damages.

While E Jean gets $11m reputational damages, $7.3m emotional harm damages and $65m punitive damages.

What can we infer from this disparity ?

1. Virginia is different from New York ?
2. being accused of rape is a much much less serious defamation that being accused of making a false rape allegation (an interesting take) ?
3. that a retired advice columnist has an enormously valuable reputation while a Virginia lawyer does not ?
4. that Trump needs 185 times the punishment because … Trump ?

[jb]

First, #1 is definitely correct. Virginia caps punitive damages at $350K, so there ends the question of why Hinde only got $350K in punitive damages.

In addition to your hypotheses, though, I'll add another:

5. Being defamed in front a large national audience is more damaging than in a false police report that is not widely disseminated.

[damikesc]

The "defamation" was denying he raped her.

[John Rohan]

According to the article, the jury awarded $450k in punitive damages, so even without the Virginia law, the amount would have only been 100k greater.

[John Rohan]

#4 is the key. It's also not a coincidence the trials occurred during an election year, even though the incident supposedly occurred around 30 years earlier (can't say precisely because Carroll claimed she couldn't even remember what year the rape occurred)

[Malika]

More likely is that Virginia, which only recently became a purple state, passed tort reform when it was a conservative cause.

[ReaderY]

Isn’t speech done as part of legal process like complaints to magistrates priveleged? The state can prosecute for making a false complaint. But civil liability for slander/libel?

[Bruce Hayden]

Don’t know the answer to that - but why should it be privileged? A false statement is a fables statement, and, here, when it alleges a heinous crime (rape), it may be worse. The defamed person, beyond just being publicly accused of the heinous, now also has an arrest record for it.

[Eugene Volokh]

In many states, knowingly false statements to the police can lead to malicious prosecution and defamation liability; see the Restatement (Second) of Torts § 598. Apparently Virginia is one such state.

In other states, statements to the police are absolutely privileged against defamation lawsuits (though not, I think, against malicious prosecution claims), which is to say that the defamation claim would be thrown out without regard to whether the person complaining to the police knew the statements were false. Berian v. Berberian (Idaho 2020) discusses this split.

[Bruce Hayden]

Thanks.

[John F. Carr]

In listing the sides of the split Berian v. Berberian cites the Ninth Circuit applying Idaho law and then comes to the opposite conclusion about Idaho law.

[Bill Poser]

I have been wondering about the magnitude of the damages awarded against Rudy Giuliani. I'm no fan of his and agree that he engaged in defamation of the Georgia election workers. This was widely publicized and resulted in death threats and the like, so had fairly serious consequences. Even so, I'm having a hard time seeing actual damages of $70 million, or that $75 million in punitive damages is necessary to deter such conduct.

[John Rohan]

Especially unfair when Giuliani has gotten plenty of death threats himself, but mostly from people with no assets to sue for.

[ObviouslyNotSpam]

It's unfair for him to be punished for what he did, because he later got death threats? Is that your rule?

[Malika]

This is all too funny, the MAGA conservatives running around pushing their usual Bircher type, whiny victim narratives about how Trump got so much punitive damages but this person had theirs capped at 350,000.

The Virginia cap is a result of the conservative push for "tort reform" from that era. It was a huge push by the GOP back in the late 80's and 90's (the Contract With American pushed for it). So, the differential treatment was because of Virginia's adoption of a conservative cause of the day! Like the Brits that have lost business because of the Brexit they voted for, the farmers who complain their labor was deported, etc., people vote for things they 'think' are so great and then whine when the policies they supported work!

[Eugene Volokh]

I take no view here on whether this verdict or the verdict in any other case was too high, too low, or just right. But just to make clear, the jury punitive damages award was $425K; tort reform reduced it by less than 20%.

[Malika]

Tort reform capped it at 350,000 EV. No? Commenters above complained the punitive damages were so far less in this case than in their cult leader Trump's. But punitive damages in VA are capped because of tort reform, no?

[Lee Moore]

And they were far less.

With the tort reform cap, the Trump punitive damages were 185 times the Virginia capped punitive damages.

But without the cap, the Trump punitive damages were 152 times the Virginia uncapped punitive damages.

So the effect of the tort reform cap on the disproportion in punitive damages was negligible. As any 5th grader could calculate.

And yet on you yap.

[Lee Moore]

PS and the complaint was not that the Virginia punitive damages were absurdly low, but that the New York punitive damages, in Trump's case, were absurdly high.

So your attempt to argue that "MAGA conservatives" were foolish to argue for, and enact, tort reform is a crock.

[ThePublius]

Tell me, what's a MAGA conservative? Is that just someone you don't like, or disagree with? Or is there a more formal, specific definition?

[Malika]

Conservatives who support Trump.

[ObviouslyNotSpam]

MAGA=Trump.

Happy to help.

[DaveM]

Don’t forget those MAGA liberals, RFK, Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard. There’s a lot of MAGA going around these days, better mask up. You never know who's going to cross over next. Jill Stein, anyone?

[neurodoc]

Any place we can see a picture of 62 y.o. Meyers/Myers? I'm really curious to know what that "lady" looks like.

And of what relevance were the concealed assets she had? Wouldn't it be more potentially relevant if she had battered other love-struck suitors or previous spouses?

[John F. Carr]

In Massachusetts a statutory limit on damages has to be pleaded in the answer and sent to the jury rather than raised initially in a postverdict motion. The disadvantage of instructing the jury is there is now a specific dollar value in their heads. "Defendant's liability may not exceed $20,000." "OK, judgment for the plaintiff for $20,000."

[Lee Moore]

Is that pleading requirement in the statute, or is it something Massachussetts judges made up afterwards ?