BL1KITW
May 17, 02, 12:02 pm
Jury awards hotel guests $25 million for illness
Park Place: Reno Hilton owner disputes evidence, will appeal Washoe County verdict.
SPECIAL TO THE RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
5/17/2002 02:54 am
A Washoe County jury awarded $25.2 million in punitive damages on Thursday to five Reno Hilton guests who became ill six years ago during a viral outbreak caused by company negligence.
Jurors in the three-week trial that began last month on a lawsuit filed in 1997 held liable the hotel-casino owned by Park Place Entertainment,saying the hotel acted with "malice, fraud and oppression" in connection with the outbreak.
A spokesman for the Hilton, represented by Lionel Sawyer & Collins, said the company will appeal the award.
The five women and three men were unanimous in the judgment after deliberating for less than an hour. They also awarded about $22,000 in compensatory damages to the five plaintiffs for medical expenses from illness incurred between May 15 and June 29, 1996.
Jurors ruled for the plaintiffs Wednesday, then on Thursday deliberated on the damages in Judge Steven Elliott’s court.
An outbreak of the gastrointestinal Norwalk virus affected 642 guests and 365 employees between May 15 and June 29, 1996, health officials said, and was traced in part to sick employees being on the job. The virus is transmitted when food or water is contaminated with fecal material or by person-to-person contact, officials said.
A preliminary Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released in July 1996 said 55 percent of the ill employees did not stay home from work, thereby contributing to the spread of the infection.
Once the virus was identified as the cause, the hotel, which did not have paid sick leave for the workers, restricted sick employees from returning to work until 48 hours after full recovery.
Health officials said infected people can harbor a contagious virus for up to 48 hours after symptoms disappear.
John Echevarria, an attorney for the plaintiffs, asked the jury to send a message to the Hilton and the casino industry that society would not allow guests to be injured with impunity.
Echevarria also urged the jury to take into account the parent corporation’s net worth of more than $3.7 billion when awarding punitive damages.
“There was a knowing violation of the laws,” he said, adding Hilton management knew that it had a responsibility to avoid harming its guests.
“This defendant had ill managers who knowingly let ill workers work and even mandated ill workers work.”
He argued that if the jury awarded only the amount needed to cover the plaintiffs’ medical expenses, the message would go unheeded by a wealthy corporation.
He compared a small award to taking 25 cents out of a $100 bill.
The Hilton tried to minimize the damage by saying only 1 percent of its guests had been affected, Echevarria said.
“Then tell them to give up 1 percent of their money,” he said of an amount that would have exceeded $37 million.
Copyright © 2002 The Reno Gazette-Journal
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Biggest Little 1K (in The Biggest Little City) In The World
[This message has been edited by BL1KITW (edited 05-17-2002).]
Park Place: Reno Hilton owner disputes evidence, will appeal Washoe County verdict.
SPECIAL TO THE RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
5/17/2002 02:54 am
A Washoe County jury awarded $25.2 million in punitive damages on Thursday to five Reno Hilton guests who became ill six years ago during a viral outbreak caused by company negligence.
Jurors in the three-week trial that began last month on a lawsuit filed in 1997 held liable the hotel-casino owned by Park Place Entertainment,saying the hotel acted with "malice, fraud and oppression" in connection with the outbreak.
A spokesman for the Hilton, represented by Lionel Sawyer & Collins, said the company will appeal the award.
The five women and three men were unanimous in the judgment after deliberating for less than an hour. They also awarded about $22,000 in compensatory damages to the five plaintiffs for medical expenses from illness incurred between May 15 and June 29, 1996.
Jurors ruled for the plaintiffs Wednesday, then on Thursday deliberated on the damages in Judge Steven Elliott’s court.
An outbreak of the gastrointestinal Norwalk virus affected 642 guests and 365 employees between May 15 and June 29, 1996, health officials said, and was traced in part to sick employees being on the job. The virus is transmitted when food or water is contaminated with fecal material or by person-to-person contact, officials said.
A preliminary Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released in July 1996 said 55 percent of the ill employees did not stay home from work, thereby contributing to the spread of the infection.
Once the virus was identified as the cause, the hotel, which did not have paid sick leave for the workers, restricted sick employees from returning to work until 48 hours after full recovery.
Health officials said infected people can harbor a contagious virus for up to 48 hours after symptoms disappear.
John Echevarria, an attorney for the plaintiffs, asked the jury to send a message to the Hilton and the casino industry that society would not allow guests to be injured with impunity.
Echevarria also urged the jury to take into account the parent corporation’s net worth of more than $3.7 billion when awarding punitive damages.
“There was a knowing violation of the laws,” he said, adding Hilton management knew that it had a responsibility to avoid harming its guests.
“This defendant had ill managers who knowingly let ill workers work and even mandated ill workers work.”
He argued that if the jury awarded only the amount needed to cover the plaintiffs’ medical expenses, the message would go unheeded by a wealthy corporation.
He compared a small award to taking 25 cents out of a $100 bill.
The Hilton tried to minimize the damage by saying only 1 percent of its guests had been affected, Echevarria said.
“Then tell them to give up 1 percent of their money,” he said of an amount that would have exceeded $37 million.
Copyright © 2002 The Reno Gazette-Journal
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Biggest Little 1K (in The Biggest Little City) In The World
[This message has been edited by BL1KITW (edited 05-17-2002).]