SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A Sacramento jury set an eye-popping standard this week on the cost of radio station contests that kill and the resulting loss of a mother's love and a wife's companionship.
The tab for Entercom Sacramento LLC came to $16,577,118 in the water-intoxication death of Jennifer Lea Strange in a contest put on by radio station KDND "The End" (107.9 FM).
Such was the award rendered by a Sacramento Superior Court jury of seven men and five women in the trial to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of Strange's survivors. The 28-year-old woman died Jan. 12, 2007, after she participated in KDND's "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" contest.
"I think the message of the verdict is these stations need to be more cognizant of what they're doing and they need to take the time to do the research to make sure no one's harmed," juror La Teshia Paggett said in an interview after the panel concluded nine days of deliberations with Thursday's award.
Juror Tammy Elliott, echoing the closing arguments of plaintiffs' lawyers, said the evidence against the Sacramento subsidiary of the Philadelphia-based Entercom Communications Corp. was "overwhelming" in the trial that began Sept. 8 and featured testimony from 41 witnesses.
Entercom Sacramento, she said, failed to follow the parent company's guidelines in its contest promising the hard-to-get video game for the participant who drank the most water without urinating or vomiting.
"And if it had been done, I don't think this contest would have gone on, or if it did, it would have went on with medical personnel and it would have been put on in a safe way," Elliott said.
The jury voted unanimously to hold Entercom Sacramento negligent and found that its negligence harmed Strange. It just as unanimously exonerated the station's parent company, Entercom Communications Corp., of any liability.
By a 10-2 vote, the panel awarded $1,477,118 in economic damages to Strange's husband, Billy Strange, individually and as guardian for their children Ryland, 6, and Jorie, 3; and to Ronald Sims, father and guardian of the woman's 13-year-old son, Keegan. On a separate vote of 9-3, jurors awarded the plaintiffs $15.1 million for the loss of Jennifer Strange's love, companionship, comfort, care, assistance, protection, affection, society, moral support, training and guidance.
Plaintiffs' lawyer Roger A. Dreyer said he believes it was the largest wrongful death award ever presented by a jury in Sacramento.
Defense attorneys for Entercom argued that the jury should reduce the damages by whatever percentage of "contributory negligence" it found on Strange's part. The jury, however, voted 10-2 to stick Entercom Sacramento with 100 percent of the fault.
Reach Andy Furillo at afurillo(at)sacbee.com. For more stories visit scippsnews.com
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