Civ Pro Helps Joel Steinberg Overturn $5 M Award
The law of collateral estoppel has resulted in a partial victory in New York’s highest court for disbarred lawyer Joel Steinberg, convicted of manslaughter for killing his adopted daughter.
The Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that a judge improperly relied on Steinberg’s criminal conviction to find him liable in a civil trial for past acts of abuse and neglect against his 6-year-old adopted daughter, Lisa, the New York Law Journal reports. The court said the jury in the criminal case did not decide the issue of past acts of abuse, and the issue was not collaterally estopped.
The child’s biological mother won a $15 million civil judgment against Steinberg, who had kept the child despite promising he would find her a good home. Of that judgment, $5 million was for past pain and abuse. The court vacated that portion of the award and ordered a retrial in its opinion (PDF).
The rest of the award consisted of $5 million for pain and suffering the day of the child’s death and $5 million for punitive damages. The court said it would not rule whether punitive damages were excessive, but could revisit the issue after damages are determined for past pain and abuse. It also ordered the lower court to consider whether the award should be offset by nearly $1 million in damages paid by New York City for failing to prevent the girl’s death.
“We’re pleased that the court has upheld the core of the judgment—the award of $5 million against Steinberg for his culpability in Lisa’s death,” Wayne Schaefer, the lawyer for Lisa’s mother, told the New York Post.
