Santa Ana – A State Court of Appeal said on Monday the decision of a lower court ordering a new trial and canceled a jury verdict of $ 1.5 million for a father and a sister who were informed by The managers of the Sheriff’s Department of Orange’s County that a family member had died.
The jurors in April 2022 deliberated for about three hours before granting $ 1.1 million for Frankie Kerrigan’s father and $ 400,000 for his sister.
Kerrigan’s father, Frank Kerrigan, and his sister, Carole Meikle, alleged an intentional and negligent false declaration. The managers of the Sheriff-Coroner Department of Orange County informed Kerrigan’s family that had been found dead in front of a Verizon store in Fountain Valley, but 17 days later, Kerrigan came to visit with A family friend, who had attended Kerrigan’s funeral at the Cathedral of the Holy Orange family.
It turned out that the transient found dead outside the store on May 6, 2017 was John Dean Dickens, 54. An officer who found the body thought it was Kerrigan, so the assistant coroner David Ralsten printed a copy of the identification of the state of Kerrigan and concluded that he was the same person.
The judge of the Superior Court of Orange County, Theodore, R. Howard, later granted a new trial on the issue of damages. In the call, the county pleaded against emotional distress and the argument of the complainants for an intentional false declaration, and which Howard abused his discretion by granting a new trial.
The judges of the Court of Appeal of the fourth district revealed that Howard “provided valid reasons to support the granting of a new trial on complaints based on negligence” and did not abuse discretion.
“They confirmed to win the jury’s verdict here, which is disappointing,” said lawyer Jim Desimone, who represented Kerrigan – died while the case was on appeal – and Meikle.
“It seems that we should have another trial date, and a complicating factor has been in time since we have returned this verdict so far, Frank Kerrigan, the father, has died,” DESIMONE told City News Service.
“We examine our options, but that could undermine the case … He is not there to testify … We think it is a mistake of justice. We have tried a good case in the County of Orange, the citizens heard all the evidence, heard the testimony of the customers, listened to the testimony of the customers, felt the pain they felt by telling how emotionally they were distraught That they were to learn from their son and their brother death and how emotionally distraught, they continued not to be told the truth by the Sheriff department how it has become. »»
The lawyer described the verdict as a “fair reflection of the damage that was caused”.
After the fingerprints of the body were sent to federal databases, the results were returned to the coroner computers on May 6 or 7, depending on the appeal decision. But coroner officials “misinterpreted the returned messages and concluded that the fingerprints removed from the body did not put any blow, when a blow returned to John Dean Dickens, not Frankie”, according to the decision.
Dickens’ autopsy was completed on May 9 and his body was sent to a funeral lounge on the same day. The Kerrigan family organized a free breakage wake on May 11, followed by funeral and burial the next day.
On May 23, Frank Kerrigan received a call from a family friend saying that Frankie had come alive.
The Kerrigans said they had told Coroner officials on May 30 that Frankie was still alive. On June 1, coroner officials told Kerrigans that they had confirmed that the body was Dickens, driving the body exhumed on August 23 and that the county paid $ 20,558.59 to the Kerrigans for funeral costs.
Ralsten testified during the civil trial that he had printed the photo of Frankie Kerrigan in 2005 of the DMV, who listed his weight at 180 pounds, but when he arrived at the scene, he saw the body was that of a Man who weighed 250 pounds and spotted the nearby wheelchair, but he told no one to follow the difference in weight and wheelchair, according to the decision. But Ralsten said that there were similarities such as blue eyes, the same hair color and a slit in the chin as well as the size of the nose.
When Frankie Kerrigan was 43 years old, “he suddenly expressed symptoms of mental illness,” said the decision. He managed his symptoms with medication for a while, but often stopped taking it, causing problems such as losing jobs or “becoming great disabled and disappearing for a while”, according to the decision.
After the verdicts, Howard ruled that the assistant coroners who managed the case did not “intentionally or recklessly” resolved the identity of the body. The judge also found “no evidence that Ralsten intended to defraud anyone,” said the decision.
The judge noted that the error had not caused “serious emotional distress” and rejected speculation that the bodies were committed and that it was covered.
The judge ordered a new trial in part due to doubts about Meikle’s credibility concerning his emotional distress. The decision noted that she had not seen the body during the wake and had previously declared that she never feared her brother, contradicting her testimony of deposit.
The Court of Appeal ruled that Howard was right to reject the argument of the county of emotional distress based on negligence. But the appeal judges noted that the complainants “did not receive mental health treatment” and were satisfied that Frankie was alive “during a very brief period” before “immediately” a lawyer.
“These determinations of credibility and factual conclusions support a conclusion that the complainants have not undergone a serious emotional distress or at least emotional distress beyond the period of 17 days before their learning of Frankie,” said the judges . “In short, the new trial order from the Court of First Instance was sufficient to disclose its reasoning and allow a significant appeal exam.”
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