High court upholds Georgia's cap on punitive damages in Kennesaw sexual assault suit

Hunter Riggall, Marietta Daily Journal, Ga.
·2 min read
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Mar. 15—The Supreme Court of Georgia announced it ruled that state law capping punitive damages at $250,000 did not violate the constitutional rights of a Cobb County sexual assault victim.

The case stems from an April 2012 sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl while she was living at the Devereux Foundation's behavioral health treatment facility in Kennesaw. The girl filed a civil lawsuit against Devereux. In this case, she is represented by the executor of her estate.

The assault was perpetrated by a Devereux employee, Jimmy Anthony Singleterry, who was criminally prosecuted and pleaded guilty to several charges, the MDJ previously reported. Singleterry was sentenced in October 2013 to 20 years, 12 to be served in prison.

In 2019, a Cobb jury returned a verdict for $10 million in compensatory damages, finding both Devereux and Singleterry at fault, and $50 million in punitive damages against Devereux.

But a Cobb trial court later capped the punitive damages at $250,000, a standard set by state law.

The plaintiff appealed, Devereux cross-appealed, and last October, the high court heard arguments in the case.

Lawyers for the estate argued the cap violates the plaintiff's constitutional right to a trial by jury in this case. The court disagreed in a majority opinion authored by Justice Sarah Hawkins Warren.

But the court also ruled against Devereux's arguments, deciding that there was evidence to support awarding punitive damages and attorney fees to the estate.

Devereux's Cobb facility has been involved in several sexual assault cases over the years, the MDJ previously reported. In 2000, a Devereux counselor there was accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old who had gone to the facility for help. In 2003, two 16-year-old male patients were accused of raping a woman after running away from the center. In 2013 two teenage female patients were accused of sexually assaulting another young female patient at the Kennesaw center. In 2017, a male Devereux therapist at the Kennesaw center admitted to federal agents he was grooming two 16-year-old boys in order to have sex with them.